Slurs

Defoe is as good at mocking Robinson as anyone, despite swallowing a thesaurus. In volume three: ”poor, wild, wicked Robinson” (316) “a churl, a morose, sour disposition, a covetous, avaricious, selfish principled man” (314). We should appreciate good examples of 18^th Century invective.

But damn, turns out these Shipwreck cruises are shipwrecked too, closed down. Others take its place. Ode to a hammock.

Robinson at least had leisure in which to repent his earlier folly, while also condemning reproach and slander ‘as a kind of murder that may be committed by the tongue’ (317). Later, under a new heading, bawdy talk becomes a ‘sodomy of the Tongue’ (345).

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