Lost Worlds & Wind Swept Days

Today was a completely stormy wind-swept and wet day.

I loved it!

Unfortunately, my husband didn't, he is solar powered and when the sun hides he gets sleepy and grouchy. I find I have to bribe him into happiness with biscuits, cookies, or some other baked goodies. It plays a dual role of soothing the bear and warming the house.

I am currently in the beginning of another quarter at the University and plodding away at my Master's in English goal. It's funny how life can throw you curve balls, I found out by talking with a classmate that I really should have taken women writers (how did I miss this? It sounds so fun!) for my diversity requirement, as opposed to Native American Literature (which I find really boring). This is the second quarter where my trying to conserve gas money has led me to a class that I am less than content with. 

Fortunately, I have a wonderful class called Science Fiction to make up for all that the other class lacks. We are reading Lost World by Michael Crichton, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I couldn't help it, I had to finish it and the stormy day was perfect for making tea and reading a book. As the wind, rain, and hail swept through, which had me feeling much like we stepped into the TARDIS and had been transported to Wales. I read about chaos theory, dinosaurs, and the scientists who love them. Crichton can truly spin an excellent tale, he really does his homework. He shows us glimpses of cutting edge theory and tells us how arrogant we are, but in a way that is more like your loving uncle rather than your scolding mother.

One of the contexts we are using is what our relationship to nature really is and how Crichton actually gives a voice to nature. Some of the old assumptions are changing, for example, some animals are more similar in their behaviors to humans than scientists had previously thought. On the other side, some scientists are ruthless and the natural world has become nothing but a stomping ground to capture nature, they have a looters mentality. This makes for an interesting lenses in which to read and analyze the text.

All in all a successful, if rather soggy, day.