Literature’s Scientific Investigators

Astronomers released a new report this past week. http://news.yahoo.com/under-frankenstein-moon-astronomer-sleuths-solve-mary-shelley-201601341.html/

Rumor has it that these researchers play with scientific private investigation in their spare time. They snag one literary allusion at a time, hoping to find the possible authentic astronomical event to which it refers.

“A group of astronomers used some crafty celestial sleuthing to put to rest a 19th Century mystery surrounding the events that inspired Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, author of the classic novel “Frankenstein,” to pen her tragic tale of the infamous monster.

Astronomers from Texas State University-San Marcos delved into Shelley‘s own description of what moved her to write the legendary story, in hopes of solving a long-standing controversy over whether the account is true, or if the author took some liberties in her re-telling of what happened.”

This new investigation report deals with Mary Shelley’s assertion that she witnessed the full moon from her bedroom window and “…had a waking dream” in which the story of Frankenstein came to her fully realized. Consider for the moment how minor that singular statement really is. It’s peculiar that such a controversy would surround it for two centuries, but it has.

If these researchers spend their spare time investigating such allusions throughout literature to find the truth of them, how long does it take to get all the evidence Yay or Nay on a given investigation? When one thinks of the sheer numbers of such literary statements used over the years, it’s easy to understand that these intrepid scientists will never go without a project that fascinates them.

What does an investigator look for? The creative non-fiction world of writing alone is a treasure chest filled with bits and pieces of factoid information. Getting hold of someone else’s account of the event(s) written about would help to verify or negate said event. Journals and diaries work for this type of search.

Of course, the investigator would have to first identify those who would have witnessed the event. That could take years; depending on what year the event took place. Only after that could the scientist take the field, so to speak, to do the calculations necessary to validate whether the event might have happened during a specific or approximate date in time. Without that verification, the reader has no way to trust the story’s accuracy other than through faith. That, too, brings up its own ball of worms into the light.

The Bible and other religious texts depend on faith alone to ensure belief in the words contained within them. In the past twenty years, archeologists, plus astronomers and botanical paleontologists have verified many puzzling events and locations within the Bible. New discoveries are made every day which point to the accuracy of the histories laid down in the Good Book.

This leaves today’s writers with an increasing demand for accuracy in all writing, regardless of genre or audience. It’s doubtful that will change in the foreseeable future. The troubling aspect of this verification process centers on how much research and authentication is an absolute necessity.

Are three sources enough? Should a first person account be used if one is found? How far into fiction writing will such verification run?

The questions keep arriving like so many uninvited guests at a holiday dinner. If the writer works in both fiction and non-fiction, she/he may find the simplest of projects taking on new responsibilities and factors that weren’t planned for.

The simple act of putting together a science fiction short story could drive a person mad if every tiny detail of the technology used on whatever world or universal scale is referenced. At this time science fiction demands accuracy above most other genres of fiction. The technology involved must be at least theoretically possible or probable given current technologies and surging advances each year.

What will land on the writer’s doorstep of responsibility tomorrow morning may be more than the local newspaper. It may be a new role cast by the readers who look for authenticity and accuracy. The day of speculation as fact looks to be well on its way to the dustbin of earlier decades.

Waste Not, Want Not

The wasteful attitude of the American society has reached a level of absurdity hitherto unmatched, or so it seems to me.

Here’s an example for you. Last week Yahoo News reported that Mitt Romney, that political candidate for presidential campaigns, intended to raze his $12 million home in California to build a bigger, more costly model.

When I read this assertion, my question flag began flapping in the breeze. If this person ever made it into the White House, what perfectly good taxpayer item would he raze in order to spend even more taxpayer money for vanity’s sake? I also asked myself how anyone could be so wasteful in the face of the current economy.

A couple of days later my sister and I returned home from the grocery store, frustrated and irate. We commented—okay, we complained—about the current price of fresh produce. We understand all the arguments about supply and demand, etc. Those weren’t the questions we were discussing.

Instead, we discussed the question of how those who were on restricted diets for medical reasons, like diabetes and heart disease, were expected to afford the continuing price increases with a shrinking dollar. On the tail of that question was another one that asked, perhaps, an even more critical question. How can grocers dispose of perfectly good produce at the end of a work day by throwing it into dumpsters in the back alley?

NAW, you say. Unfortunately, that is a practice that’s been going on for years. If I had the time, I’d research out the mandates of health departments and USDA rulings to uote those covering the length of time fresh produce can be displayed in stores before mandatory disposal. If you stop to think about how grocers display produce, you’ll quickly figure out why such foods have a limited shelf life.

Okay, back to the subject. One of the aspects of this questionable practice that really angers us is that we don’t hear about any grocers who relieve themselves of this frequent burden of fresh food by donating it—as a charitable contribution, no less—to homeless shelters, women’s shelters, prisons, schools, etc.

I realize that for prisons and schools and any other institution that accepts moneys from the federal government, the red-tape necessary for such donations makes such generosity nigh on to impossible. But, organizations like Meals-On-Wheels, and shelters could certainly use the boost, as could local food banks.

For some obscure reason Americans with lots extra to give to solving public problems have become some of the greediest and least likely of proponents to be potential problem solvers.

We waste nearly everything. We build in obsolescence so that the consumer much replace items more often, which, in turn, ensures continued product sales and job security. We’ve fallen for the hook dangled by fashionistas so that something we bought last year is no longer wearable today, even though we’ve rarely worn it.

We’ve become stingy, grasping, and greedy, all of which leads to wastefulness. We’ve ignored the waste so long that we aren’t aware of it anymore. Case in point: current new story on Yahoo News today.  Brand new hotel–never had a guest—has an owner threatening to tear it down because of disillusionment, economic downturn, and litigation between owner MGM and the building’s construction company.

Arguments of construction issues and reduced total size have wrangled on until the wrecking ball may have to come in. No one seems to have addressed, at least publicly, all those condo owners that were planning to live at that location. What happens to their tidy little investments?

Perfectly good office buildings, apartment buildings, and vacated (foreclosed) homes seem to go to waste, as well, while not in use.

So, tell me peeps. What do you think about the rising examples of extravagance gone wild and waste on the rise? When did you buy your phone? Planning on buying a new one soon? Just curious.

Until later, a bientot,

Claudsy

Headliners—A Matter of News

Each week we gather at tables, on sofas, or lean back in bed and take note of headlines in the news. Whether dramatic or funny, people gather in the information and decide from that point how much they’re willing to invest in the facts and speculation they’ve just read.

This past week has—on Yahoo! News alone—kept many balls in the air while juggling subjects across the spectrum. The amazement comes from trying to assimilate all the information and decide how any/all/some of it affects the individual.

• Just today a gripping article was posted on Yahoo! News– http://news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20110625/us_ac/8696821_the_american_police_state_is_the_new_normal/   regarding our country’s new police state norm. In the article are examples of how police, under the guise of new, stiffer mandates by authorities and broader powers of police activity, have come to represent a growing new category of police bullies.

In a country where schools, parents, etc. are trying desperately to decrease the incidents of bullying among children, recognizing that our safety officers are actively displaying the behavior with impunity brings with it thoughts of 1984 to the max.

• Minot, ND is underwater from the flooding of the Souris River. The damage estimates have yet to be firmed up for the town’s residents. This is another example of this year’s crazy weather’s aftermath. This is especially true when taken in light of the expanding drought throughout the south. That drought situation was in evidence throughout the Southwest last winter, as well.

 

• Venezuelan President Chavez is reported to be in critical condition in a Cuban hospital after emergency surgery. The situation, according to the report, has made an already shaky situation worse as the Venezuelan government deals with an absentee president who may or may not have cancer.

 

• A bus-sized asteroid is slated to make a near-miss pass of the Earth on Monday. The estimate is that it won’t come as close as the much bigger one that whizzed by us in February. If this one dips a bit closer than expected, it would burn up on entry and create no problems for us. So say the scientists tracking it.

 

• On a lighter note, spinner sharks are now jumping over surfers in Florida. The event was billed as a new “spin” on “Jumping the Shark” of Fonz fame.

 

• Clean-up workers dealing with the Amtrak crash site in Nevada fear they will find more bodies in the wreckage of the burned out cars. The National Safety Investigation Team has not yet given their report on the incident other than to say that the semi driver slammed on his brakes before doing a head-on into the fourth car of the train at the crossing. None have stated why they thought he missed seeing both the working signal lights and gates.

 

• The organized hackers of LulzSec are disbanding permanently, according to reports. They released a statement that said little of great value other than the game was no longer fun. At least that was this reader’s take on it.

These examples are just a handful from the dozens released in the past few days on Yahoo! News.

All of us are affected by the first report of police activity currently in play. Some of us were affected by the LulzSec hacking jobs going on in the past month and a half. Few have to worry about sharks, but it was an interesting and fun report with video.

The point is that if this is a mere sampling of reports available in one sitting, how much news info do we take in during any given year and how much of that did we really need to know?

We live in the Information Age. We’ve been told that for many years now. The problem, as I see it, is that while we know this, we’ve been given no training as to how to filter all of that info into mental folders that have pertinence for us. Knowing a few trivial items is fun and a great game. But, how much is trivia and how much is necessary?

I haven’t figured it out. Each week I read reports on hundreds of subjects. Much of that has no impact on me other than as a worry factor. Some I can use as a writer. Some are fun. Still others can be ignored as irrelevant to me.

Humans are curious creatures who seem unable to turn away from any possible distraction. We appear to have become obsessed with the news. When a person stops to think of our counterpart year in the past century, the comparison is astounding. Back in 1911 much of the US still had no electricity, telephone service or spotty USPS delivery service. Gun slingers still existed out west. 

What a difference a century makes. Already there are rumors floating around that snail mail has become obsolete and may disappear in the very near future. Some industries, such as the American Textile Industry, are reported to be headed for the economic chopping block.

We stand on the crux of a major shift in our society; a crux which has been leaping, rather than inching, forward for the past thirty years. Our technology has outstripped our ability to keep up in a social or economic sense, and now we are faced with choices that for some may seem without merit in the long view.

We must choose what we deem important to our future and be able to justify those choices. Just as a shift in police procedure demands our attention, the impacts of the reasoning behind such allowances for those behaviors require additional scrutiny. Issues such as this one reflect who we are as a society and how we deal with others.

Each of us steps onto this roller coaster each day as soon as we turn to the media. What you decide about the news is your choice and your business. I’m just curious as to how you look at the issue. Drop a comment here and tell me how you see the world.

Until then, a bientot,

Claudsy