tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post166411810070081344..comments2024-03-10T20:46:19.274-04:00Comments on In the Middle: Beachy Calm and Agitated DepthsCord J. Whitakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06224143153295429986noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-50641092715336380412010-10-24T01:48:12.290-04:002010-10-24T01:48:12.290-04:00When in grad school, I remember translating Cynewu...When in grad school, I remember translating Cynewulf's Elene and loving his descriptions of the "sea-steeds", ships plowing through the water. I loved it. I shortly thereafter read Great Scholar saying how the poet had likely never been in a ship or at sea. Huh, I mused, because the poem matched my experience very well. Having grown up in the mountains, or at least near them, and then going to sea in a craft 32 x 12, I've not forgotten the dangers of Nature. And then reading a lot of medieval literature in which Nature figures prominently....I think it gives an interesting perspective on what we do.theswainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05919025515524894537noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-1398797619494224752010-10-22T09:45:00.922-04:002010-10-22T09:45:00.922-04:00There's also Iris Murdoch's _The Sea, The ...There's also Iris Murdoch's _The Sea, The Sea_ - it's all there: the retreat, the beauty, the terror, and that relentlessness of crashing waves that might have made Chaucer nuts. The sea as boundary, the sea as boundless... safe travels - bonne chance!Annehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02067391488336878220noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-26848111661665937532010-10-20T12:49:42.192-04:002010-10-20T12:49:42.192-04:00I remember the first time I realized the sea was d...I remember the first time I realized the sea was dangerous: I was 10, and swimming hasn't been the same for me since. <br /><br />But what I find most intriguing about the sea is the relentlessness of its noise -- the way it (like, perhaps, the Marabar caves in <i>Passage to India</i>) obliterates sound in its own roar. It's not so much that it takes away our ability to hear -- rather, it sweeps up the din of daily life into a kind of totality. It makes me feel small. And from seaside to cathedrals to mountaintops -- I like feeling small.Mary Kate Hurleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14892991966276345782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-91363865148156336812010-10-20T12:22:27.460-04:002010-10-20T12:22:27.460-04:00See also, the Aquatic Ape theory: http://en.wikipe...See also, the Aquatic Ape theory: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquatic_ape_hypothesisAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com