May I recommend three Maryland beaten biscuits, with water, for your breakfast? They are hard as a haul-seiner's conscience and dry as a dredger's tongue, and they sit for hours in your morning stomach like ballast on a tender ship's keel. They cost little, are easily and crumblessly carried in your pockets, and if forgotten and gone stale, are neither harder nor less palatable than when fresh. What's more, eaten first thing in the morning and followed by a cigar, they put a crabberman's thirst on you, such that all the water in a deep neap tide can't quench --- and none, I think, denies the charms of water on the bowels of morning?
John Barth The Floating Opera
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In John Barth's "The Floating Opera," the narrator humorously describes Maryland beaten biscuits as a breakfast option. These biscuits are portrayed as extremely hard and dry, likened to the conscience of a haul-seiner and the tongue of a dredger. Despite their toughness, the biscuits are inexpensive, easy to carry, and retain their taste even when stale. They sit heavily in the stomach, much like ballast on a ship, and provide a unique experience for breakfast. The addition of a cigar heightens the thirst they create, making one yearn for water.

The quote captures both the charm and absurdity of this unconventional breakfast choice. It illustrates the simplicity and practicality of the biscuits, which can be enjoyed even when forgotten or stale. Barth cleverly intertwines the physical sensations of eating these biscuits with the larger experience of morning rituals, emphasizing their effect on thirst and the enjoyment of one's environment. The passage showcases the author's wit and provides a vivid, sensory exploration of a seemingly mundane experience.

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The Floating Opera
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John Barth
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Other quotes in The Floating Opera

Am I boring you? I don't really care, I suppose, but I'll be more comfortable if I knew all this interested you. No doubt when I get the hang of storytelling, after a chapter or two, I'll go faster and digress less often.
John Barth The Floating Opera
Am I boring you? I don't really care, I suppose, but I'll be more comfortable if I knew all this interested you. No doubt when I get the hang of storytelling, after a chapter or two, I'll go faster and digress less often.
It has always seemed to me, in the few novels that I read about when, that they demand a lot from readers those authors who begin their stories furiously, in the middle of things, instead of entering, backing you or sbieco, gently.
John Barth The Floating Opera
It has always seemed to me, in the few novels that I read about when, that they demand a lot from readers those authors who begin their stories furiously, in the middle of things, instead of entering, backing you or sbieco, gently.
I long ago learned that one's illnesses are both pleasanter and more useful if one keeps their exact nature to himself: one's friends, uncertain as to the cause of one's queer behavior and strange sufferings, impute to one a mysteriousness often subtly convenient.
John Barth The Floating Opera
I long ago learned that one's illnesses are both pleasanter and more useful if one keeps their exact nature to himself: one's friends, uncertain as to the cause of one's queer behavior and strange sufferings, impute to one a mysteriousness often subtly convenient.
Intellectual discussion, after all, is the real joy of the winter of life, when other pleasures have flown, as it were.
John Barth The Floating Opera
Intellectual discussion, after all, is the real joy of the winter of life, when other pleasures have flown, as it were.
So, I begin each day with a gesture of cynicism, and close it with a gesture of faith; or, if youprefer, begin it by reminding myself that, for me at least, goals and objectives are without value, andclose it by demonstrating that the fact is irrelevant. A gesture of temporality, a gesture of eternity. It isin the tension between these two gestures that I have lived my adult life.
John Barth The Floating Opera
So, I begin each day with a gesture of cynicism, and close it with a gesture of faith; or, if youprefer, begin it by reminding myself that, for me at least, goals and objectives are without value, andclose it by demonstrating that the fact is irrelevant. A gesture of temporality, a gesture of eternity. It isin the tension between these two gestures that I have lived my adult life.
Although my law practice pays my hotel bill, I consider it no more my career than a hundred other things: sailing, drinking, walking the streets, writing my 'Inquirey', starting at walls hunting ducks and 'coons,reading, playing politics, and whatnot. I'm interested in any number of things, and enthusiastic about nothing.
John Barth The Floating Opera
Although my law practice pays my hotel bill, I consider it no more my career than a hundred other things: sailing, drinking, walking the streets, writing my 'Inquirey', starting at walls hunting ducks and 'coons,reading, playing politics, and whatnot. I'm interested in any number of things, and enthusiastic about nothing.
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Other quotes in maryland

May I recommend three Maryland beaten biscuits, with water, for your breakfast? They are hard as a haul-seiner's conscience and dry as a dredger's tongue, and they sit for hours in your morning stomach like ballast on a tender ship's keel. They cost little, are easily and crumblessly carried in your pockets, and if forgotten and gone stale, are neither harder nor less palatable than when fresh. What's more, eaten first thing in the morning and followed by a cigar, they put a crabberman's thirst on you, such that all the water in a deep neap tide can't quench --- and none, I think, denies the charms of water on the bowels of morning?
John Barth The Floating Opera
May I recommend three Maryland beaten biscuits, with water, for your breakfast? They are hard as a haul-seiner's conscience and dry as a dredger's tongue, and they sit for hours in your morning stomach like ballast on a tender ship's keel. They cost little, are easily and crumblessly carried in your pockets, and if forgotten and gone stale, are neither harder nor less palatable than when fresh. What's more, eaten first thing in the morning and followed by a cigar, they put a crabberman's thirst on you, such that all the water in a deep neap tide can't quench --- and none, I think, denies the charms of water on the bowels of morning?
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