Aug
24
| book review!! – the wave | Tweet |
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Waves are scary. And the ocean, already a veritable stew of mad energy – wind, heat, light, tectonics (don’t forget: there are LEGIT MOUNTAIN RANGES along the seafloor) – is becoming even more scary. Like scarier than the concept of receiving a videotape in the mail and being haunted by a freaky little girl and possibly a boy with very sharp teeth until you die a week later.
Sidenote: I was too scared to see ‘The Ring’ so I partially made up that summary. And on second thought I think the boy with the razor dentures is from some movie with Sarah Michelle Gellar. Who used to play Erica Kane’s deranged daughter on All My Children. YES I WAS RAISED ON SOAP OPERAS.
Aaaanyhow, Susan Casey’s highly captivating book, ‘The Wave’ is about the ways in which scientists, surfers, and seamen [paging Dr. Chuckles] navigate the treacherous and highly mysterious world of ocean waves. It used to be that sailors would come home saying, ‘we almost got killed by an 80-foot wave’ and everyone would call them dirty liars. Now, with the help of fancy technology and satellites that monitor ocean activity, scientists are well aware that rogue waves – errant swells that dwarf the surrounding seas and straight up CRUSH SHIT – are actually much more common than we think.
See, it turns out that water waves, much like light waves, behave not only as traditional waves (sonic energy, for example), but also like particles. How crazy is that?? As a consequence, it is tremendously difficult for us landlubbing mortals to predict or even understand how a 1,740 foot tall wave could smash into a bay in Alaska or how a state-of-the-art oil rig in the North Atlantic could crack in half and sink in a matter of minutes.
Casey paces the narrative well, alternating between some pretty enthralling surf stories – she spends much of the book chronicling the feats of surfing legend Laird Hamilton – and conversations with folks who deal with ocean waves for a living. She talks to everyone from insurance underwriters to oceanographers to crazy physicists to ship-salvage consultants who handle maritime emergencies in the Indian Ocean. The overwhelming consensus from these experts is twofold: (1) we will never fully comprehend the complexities of ocean waves and (2) anomalous wave activity is becoming less and less anomalous, a fact that is somewhat good for the 50 people on this earth who enjoy strapping themselves to polyurethane boards and careening down the faces of 70-foot swells, but bad for the rest of us, especially those of us who don’t want Florida to drown.
In my mind, ‘The Wave’ is a book about man’s relationship with nature and the fundamental hubris that drives so many of our pursuits. Tsunamis destroy nations, underwater tectonic activity causes entire islands to slip into the blue oblivion, ships disappear at an alarming rate and yet we continue to believe we have the ability to Christopher Columbus the ocean.
I’m putting my money on the clownfish.
Thank you. I’ll just pop out and polish my halo! More seriously, your comments are greatly appreciated. Regards Andrew
Yyu can read epubs in Duokan without these problems if you install fbKindle.
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