“The Pacific is an oceanic behemoth of eye-watering complexity.”
“A near-limitless range of human and natural conditions exists within its borders, as “The Pacific is an oceanic behemoth of eye-watering complexity.”
“A near-limitless range of human and natural conditions exists within its borders, as one would expect of something so unimaginably enormous.” In a word, its dimensions are staggering.
When I began my reading of PACIFIC, my expectations were that I would encounter something similar to its sister tome which I reviewed with the following summary:
“… , ATLANTIC moves from the tectonic formation of this vast body of water in the mists of antiquity through the various stages of its participation in the history of man upon the earth such as exploration and discovery, colonization, imperialism, warfare and violence, transportation, communication, exploitation, pollution and, as one would expect today, anthropogenic climate warming.”
Obviously, Simon Winchester reached the decision that the Pacific was simply too gargantuan and too overwhelming to attempt that type of all-inclusive approach. Instead, he picked a series of dates scattered throughout reasonably recent history that allowed him to touch on each of these topics someplace within the Pacific Ocean’s vast domain while making no attempt to be exhaustive or even particularly linear.
For me, that approach worked well and made for some interesting, informative, instructive reading on a diverse set of topics that almost read like a series of nominally related novellas. Potential readers might be interested in Winchester’s choice of topics:
1) January 19, 1950: Truman Backs Making The Hydrogen Bomb – The Great Thermonuclear Sea 2) August 7, 1955: First Japanese Transistor Radio is Made – Mr Ibuka’s Radio Revolution 3) April 10, 1959: The Surfing Movie Gidget is Released – The Ecstasies of Wave Riding 4) January 23, 1968: The USS Pueblo is Captured by North Korea – A Dire and Dangerous Irritation 5) January 10, 1972: The RMS Queen Elizabeth Sinks, Hong Kong – Farewell, All My Friends and Foes 6) Christmas Day, 1974: Australian Supercyclone Tracy Touches Down – Echoes of Distant Thunder 7) November 11, 1975: Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam is Dismissed – How Goes the Lucky Country? 8) February 17, 1977: The Submersible Alvin Spots an Abyssal Heat Source – The Fires in the Deep 9) December 12, 1981: Coral Bleaching is Seen on Great Barrier Reef – A Fragile and Uncertain Sea 10) June 15, 1991: Mount Pinatubo Erupts, Philippines – Of Masters and Commanders 11) June 2, 1976: The Hawaiian Canoe Hokule’a Completes Her Maiden Voyage – Epilogue: The Call of the Running Tide
Aside from the chapter on surfing which I thought to be fatuous and, quite frankly, boring to tears, the stories ranged from interesting and informative to jaw-dropping, worrisome, and head-shaking. That said, perhaps that chapter on surfing was intended to show up the oft-times silly proclivities of US culture and to contrast with the self-interested, bombastic, and imperialistic manner in which the US destroyed so many lives and contaminated so much territory with toxic nuclear fallout during the 1950s nuclear development program.
PACIFIC ultimately, in my opinion, is a rather sad book that, given global climate warming and the political head-butting that we are seeing today with China and North Korea, leaves one with a worried outlook as to what our future in the second half of the 21st century might look like. Read it, enjoy it, learn from it, and reach your own decisions. Definitely recommended.
Paul Weiss
Strictly an afterthought, but I was struck by two extended quotations that I thought particularly insightful and downright ingenious. (The jealous wannabe writer in me turns green with envy and admiration)!
The first is an extended outrageous and absolutely hilarious description of Sir Leslie Colin Patterson, a memorable Australian diplomat:
"He was by all appearances overfed; was often overcome with what appeared to be libation-triggered tiredness and emotional excess; and to judge from his utterances, was evidently wildly oversexed. His outbursts caused many of his more sensitive listeners to recoil. His favorite nonsexual pastime, which he often indulged in while giving the very speeches that so marked his career, seemed to be either nasal excavation and gastronomy or competitive wind breaking. He was a caricature, in short, ... "
The second is a closing fervent wish that the USA and China can come to a peaceful understanding of each other's desire for hegemony in the vast expanse of the Pacific:
"Instead of aircraft carriers and pollution, garbage gyres and coral bleaching being the bywords of our presence, there should now be a fresh kind of lexicon. Respect, reverence, accommodation, admiration, and awe for much that the East stands for - all these should now be the new watchwords. For from these ancient calming cultures, there is very much more to learn and absorb than there is to fear and resist. The benefits of Western modernity are quite obvious and should be sought after by all. But the wise benefits of antiquity should not be discounted, either ..."...more
GIRL IN ICE is a mystery, a sci-fi possibility, an anthropological treatise on linguistics and the etymology andA definite genre blender, to be sure!
GIRL IN ICE is a mystery, a sci-fi possibility, an anthropological treatise on linguistics and the etymology and kinship of dead languages couched in a psychological thriller, a cautionary tale on climate warming, a human drama of a pathologically introverted young woman suffering from anxiety disorder, a story of scientific exploration in the far northern reaches of Greenland – gosh, what’s not to like?
Val Chesterfield is a linguist, in fact, she’s THE world’s acknowledged expert in dead Nordic languages. So when a scientist conducting climate research in the all too brief summer of Arctic Greenland manages a scientific impossibility – thawing a young girl, deep frozen in a glacier for centuries, and bringing her back to life – Chesterfield is called in an attempt to communicate with the young girl speaking a language that seems to bear no relationship to any known language on the planet, living or dead. Only two problems (aside from the scientific issues, of course) – Val’s anxiety disorder is near crippling in its intensity and renders her virtually housebound; and, the research outpost in Greenland is the location where her brother ostensibly committed suicide by walking out of the warmth of the lab and freezing himself to death in the open tundra. And (no guessing necessary here!!) Val has never believed the verdict of suicide and is convinced her brother was murdered but the number of possible suspects is vanishingly small!
Full points to the author for her imagination and ability to pull together a list of plot components that is delicious on the face of it. And there is no doubt that the author’s portrayal of Val’s scientific efforts to parse the young girl’s language and to communicate with her were absolutely intriguing and completely convincing. In addition, the gritty portrayal of the difficulties of living, working, and completing scientific research in one of the harshest environments on the planet was near poetic in its realistic intensity. But, for me (a convinced diehard sci-fi fan and a believer in allowing an author plenty of room for literary license), the science was simply too far over the top (I think?!) I suppose I have to acknowledge that just because something has never been done and would currently be considered impossible doesn’t mean that it will forever be so but …
Enjoyable and definitely recommended. Just set your scientific judgment aside and let the story wash over you.
An introduction to Critical Race Theory vis-à-vis North American Aboriginals
There’s simply no way that you read Thomas King’s THE INCONVENIENT INDIANAn introduction to Critical Race Theory vis-à-vis North American Aboriginals
There’s simply no way that you read Thomas King’s THE INCONVENIENT INDIAN and come out the other side with a single reaction. If you are a rational reader with any sense of fairness, tolerance, or compassion, you’re going to be shocked, disgusted, dismayed, embarrassed, disappointed, enlightened, amused, and angry … simultaneously. Thomas King characterizes the white man’s grouping of North America’s aboriginal population into three populations – dead Indians, live Indians, and legal Indians. And sadly, he accurately and succinctly summarizes the white man’s reaction to each group – the white man loves dead Indians; can’t see, ignores, and forgets live Indians; and hates legal Indians.
While the entire history of the red man’s treatment in North America at the hands of the white man is and has been atrocious since Europe’s first 16th century intrusions on this side of the Atlantic, King is quick to acknowledge that grand maxim, “You can’t judge the past by the present.” But he’s equally quick to point out that dodging the guilt for past conduct by trotting out that maxim is simply too convenient and, indeed, specious. “Ignorance has never been the problem. The problem was and continues to be unexamined confidence in western civilization and the unwarranted certainty of Christianity. And arrogance. Perhaps it is unfair to judge the past by the present, but it is also necessary.”
And to be a compassionate 21st century informed Canadian, reading Thomas King’s THE INCONVIENT INDIAN is also necessary. One can but hope that a book like this is put into the high school history curriculum. Perhaps then, a future partnership can be forged that will make something of the historical mess that North American has handed its first inhabitants.
“Already today, “truth” is defined by the top results of the Google search.”
In SAPIENS, Yuval Noah Harari offered his distinctly left-wing interpretat“Already today, “truth” is defined by the top results of the Google search.”
In SAPIENS, Yuval Noah Harari offered his distinctly left-wing interpretation of the history of mankind’s cultural evolution, of the possible reasons for its xenophobia, racism, misogyny, patriarchy, greed and capitalism, its consumerism, its imperialism, its wars, and its creation of gods, religion and shamanism. As a reader with a definite left-wing bent to my beliefs and my thinking, I found myself nodding in agreement at Harari’s narrative and his conclusions. But I’ll admit that I found myself wondering whether his left-wing thinking led him to the book’s conclusions or whether his academic research led him to conclusions that appeared to be left-wing in nature.
And now, 21 LESSONS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY continues that thread of consciousness, if you will. Noah Harari moves from the distant past of mankind's entire history to the very recent past, to today and to a very, very small number of years in a possible future. In twenty-one loosely connected essays on a variety of topics, he posits how that seventy millennia of evolution has affected our short-term thinking, how we have evolved (devolved?) in the microcosm of the high speed historical microburst of two decades of the 21st century, and how we might position ourselves for a chance at continued life on this beleaguered planet. He celebrates “human wisdom” but decries the ubiquitous effects of “human stupidity”.
He asks,
“What does the rise of Donald Trump signify? What can we do about the epidemic of fake news? Why is liberal democracy in crisis? Is God back? Is a new world war coming? Which civilization dominates the world – the West, China, Islam? Should Europe keep its doors open to immigrants? Can nationalism solve the problems of inequality and climate change? What should we do about terrorism?”
Consider the following tidbits of his thinking:
On social media and community: “people live ever more lonely lives in an ever more connected planet.”
On human-caused global climate warming: “… as of 2018, instead of a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, the global emission rate is still increasing. Humanity has very little time left to wean itself from fossil fuels. We need to enter rehab today. Not next year or next month, but today. “Hello, I am Homo sapiens, and I am a fossil-fuel addict”.”
On shamanism and the outright fraud of a religious patriarchy: “The true expertise of priests and gurus has never really been rainmaking, healing, prophecy, or magic. Rather, it has always been interpretation. A priest is not somebody who knows how to perform the rain dance and end the drought. A priest is somebody who knows how to justify why the rain dance failed, and why we must keep believing in our god even though he seems deaf to all our prayers.”
On nationalism and the necessity for humility and a more modest outlook toward our true place in the world: “One potential remedy for human stupidity is a dose of humility. National, religious, and cultural tensions are made worse by the grandiose feeling that my nation, my religion, and my culture are the most important in the world – and therefore my interests should come before the interests of anyone else, or of humankind as a whole.”
On bigotry, xenophobia and religious zealotry: “From an ethical perspective, monotheism was arguably one of the worst ideas in human history”
or “When a thousand people believe some made-up story for one month, that’s fake news. When a billion people believe it for a thousand years, that’s a religion, and we are admonished not to call it “fake news” in order not to hurt the feelings of the faithful (or incur their wrath)”. (Omigod, I couldn’t agree more!!)
And, if you are of a secular, atheist bent (as I am), you will positively howl with delight when you read the etymological history of the phrase “Hocus Pocus!” I had NO idea!
21 LESSONS is an absolutely first-rate, mind-expanding, evocative, provocative, thrilling, intellectual joy ride. Take your time and savor Harari’s thoughts one bite at a time. Although there is a clear flow to the set of ideas in the total book, each essay can stand on its own merits so you might also choose to read it slowly alongside your favourite bit of easy-going fiction. That will work too.
Definitely recommended. And on that note, I have definitely added HOMO DEUS to my TBR list.
Cod fishing aboard a schooner off the Grand Banks: “Two men with any luck can take in a thousand pounds a day”!!
After being rescued from a fishing boatCod fishing aboard a schooner off the Grand Banks: “Two men with any luck can take in a thousand pounds a day”!!
After being rescued from a fishing boat lost at sea for two weeks, Newfoundlander Tom Finn is offered passage home on the whaling boat Lancer leaving from its base in Connecticut. But when Lancer’s captain is murdered by the mutineers, Caleb Dunston, the commander of the Lancer’s partner boat appoints Finn captain of the Lancer. Finn contracts to complete the possibly multi-year whaling journey to winter over on Baffin Island.
THE ICE MASTER is a gripping, credible, realistic and entirely compelling portrayal of the demise of the whaling industry in the late 19th century as whale stocks diminish disastrously under relentless hunting pressure from European business interests. A tale of high adventure, life, death and survival in Canada’s unforgiving high arctic, THE ICE MASTER foreshadows the 20th century collapse of Newfoundland’s Grand Banks cod fishery; demonstrates the uncanny ability of the Inuit’s nomadic lifestyle to successfully live in a harsh, unforgiving and, at least to European eyes, bleak landscape; and, illustrates clearly the condescending, patronizing colonial attitudes of Europe and the Roman Catholic Church toward both North American territory and its aboriginal inhabitants. It also paints a rather severe picture of the cruel and outrageously misogynistic sexual abuse that Inuit women, unmarried women, wives, mothers and daughters alike, endured at the hands of these sailors. In Caleb Dunston’s attempted kidnapping of a young Inuit lad to serve as the son he never had, James Houston also exemplifies the thinking that created the residential school system that would ultimately shame all of Canada.
Although the “happily ever after” ending seems mildly out of step with the balance of the story leading up to it, THE ICE MASTER is still a novel that deserves to be read by Canadians interested in their heritage and their geography. Definitely recommended.
“He was only a human being and didn’t really know what he was doing”!
Silver was a genetic oddity – a white-haired, blue-eyed gorilla. “Adopted” by“He was only a human being and didn’t really know what he was doing”!
Silver was a genetic oddity – a white-haired, blue-eyed gorilla. “Adopted” by two sociologist/anthropologists in Gabon and brought to the USA to be reared from childhood in an “enriched” human environment, Silver is toilet-trained and taught to dress himself, read, write, speak, eat and, in general, conduct himself as if he were a human boy.
SILVER is a very odd, bizarre, noir, and, frankly, deeply disturbing story, told in his own words after his “retirement”. Without even a trace of wry humour, Silver’s story is a fierce critique of the American view of itself and the American version of Homo Sapiens as the pinnacle of evolution, beating relentlessly on the hubris and arrogance of human values. SILVER viciously critiques mankind’s relations with other sentient species on the earth and serves as an allegorical metaphor to blast other human failings such as racism, homophobia and sexual repressiveness.
I suppose one might allow that it is, at least marginally, to their credit that science ultimately comes to realize that their experiment with Silver and other simians has been a cruel failure. But the scientists’ attempt to return the apes to Africa (dubbed “The Great Return”) is colored with continuing blindness to their own failings. Urbanyi’s attack on mankind’s failure to identify and understand its own problems becomes even more apparent. Consider the outrageous level of irony in this anthropologist’s pep talk to the participating great apes as they endeavour to re-assimilate to life in the African jungle:
“Let me make a few things clear so you know what the program is all about. First off, I should explain a few aspects of my conduct that might be considered abusive but that I can assure you are pedagogically sound. I’m talking about my efforts to stimulate your natural simian aggressiveness and instill in you the discipline necessary to carry this whole enterprise through. And there’s another point I’d like to make clear: in spite of the diversity of species and educational backgrounds among the members of this group, it has been proven – both in my own research and in practice – that harmonious coexistence among different kinds of species and races is possible … Although it will not be easy for us to eliminate certain factors and elements that have corrupted you, such as money, cars, blue jeans, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s walkmans, prostitution, politicians, the market economy, drugs, pornography and mass hypnosis into anonymous imbecility, we will nevertheless be able to replace these factors with a full and conscious identity filled with love, altruism, understanding, communication, etcetera. It follows, then, that no prejudice or racism will be tolerated here: nothing about the Germans being better than the French, the Whites than the Blacks, or chimpanzees being more intelligent than orangutans.”
One has to wonder if Silver’s assimilation into USA mainstream culture endowed him with the ability to roll his eyes and the mental capacity to quietly ask himself, “You are kidding me, aren’t you?”
I cannot say that I found SILVER to be entertaining or enjoyable. The sardonic nature of the commentary was so biting that the humour was never laughable. But, from first page to last, SILVER was instructive, informative and compelling. Definitely recommended for readers who enjoy a book that will challenge them.
Science writer Mary Roach regales her fans with an unlikely overview of the story and history of cadavers – their Aaaarrrrrh … dead men DO tell tales!
Science writer Mary Roach regales her fans with an unlikely overview of the story and history of cadavers – their disposal; their interment (and disinterment); the science of decomposition; forensic pathology; their medical uses; their contributions to medical research and medical instruction; the sourcing of transplant organs; their use as surrogate stand-ins for live human bodies in no end of off-the-wall experimentation; contemporary and future alternatives to simple burial and cremation; and more – that is insightful, shocking, instructive, informative, entertaining, compelling, provocative, witty, and (whether you would expect it or not) often times tongue-in-cheek disrespectful and laugh-out-loud hilarious!
It’s hard to read STIFF with anything less than a 5-star appreciation of both its entertainment and information value. Definitely recommended.
The summary from the introduction is as complete as anything I could write:
“FORENSIC SCIENCE provides a fasc“What happened? Who did it? How? Why?”
The summary from the introduction is as complete as anything I could write:
“FORENSIC SCIENCE provides a fascinating look at the various types of physical evidence as well as the various forensic techniques and technologies used in law enforcement.”
One wouldn’t expect such a short book to be exhaustive, of course, but the list of techniques that Ms Marshall touches on is darn impressive – serology, toxicology, odontology, ballistics, anthropology, pathology, entomology, geology, microscopy, graphology and linguistics, dactyloscopy, blood spatter analysis, photo- and mass spectrometry, profiling, psychiatry and psychology, chromatography, DNA testing, and more. Elucidating, informative, and interesting, FORENSIC SCIENCE will appeal to readers of all ages. Each technique is explained and then illustrated with an appropriate true crime example from the annals of police cases over the entire history of the development of forensic science. Speaking of which, the science of each technique is presented in an accessible way without being patronizing so young readers and those readers less comfortable with matters scientific will have to pay attention. But knowledge, of course, is the reward.
Recommended easy-reading non-fiction for all ages.
As species go, Homo Sapiens is definitely a nasty piece of work
Harari’s afterword, entitled “The Animal That Became a God”, provides a first rate As species go, Homo Sapiens is definitely a nasty piece of work
Harari’s afterword, entitled “The Animal That Became a God”, provides a first rate summary of the entire book:
“Seventy thousand years ago, Homo sapiens was still an insignificant animal minding its own business in a corner of Africa. In the following millennia it transformed itself into the master of the entire planet and the terror of the ecosystem. Today it stands on the verge of becoming a god, poised to acquire not only eternal youth, but also the divine abilities of creation and destruction.”
It’s not an easy read, it’s not a pleasant read, it’s not an edifying read. In fact, it’s downright disturbing to realize just how ugly the creature is that Homo Sapiens has become. HOMO SAPIENS is the history of mankind’s evolution, of the possible reasons for its xenophobia, racism, misogyny, patriarchy, greed and capitalism, its consumerism, its imperialism, its wars, and its creation of gods, religion and shamanism. As a reader with a definite left-wing bent to my beliefs and my thinking, I found myself nodding in agreement at Harari’s narrative and his conclusions. But I’ll admit that I found myself wondering whether his left-wing thinking led him to the book’s conclusions or whether his academic research led him to conclusions that appeared to be left-wing in nature. You’ll have to judge for yourself.
HOMO SAPIENS is a positive treasure trove of quotable quotes and trivia tidbits that will stick with you well beyond the closing of the final page.
“… our concepts ‘natural’ and ‘unnatural’ are taken not from biology, but from Christian theology.”
“Many Americans nowadays maintain that their government has a moral imperative to bring Third World countries the benefit of democracy and human rights, even if these goods are delivered by cruise missiles and F-16s”.
“Two thousand years of monotheistic brainwashing have caused most Westerners to see polytheism as ignorant and childish idolatry.”
“… coprolite (the technical name for fossilized turds)”
“There are no gods in the universe, no nations, no money, no human rights, no laws and no justice outside the common imagination of human beings.”
A compelling, informative, instructive, evocative and provocative read that will definitely have you scratching your head in amazement, wondering what kind of beast you might be, and musing about where your progeny and ancestors are headed and what they might do to the world in which they live.
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