John Mack - The Gender of Ships
- 1. The Gender of ships John Mack Sainsbury Research Unit University of East Anglia
- 2. The difficulty arises from the fact that one does not deal with women in a mob, but with a woman as an individual. So we may have to do with men. But in each of us there lurks some particle of the mob temperament. No matter how earnestly we strive against each other, we remain brothers on the lowest side of our intellect and in the instability of our feelings. With women it is not so. Much as they are to us they are nothing to each other. Those sensitive creatures have no ears for our blandishments. ¡¡. I would illustrate my idea of fidelity as between man and women by a statement which, though it might appear shockingly sophisticated, is really very simple. To forget one¡¯s self, to surrender all personal feeling in the service of that fine art, is the only way for a man to the faithful discharge of his trust.
- 3. ¡° The difficulty arises from the fact that one does not deal with ships in a mob, but with a ship as an individual. So we may have to do with men. But in each of us there lurks some particle of the mob temperament. No matter how earnestly we strive against each other, we remain brothers on the lowest side of our intellect and in the instability of our feelings. With ships it is not so. Much as they are to us they are nothing to each other. Those sensitive creatures have no ears for our blandishments. ¡¡. I would illustrate my idea of fidelity as between man and ships by a statement which, though it might appear shockingly sophisticated, is really very simple. To forget one¡¯s self, to surrender all personal feeling in the service of that fine art, is the only way for a man to the faithful discharge of his trust.¡± Joseph Conrad, The Mirror of the Sea p.29
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