Sauna

[nightdog_barks]

It is a relatively pleasant 92 degrees outside (33.3 degrees Celsius), but the humidity is 53%, which makes it feel as though it's 103 steamy, steamy degrees. Ugh. Makes it so that I have to push myself more to get OUT and do stuff.

Finished The Spirit Photographer and felt that I should've liked it a whole lot more than I actually did. The storyline is great -- a possible photo of a real ghost, set against the backdrop of Reconstruction-era America, a state senator's secret that MUST be kept, a nefarious bad guy who will stop at nothing to steal that ghostly photo, political horse trading and back-door deals, the flight and pursuit of the good guys, a jury trial that captured the attention of Boston. All this would be a page-turner ... if I'd actually cared about any of the characters. And this was a well-written book! With some interesting questions! Like, at what point does proposed legislation hurt people more than help them? Do the ends justify the means? How can we trust photographs as evidence of truth if photographs can be manipulated (ha, hello Photoshop and CGI)? AND there's a nice twist at the end. But for me it was just ... dry.

Anyway. Now reading Geoff Dyer's The Missing of the Somme, which is, understandably, quite melancholy.

Comments

[silverjackal]

It's a bit of a tangent but I was just reading an academic paper (paywall, unfortunately, and I don't think there's an English language abstract either) about ecological recovery in the "Red Zone". The land heals, though the ground is still toxic.

[nightdog_barks]

There was a Twitter thread about the Red Zone in April, by Paul Cooper (who is a pretty good writer). Here it is. (Very occasionally, Twitter is good for something.)

The part that got to me (in the book) was just how many men were listed as missing in the battle(s). By 3 p.m. on the first day of the Somme, 20,000 British soldiers were dead and another 40,000 wounded or missing. The first day. The Thiepval Memorial bears the names of 72,194 men with "no known grave." SEVENTY-TWO THOUSAND. The numbers are simply staggering.

[silverjackal]

I'm aware of the numbers, and just how staggering it was. So many, all lost in the mud, and for what? And yet there are always elements who are keen to make war. :( That twitter thread is excellent, so thank you for sharing it.

[nightdog_barks]

Heh, I figured you were aware of the numbers. I just have to emphasize them to myself because they are so stunning.

[lovelythings]

It's all soup here too.

[nightdog_barks]

Oh my god, bb, isn't it awful? If I wanted to live in Houston, I'd move to Houston. :-P