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pea coffee Herman Melville – Moby-Dick (Chap. 2: The Carpet-Bag)
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Ishmael is referring to an inexpensive coffee substitute made from crushed chick-pea drink. The idea then is that even the best pea coffee is a poor replacement for the real thing — coffee. The Wikipedia entry for chickpeas notes that “in 1793, ground-roast chickpeas were noted by a German writer as a coffee substitute in Europe. In the First World War, they were grown for this use in some areas of Germany. They are still sometimes brewed instead of coffee.”

H/T Dr. Fassi (@Vulgar_MadMan) for this gem of a reference.

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8 years

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/may/06/cuba-coffee-peas

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Gomorrah? Herman Melville – Moby-Dick (Chap. 2: The Carpet-Bag)
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Ishmael is now in the seedier part of town. In the Old Testament, Sodom and Gomorrah were cities that God destroyed for being havens of vice.

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"The Crossed Harpoons" Herman Melville – Moby-Dick (Chap. 2: The Carpet-Bag)
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The names for beach properties were as horrible in the 19th century as they are today.

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be sure to inquire the price, and don't be too particular Herman Melville – Moby-Dick (Chap. 2: The Carpet-Bag)
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But beware the bed bugs…

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4 years

This is surely not what the writer is trying to imply.

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6 years

make sure to watch how much money you spend and don’t be too picky

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7 years

It’s totally unrelated

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Not ignoring what is good, I am quick to perceive a horror, and could still be social with it—would they let me—since it is but well to be on friendly terms with all the inmates of the place one lodges in. Herman Melville – Moby-Dick (Chap. 1: Loomings)
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ev7oLCwD3ME#t=65

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"WHALING VOYAGE BY ONE ISHMAEL Herman Melville – Moby-Dick (Chap. 1: Loomings)
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Ismael is making fun of himself, and of people in general: we imagine the world revolves around us, and that our personal fate is of great consequence.

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either in a physical or metaphysical point of view, that is; and so the universal thump is passed round, and all hands should rub each other's shoulder-blades, and be content. Herman Melville – Moby-Dick (Chap. 1: Loomings)
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Who ain't a slave? Tell me that. Herman Melville – Moby-Dick (Chap. 1: Loomings)
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Actual slaves (Moby Dick was first published in 1851, well before the end of legal slavery in the United States) would probably have been like, “Well, you for one, Mr. Ishmael.”

Melville was known to let Ishmael misspeak certain facts to give the narrator a more human quality. This pretense obscures instances (possibly like this one) when Melville may have revealed his own blunders and/or biases.

Today, it gives the impression that the message is that although we are free, there are traces/vestiges of slavery in modern society, to my money.

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spar to spar Herman Melville – Moby-Dick (Chap. 1: Loomings)
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A spar is any wooden or metal pole used to support sails or rigging.

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But here is an artist. Herman Melville – Moby-Dick (Chap. 1: Loomings)
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“Here I am”
–Herman Melville

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