“…it was not impossible that he might make a passable man-of-war out the Polychrest. He knew her tolerably well now: he and the master (he had a great esteem for Mr. Goodridge) had worked out a sail-plan that made the most of what qualities she possessed, and when he could alter her trim to bring her by the head and rake her masts she might do better; but he could not love her. She was a mean-spirited vessel, radically vicious, cross-grained, laborsome, cruel in her unreliability; and he could not love her. She had disappointed him so often when even a log canoe would have risen to the occasion that his natural affection for his command had dwindled quite away. He had sailed in some rough old tubs, ponderous things with no perceptible virtue to the outsider, but he had always been able to find excuses for them – they had always been the finest ships in the history of the Navy for some particular quality – and this had never happened to him before. The feeling was so strange, the disloyalty so uncomfortable, that it was some time before he would acknowledge it…”
I finally came prepared with my literary reference.
This passage by Patrick O’Brian taken from his novel Post Captain does a fairly good job of capturing how I generally feel about my job.
By the way the series that this book comes from is stellar. It is the finest depiction of naval warfare in the Napoleonic period ever, and just good all around novels besides.
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3 comments:
Heh. I thought about quoting Moby Dick to describe my feelings about my job. I started out like Queequeg, confident and spoiling to do my job. After awhile, I felt like Ishmael, feeling rather inexperienced and pensive but not yet in any way fearful. Now I'm starting to feel like Starbuck: "Dear God, we're all going under, but I'm the only one who can see that."
I'm sorry you don't like your job. I hear ya. If you need to complain, gimme a call. :)
I'm raised to nearly godlike staus at my job. Just goes to show you how much High Schoolers know.
high schoolers don't deserve capitalization. It's an insult to the rest of humanity.
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