He's doing it on purpose!

Jack London is great.

In 1904 London published The Sea-Wolf. I'm about a third of the way through reading it and am thoroughly enjoying the way London describes his philosophical views of life. Man oh man, he is great.

The Sea-Wolf takes place on a seal-hunting Schooner; a smaller boat but well-equipped for speed during long hauls. Wolf Larson is the notorious, callous and surprisingly well-read captain with some twenty men under his command, one of which is the novel's protagonist the soft and domesticated "gentleman" Humphrey Van Weyden. "Hump" dictates the story in 1st person past tense (though sometimes London will slip into present tense just because he can, I guess... Man, he is great) and gives us the contrasting philosophical view of Altruism to Wolf Larson's Materialistic Monism. Behold! A base-line philosophical conflict that writers/thinkers like Jack London lusted over.

These are the fundamental questions that have been probing humanity since the history of recorded thought. This is some serious stuff, man!

But, Jack London foolishly overlooked one critical aspect of his composition. The Sea-Wolf takes place on a sailing vessel. Sailing vessel's have poop decks. "poop deck" has the word "poop" in it. Indeed, London failed to take into account that I think the word poop is funny.

Giggling like a 9-year old every time my eyes grace upon the word poop totally disrupts my reading experience. It distracts from my pondering the deeper philosophical meanings behind what London is trying to convey. And the fact that the boat is named "Ghost" kills me even more. GHOST POOP! BWAAAA HA AHA HA AHAHA!!!!1111

And I quote:

Occasional light airs were felt, however, and Wolf Larson patrolled the poop constantly, his eyes ever searching the sea...

He abruptly turned on his heel and started forward. He stopped at the break of the poop and called me to him.

The Wolf Larsen shouted from the poop: "Grab Hold of something, you - you Hump!"

Do you see? It's hard to take this infamous character seriously if he's just hanging out on his poop all day. Likewise, it's difficult to process all the philosophical goings on when the debate is taking place on a giant Ghost turd. Man, Jack London is great.

And you don't even know how giddy I am now just in typing this post about why I think poop is funny. I could read more of The Sea-Wolf right now, but instead I'm gonna go eat beef jerky and watch Ren & Stimpy.