the forecastle

i just want to dwell on the word solemn. it may be the least surprising that this word cees verhoeven counts it as one of his beloved words. he tastes in this word a little too much of a good: a solemn and stately, and thus the word would have something typically nineteenth-century student-irony.

the components fore-deck and stately form a pleonasm (not a neoplasm), which solemnly accompanied by serious matters such as social and religious events e.g. installing an office, a royal celebration, a birth, a communion party, a wedding, a priest ordained and at last but not least, a funeral or a burial, and especially not to mention the related assumption, which is almost self-evident duty to look up devoutly.

solemnly implies that one is obligated to something almost an complot. it also implies a moral responsibility to respect the moral obligation. the behavior shown more or less official ceremony also named in the format required to be cast, based on the morals or mores. remarkable that the expression "i will teach you morals" has an pejorative undertone. i recall an old dutch word almost gone "plechtelijk" or in solemn manner.

it has something to do with stately, a formality or pontificallity, where a ceremony is common practice. it is stately in full regalia and with a serious face (in the fold) as it relates. a carried banner, a carried heir, a carried bier and in full ceremonial clothing. evidence of formal ratification of the higher hand, the state, while a discrimination is induced in the same time. after all, if the common people would walking in ceremony, there is no distinction anymore, which is worn.

surprising is that the writer not only speaks about the deck as a duty, but also the deck that noble portion of the front part of a vessel, which one can stand solemnly as a figurehead to look forward to the wide oceans. the forward deck or braid-work (= πλεκειν braids) is then best associated with the rig of the vessel. of course it could also be associated with common scum, but that's us. and this should be made a clean sweep.