2018 Reading

Another year, another 39 books. All but 10 were audiobooks. Several were re-reads. I wish I had read a couple more science-related. What did you read this past year?

Book Review of "Under the Sea Wind"

Having little knowledge of the fields of biology or zoology, I appreciated "Under The Sea Wind" like few other books I read the entire year.

Considered one of the first environmentalists, Rachel Carson popularized words such as "ecology", "ecosystem", "food chain", and "biosphere".

As I listened to and read the lyric prose of this her first novel I found myself being drawn in as if to move in harmony with the deep rhythms of creation. The migratory tales of Scomber the mackerel and Anguilla the eel particularly intrigued me. I often found myself wondering how many of the species she described way back in 1941 are now endangered or depleted.

In addition to the author's prose, I found C.M. Hebert's hypnotic voice narration of the audiobook excellent as well. Since the ebook I followed up with had no pictures of the various plant and animal species described in the book, google and wikipedia proved to be invaluable resources to which I frequently turned.

Earlier this year, I enjoyed "Sense of Wonder" by the same author. Next up, I want to read Carson's "The Sea Around Us", or at least watch the documentary it inspired!

Henry Ossawa Turner

The artist I read about today was Henry Ossawa Turner (1859-1937). Pictured here are perhaps his two most famous works: The Banjo Lesson, and The Annunciation. According to Terry Glaspey, in Turner's depiction of Mary  "we are reminded that God communicates to perfectly ordinary human beings in perfectly ordinary circumstances... there is receptivity in her body language, an openness to God's will."

 Turner was raised by a father who was a free black pastoring an AME church in Philadelphia, and a mother who was a former slave rescued by the Underground Railroad. Turner overcame racism to become America's first internationally-acclaimed African-American painter. Unfortunately, in order to accomplish this dream, he first had to leave the USA and move to Paris, where he lived out the rest of his days.

James Tissot

Today I learned a little about the artist James Tissot (1836-1902), who early in his career became famous for his exquisite depictions of French fashion and high society, especially beautiful women dressed in their finery. Click here for a look at 492 of this artist's paintings by either popularity or alphabetical order. 

When Tissot was in his late forties, he set about working on  a new project depicting Parisian women in a variety of settings. These settings included  a Catholic church. One day, while visiting the church, Tissot had a profound experience that was to change the rest of his life. While the priest was conducting mass, Tissot experienced a vision: Christ comforting the poor in the rubble of a fallen building. Doing without sleep for several nights, Tissot set to work painting the scene as it appeared to him. He called it Inward Voices: The Ruins.

From then on, the focus of his artistic endeavors shifted. He traveled to Egypt, Syria and Palestine in 1886, and again in 1890 in order to create a series of paintings resembling as close as possible the world in which Jesus walked. The result was a series of 350 watercolors which took nearly 10 years to complete.

The crowds thronged wherever these works were placed on exhibit. Tissot also published a four volume international bestseller featuring the watercolors (To be fair,  some of Tissot’s friends and peers implied his shift in focus may have been partly related to financial considerations due to changing political winds).

Later in life, Tissot began to paint a series of Old Testament paintings but sadly died before making his way out of the book of Genesis.

Painter Of The Week

The artist I learned about this week is the English Pre-Raphaelite William Holman Hunt. Two of his paintings seem to be in dialogue with each another. The first is The Awakening Conscience (1853), and the second is The Light Of The World (1854). I read about the artist in the book 75 Masterpieces Every Christian Should Know. This wiki is also very informative.

Perfectly Balanced Universe

Another reminder from Neil DeGrasse Tyson's Astrophysics for People in a Hurry:

  "Since both mass and energy cause space-time to warp, or curve, omega tells us the shape of the cosmos. If omega is less than one, the actual mass-energy falls below the critical value, and the universe expands forever in every direction for all of time, taking on the shape of a saddle, in which initially parallel lines diverge. If omega equals one, the universe expands forever, but only barely so. In that case the shape is flat, preserving all the geometric rules we learned in high school about parallel lines. If omega exceeds one, parallel lines converge, and the universe curves back on itself, ultimately recollapsing into the fireball whence it came."

What a perfectly balanced universe in which we live!

Graphics: Wikipedia, Northern Arizona University

Our Unique Vantage Point

Earlier this year I listened to Neil DeGrasse Tyson's Astrophysics for People in a Hurry and I've been slowly re-reading the ebook. One of many fascinating observations Tyson makes regarding our unique position in the universe is as follows:

"Earth’s Moon is about 1/400th the diameter of the Sun, but it is also 1/400th as far from us, making the Sun and the Moon the same size on the sky—a coincidence not shared by any other planet–moon combination in the solar system, allowing for uniquely photogenic total solar eclipses. Earth has also tidally locked the Moon, leaving it with identical periods of rotation on its axis and revolution around Earth. Wherever and whenever this happens, the locked moon shows only one face to its host planet." --Astrophysics for People in a Hurry"

What an amazing universe in which we live!