Father Nick Blaha on Nostr: I enjoyed listening to Michael Palin’s Erebus, about the polar explorations ...
I enjoyed listening to Michael Palin’s Erebus, about the polar explorations conducted by the ship of that name, and its companion ship HMS Terror. They were bomb ships created at the end of the Napoleonic era, present at the shelling of Baltimore (?) during the war of 1812. Whatever battle the Star-Spangled Banner commemorates.
They were retired from naval service not long after being launched, almost being obsolete as soon as they were built, but their reinforced hulls were ideal for plowing through sea ice. Incredibly, they did so under sail alone. HMS Erebus was discovered in the Arctic in 2016 or so and HMS Terror not long after. Their voyages all sound harrowing but particularly the last, of course. Conrad mentions them in Heart of Darkness. There are all sorts of lively characters and of course the usual preening superiority towards past attitudes and practices.
I think one of the favorable qualities of the historical books I most enjoy is that they do not allow a contemporary perspective to intervene and attempt to demonstrate “our” superiority to the people of the past. The author's voice is totally subsumed into the characters’. I find the interjection of authorial voice so irritating as to cause me to stop reading the second I detect it. I tried listening to Erik Larsen’s new book on the start of the civil war but made the mistake of starting with the Introduction and had to return it.
A new rule I’m considering putting into place is to never, ever, ever read introductions, and perhaps even avoid books that contain them entirely.
They were retired from naval service not long after being launched, almost being obsolete as soon as they were built, but their reinforced hulls were ideal for plowing through sea ice. Incredibly, they did so under sail alone. HMS Erebus was discovered in the Arctic in 2016 or so and HMS Terror not long after. Their voyages all sound harrowing but particularly the last, of course. Conrad mentions them in Heart of Darkness. There are all sorts of lively characters and of course the usual preening superiority towards past attitudes and practices.
I think one of the favorable qualities of the historical books I most enjoy is that they do not allow a contemporary perspective to intervene and attempt to demonstrate “our” superiority to the people of the past. The author's voice is totally subsumed into the characters’. I find the interjection of authorial voice so irritating as to cause me to stop reading the second I detect it. I tried listening to Erik Larsen’s new book on the start of the civil war but made the mistake of starting with the Introduction and had to return it.
A new rule I’m considering putting into place is to never, ever, ever read introductions, and perhaps even avoid books that contain them entirely.