“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
He had talents, a gift even, for a job he didn’t particularly like and didn’t want to do!
Enter stage left: Dominic Jejeune is a Canadian expat, a skilHe had talents, a gift even, for a job he didn’t particularly like and didn’t want to do!
Enter stage left: Dominic Jejeune is a Canadian expat, a skilled (no, make that extraordinarily gifted) homicide detective, fresh off the solution of a puzzling London murder and recently posted to the rank of DCI in the small Norfolk town of Saltmarsh. He also happens to be an avid birder who, with little provocation, would be willing to drop the day to day tribulations of the police force and become a full-time hobbyist and avian researcher.
You have to hand it to author Steve Burrows. He has certainly mastered the author’s dictum of “Show, don’t tell”. The personality of every single member of the cast of A SIEGE OF BITTERNS is developed in exquisite detail through the tool of dialogue and allowing readers to watch how they conduct themselves and how they respond to events in the story. Bravo indeed!
However, for my money, notwithstanding how well the story was executed, the idea of a plot for a murder mystery and indeed, an entire series being based on the theme of birding is stretching a point. Well, at least I think so. It doesn’t take a detective reader to imagine that there would be much said about ecology, birds, their habitats, and environmental activism but, as supportive as I felt and as much as I agreed, the story never managed to reach the level of compelling or gripping.
Your mileage may vary, of course. A SIEGE of BITTERNS was certainly good enough to warrant the recommendation that you give it a try and see for yourself. Kudos to another Canadian author entering the mystery and police procedural market. I'll give #2 in the series, A PITYING OF DOVES, a try to see how Burrows has chosen to continue with his theme.
The Sixth Extinction is well underway ... and it comes in a wide variety of flavours!
Animals of every imaginable zoological stripe, deforestation, losThe Sixth Extinction is well underway ... and it comes in a wide variety of flavours!
Animals of every imaginable zoological stripe, deforestation, loss of ecosystems and specific ecological niches, trees, legumes, fruits and grasses, cultures and languages – so much of our world is under assault and treading a fine line on the edge of complete and final disappearance. Agricultural diversity is being replaced around the world with vulnerable monocultures. WAITING FOR THE MACAWS does not presume to take a hard core left wing stance and suggest that all extinctions are the result of intentional human predation or thoughtless activity. Instead, in a series of thoughtful, provocative essays, it presents a series of “catastrophes of the human spirit and imagination” and it asks us to care, to do everything we can to strengthen “the conditions that allow the flourishing of a diversity of living things, a diversity of ideas and a diversity of choices”.
A small example will serve to illustrate the depth of Glavin’s examination of the phenomenon of extinction:
“It was the Romans who spread the apple throughout Europe, and by the close of the nineteenth century, more than 7000 commercial varieties of apple were being cultivated throughout North America. A century later, almost all of those varieties had disappeared. A mere 15 apple varieties account for more than 90 percent of all North American production. In Canada, two-thirds of the apple crop is made up of only 3 varieties: McIntosh, Red Delicious, and Spartan. Two-thirds of the American crop is made up of Red Delicious, Golden Delicious and Granny Smith”.
And, of course, it is this singular (and all too common) lack of diversity that makes the entire apple species subject to loss by weather calamity, insects infestation or some biological blight.
WAITING FOR THE MACAWS is not lightweight, easy reading. But it is certainly provocative, informative, educational and profoundly disturbing. If you care about the world around you, WAITING FOR THE MACAWS is something you should be reading.
“… for an organism that needs food and water daily, oxygen by the minute, and heat constantly.”
SURVIVING THSome environments are simply too extreme …
“… for an organism that needs food and water daily, oxygen by the minute, and heat constantly.”
SURVIVING THE EXTREMES is a thrilling documentary that tell stories of human survival (or not) in six of those environments – jungle; the surface of oceans and the high seas; desert; mountains and high altitude; underwater and deep ocean; and, of course, outer space. It explores the extent to which humans (or some specific races and cultures, subsets of mankind if you will) have evolved particular skills and capabilities designed to handle these extreme environments. Some of the stories explore the outcomes of events in which humans found themselves, by accident, by circumstance or by design in each of these environments and gives detailed, compelling and informative explanations as to why they did (or did not) survive to tell their own tale. For each environment, Kamler outlines a minutely detailed description of the human body’s response to the stresses and problems created by humanity’s attempts to trespass in these environments that we are simply not equipped to handle. And, make no mistake, while the writing is not pedantic or overtly scholarly and certainly never boring, neither is it light-weight, easy sledding. Careful, attentive reading will reap great rewards.
Intense, informative, provocative, awe-inspiring and gripping from first page to last. Definitely recommended for lovers of the outdoors and those who would extend the boundaries of their knowledge of human biology and natural science.
“and has never been stronger. At the same time, paradoxically, ill-informed opposition is also stronger“The evidence for evolution grows by the day,”
“and has never been stronger. At the same time, paradoxically, ill-informed opposition is also stronger than I can remember. This book is my personal summary of the evidence that the ‘theory’ of evolution is actually a fact – as incontrovertible a fact as any in science.”
To summarize the intent and content of Richard Dawkins’ THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH, it’s tough to beat Dawkins’ own words in the opening paragraph of his preface.
It’s instructive, it’s entertaining, it’s educational, it’s informative and, perhaps most important of all, it’s persuasive and convincing beyond any reasonable shadow of a doubt that evolution exists, that it always has, and that, even today, it operates in real time, and occasionally causes changes at speeds that can best be characterized as jaw-dropping!
My rather niggardly award of only three stars as opposed to a four- or five-star rave review stems from the fact that I have never been a lover of biology in my reading, no matter how accomplished the writing might be. Personal preference only. But the fact is, that THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH deserves your time if you’re a lover of popular science.
If you’re a believer in a young earth or creationism, give it a shot! You never know where it might take your thinking.
“ … it is possible to soar without benefit of wings”
Perhaps you’re a beginner dipping your toe in the shallow end of the wilderness pool for the f“ … it is possible to soar without benefit of wings”
Perhaps you’re a beginner dipping your toe in the shallow end of the wilderness pool for the first time, stepping outside of your urban comfort zone and tentatively, even fearfully, indulging in a weekend canoe trip with your buddies that involves a portage or two off of the punters’ beaten track. On the other hand, you might be an accomplished four-season solo wilderness explorer planning a multi-week exploratory tour on a route that isn’t so much a route as an extended exercise in bushwhacking, compass and map reading, and risk management! Wherever you might fall on that wide spectrum of outdoor lovers, campers, hikers, canoeists, or explorers, there is no question that, sooner or later, somebody will ask you the inevitable question, “Why?” or “Whatever for??”.
NORTHERN WILD, subtitled BEST CONTEMPORARY CANADIAN NATURE WRITING, might be characterized as an anthology of essays that answer that question, as the back cover marketing blurb suggests, with “passion, wisdom, humour, reverence and a naturalist’s eye for detail”. Oh, there were other articles to be sure – informative pieces on the loss of Beluga habitat in the St Lawrence or the climatology of grasslands on the prairies for example. And there was even a piece that actually repelled me – a story of a December fisherman intent on landing a feisty steelhead trout out of season but, having seriously wounded it in the doing, consigned it to a certain death by releasing it bleeding into a river too cold to allow the blood to ever congeal and heal.
Even allowing for variations in personal temperament and reading tastes, NORTHERN WILD is a sure winner for outdoor lovers and couch-bound wannabes. Definitely recommended.
Science writing that should be considered mandatory reading!
Elizabeth Kolbert has achieved a great deal with THE SIXTH EXTINCTION. A book that combinScience writing that should be considered mandatory reading!
Elizabeth Kolbert has achieved a great deal with THE SIXTH EXTINCTION. A book that combines natural history, current news, science, paleontology, history and even, to a certain extent, sociology in a package that is entertaining, informative and eminently readable to the point of being compelling is quite an accomplishment! It's a cautionary tale, to be sure, that bleakly outlines the devastating effect that Homo Sapiens has had and is having having on its environment since our arrival some 100,000 years ago.While THE SIXTH EXTINCTION deftly avoids falling into the trap of becoming a left-wing tree hugger's manifesto, it unequivocally suggests that our effect on the world, including the recipe for our own demise as a species, may have already been put irreversibly in place. Certainly, the take away from the book is that, if we are to have any hope at all for rescuing the myriad species around us from shuffling off this mortal coil forever, the time to act is yesterday!
"Let us strive to inherit the Universe that is waiting for us ... "
" ... doing so alone if we must, or in company with others, if they are there." Isa"Let us strive to inherit the Universe that is waiting for us ... "
" ... doing so alone if we must, or in company with others, if they are there." Isaac Asimov's EXTRATERRESTRIAL CIVILIZATIONS is a compendium of passionate, informative, exciting and eminently readable non-fiction. At once, a modern day re-formulation of Drake's famous equation estimating the probability for the existence of other intelligent civilizatins in the universe and an updating of the current state of SETI, EXTRATERRESTRIAL CIVILIZATIONS is also a heartfelt plea for recognition of the value of truly fundamental research, the outcome of which is as unknown as the location of the first extraterrestrial civilization with which mankind might establish communication.
While some of Asimov's non-fiction work has been dated merely by virtue of having been bypassed by current knowledge, not one word of his writing has ever been rendered useless or less enjoyable in the reading because of that. That said, EXTRATERRESTRIAL CIVILIZATIONS is definitely NOT on that list and remains a moving and exciting read, particularly for those self-proclaimed members of the Planetary Society like myself who so firmly believe that ET is out there somewhere. It's just a matter of time!
"… gray and heaving, washing and waiting, extending out to the deeps … "
The inside flap of Simon Winchester’s lengthy chunkster ATLANTIC is a grea"… gray and heaving, washing and waiting, extending out to the deeps … "
The inside flap of Simon Winchester’s lengthy chunkster ATLANTIC is a great summary of the book in general terms:
"ATLANTIC is a biography of a tremendous space that has been central to the ambitions of explorers, scientists, and warriors, and continues profoundly to affect our character, attitudes, and dreams. Poets and potentates, seers and sailors, fishermen and foresters – all have had a relationship with this great body of gray and heaving sea and regarded her as friend or foe, bridge or barrier, depending on circumstance and fortune."
In somewhat less poetic terms, 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.
When I review non-fiction, I often use Simon Winchester as an example of an author who can write non-fiction in a style that is as gripping and as compelling as a good novel. KRAKATOA: THE DAY THE WORLD EXPLODED and A CRACK IN THE EDGE OF THE WORLD stand out as examples of this ability. Both of them thrilled me to my toes at the same time as they were passing along great gobbets of new pieces of information in a myriad of areas of human learning – history, geography, natural science, sociology and anthropology come quickly to mind. Unfortunately, this time around, while ATLANTIC easily made the grade insofar as the educational side of that comment is concerned, it often failed to reach the standard of gripping or compelling. My guess is that the breadth of the topic and the enormous diversity of the sub-topics simply made it impossible to write a book that seemed to be linear in nature with any kind of underlying story that had anything that might be characterized as a compelling plot-line.
That said, I’m happy to recommend ATLANTIC to non-fiction fans and to move my copy of PACIFIC to a position that will shortly bring it to the top of my TBR list.
Loading...
