One of my favorite sentences is the famous paragraph on whiteness in
chapter 42 (The Whiteness of the Whale) from Moby Dick:
http://www.princeton.edu/~batke/moby/moby_042.html . wc counts 467
words, which would make it longer than the Hemingway sentence.
"Though in many natural objects, whiteness refiningly enhances beauty,
as if imparting some special virtue of its own, as in marbles,
japonicas, and pearls; and though various nations have in some way
recognised a certain royal pre-eminence in this hue; even the
barbaric, grand old kings of Pegu placing the title "Lord of the White
Elephants" above all their other magniloquent ascriptions of dominion;
and the modern kings of Siam unfurling the same snow-white quadruped
in the royal standard; and the Hanoverian flag bearing the one figure
of a snow-white charger; and the great Austrian Empire, Caesarian,
heir to overlording Rome, having for the imperial color the same
imperial hue; and though this pre-eminence in it applies to the human
race itself, giving the white man ideal mastership over every dusky
tribe; and though, besides all this, whiteness has been even made
significant of gladness, for among the Romans a white stone marked a
joyful day; and though in other mortal sympathies and symbolizings,
this same hue is made the emblem of many touching, noble things - the
innocence of brides, the benignity of age; though among the Red Men of
America the giving of the white belt of wampum was the deepest pledge
of honor; though in many climes, whiteness typifies the majesty of
Justice in the ermine of the Judge, and contributes to the daily state
of kings and queens drawn by milk-white steeds; though even in the
higher mysteries of the most august religions it has been made the
symbol of the divine spotlessness and power; by the Persian fire
worshippers, the white forked flame being held the holiest on the
altar; and in the Greek mythologies, Great Jove himself made incarnate
in a snow-white bull; and though to the noble Iroquois, the midwinter
sacrifice of the sacred White Dog was by far the holiest festival of
their theology, that spotless, faithful creature being held the purest
envoy they could send to the Great Spirit with the annual tidings of
their own fidelity; and though directly from the Latin word for white,
all Christian priests derive the name of one part of their sacred
vesture, the alb or tunic, worn beneath the cassock; and though among
the holy pomps of the Romish faith, white is specially employed in the
celebration of the Passion of our Lord; though in the Vision of St.
John, white robes are given to the redeemed, and the four- and-twenty
elders stand clothed in white before the great white throne, and the
Holy One that sitteth there white like wool; yet for all these
accumulated associations, with whatever is sweet, and honorable, and
sublime, there yet lurks an elusive something in the innermost idea of
this hue, which strikes more of panic to the soul than that redness
which affrights in blood. " |
