sus

Moderator
The war on dust in a major theme in Oakley Hall's Warlock

"The town was dust- and heat-hazed, blurred out of focus. A water wagon with a round, rust-red tank moved slowly along Main Street, spraying water in a narrow, shining strip behind it. But Warlock’s dust was laid only briefly. Soon again it was churned as light as air by iron-bound wheels, by hoofs and bootheels."

I also found, in John McPhee's Basin & Range, this nice theory:

"Once in a great while, the earth moves through cosmic dust that collects near the arms of the galaxy. It has been suggested that this dust might have deflected enough sunlight to bring on the biotic catastrophe."
 

sus

Moderator
Although IDK. He's so hyped everyone thinks these are the best most accessible books written on geology ever. I'm not sure I agree. I think he's a little overrated.
 

sus

Moderator
Sometimes I legitimately am not sure what he's talking about, he is not very clear sometimes, his summaries of geo lit can get really muddled because he's trying to be poetic. And long stretches of the book are very boring.
 

william kent

Well-known member
I'll get round to it at some point, but I'm apprehensive due to his being a writer for the New Yorker. I managed to find the big five-book thing on eBay around when mvuent was asking whether time was 'bullshit'.
 

sus

Moderator
I've put his book about Californian geology on my to-read list, because the Franciscan Melange is a beautiful metaphor, and I'm interested in the geologic origins of the gold rush. But I'm not looking forward to it.

I though Meldahl's Rough-Hewn Land was better written and clearer, on the topic of Western geology. Less poetic but by an actual geologist. And diagrams are very important when you're talking about these things. I think McPhee is really hamstrung by trying to write it all out, and not supplementing with any photographs or diagrams. Trying to describe rock formations in pure words is brutal. Really hard to visualize.
 

william kent

Well-known member
What draws you / interests you?

I read he was the guy who came up with 'deep time' and it piqued my interest. One of the only engaging bits in Virilio's Open Sky was when he talked about the discovery of deep time/geologic time suddenly opening up a whole new history beneath our feet and I was curious to read more about it.
 

sus

Moderator
I read he was the guy who came up with 'deep time' and it piqued my interest. One of the only engaging bits in Virilio's Open Sky was when he talked about the discovery of deep time/geologic time suddenly opening up a whole new history beneath our feet and I was curious to read more about it.
Hmmm I see that on the Wikipedia page

Very strange, I don't remember that term at all from the book

Sort of suspicious. If he is the first text source to use the phrase, he certainly doesn't make a big deal about it, and he's using it while basically summarizing two-hundred year old theories of Hutton
 

sus

Moderator
I think you could just read his chapter on Hutton. Or just read about Hutton.

The description he gives of deeptime ("If the history of the earth were a single day, humanity would be the final three seconds bla bla bla") is really standard stuff that you'll get in an eighth grade science class.

Maybe it was less standard forty years ago but it's commonplace now
 

sus

Moderator
Speaking of New Yorker bashing, have you seen this?

FHopMPqXMAEictX
 
Top