April has arrived in South Texas, with a long, hot summer soon to follow. While I await its arrival with dread, perhaps others would consider it a blessing.Lately, I've begun reading a novel by Dan Simmons entitled The Terror. The novel is a fictional recounting of Sir John Franklin's ill-fated attempt to cross the Northwest Passage with two steam-powered ships: the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror - vessels which had already entered the annals of British maritime legend during Sir James Ross's expedition to Antarctica from 1839 to 1843. The Franklin Expedition, however, would not conclude so successfully.
Presently, I've read only sixty pages into what is a seven-hundred-fifty plus page novel, but the situation portrayed by Simmons is incredibly bleak. Marooned in the Canadian Arctic and facing a third consecutive hard winter, the remaining men of the two vessels struggle against the elements as well as a frightening Lovecraftian monster that is picking off the survivors at will.
By contrast, the difficulties of a South Texas summer don't seem so daunting at all. Even from a fictional source, perspective is a wonderfully sobering agent.
6 comments:
I'll take heat over cold any day. Maybe I'll head out to Texas one of these days. THought about it here and there.
I've heard of that story and it sends chills up my spine; I don't think I could read it--too scary!
Nice to see a new post!
Several years ago I read Endurance, the true accounting of Shackelton's attempt to go to the South Pole in the early 1900's. The journey was beyond harrowing and scary and doomed and at the worst point, they are stranded 500 miles away from land, and try to make a go of it in a little open boat, you can guess how that went...oh yeah, there were frozen body parts, gangrene episodes, amuptations minus anasthesia, and various 'rottings'...Lovecraftian monsters, au natural! Anyway, not only was I completely thankful for dry land under my feet, I also ruled out any adventuring in retirement that included sailing around the world.
Yeah. Bring on the reassuring heat of summer!
Speaking of freezing, the cold weather sure hit today. In fact, as I type this at 2:30 in the morning, it is 35 degrees outside.
As cold as that is, I have no doubt Shackleton and Franklin would have thought the mid-30s a blessing. "Rottings" sends a real chill up my spine, more so than Simmons' monster!
Maybe we can talk The Festering Swamp's Mike K out of his affection for boats; I admire you tough Texans (and adoptive Texans) but I'll stick to places where I can buy car magazines, good cheap chardonnay, and Hostess Snowballs, that cocanut-covered treat.
(Lest I be misunderstood; the South Pole lacks those treats, not Texas--though Hostess Snowballs may be a regional thing)
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