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THALASSOLOGY, SHAKESPEARE, AND SWIMMING

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Further sandy thoughts…

October 20, 2010 by Steve Mentz Leave a Comment

Jeffrey Cohen takes time out from his pending trip to Catalonia to respond to my repsonse to his beach thoughts, and say some nice things about my book.

I especially like the two-prongedness of his emphasis on beaches as spurs to physical activity (though he does not mention swimming), and also  reminders of the relative weakness of the human bodies performing those activities —

If I say I find the sea calming in its agitation, that’s not because I sit at its edge with sun lotion and an alcoholic drink. For me the sea’s edge is for beachcombing, hiking, exploring. It’s a place of constant realization, of possible danger, of frequent reminders of death (empty shells, broken crabs, sea life suffocated in sand). The immensity of the sea reminds me of the small place of humans alongside its flow. Vastness gives perspective. That’s what I find calming: my own small agitations dissipate under those relentless waves, those sudden vistas and unexpected glimpses of life, all that noise so saturated with meaning it is chaos itself. Beautiful chaos, chaos as art.

I also like his thoughts on the “insinuating” quality of the ocean in shared human histories.

Filed Under: Blue Humanities, E. 110 Fall 2010

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Steve Mentz
Professor of English
St. John’s University
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dedalusdenariesNicholas Allen@dedalusdenaries·
1h

Writing the Ocean @stevermentz @IsaacLand2 @HesterBlum (thanks @drreznicek) https://twitter.com/Ahmed_Yaqoub/status/1354084805772800002

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stevermentzSteve Mentz@stevermentz·
25 Jan

Walks in the winter woods in early 2021 have taken me through two big climate books that have a funhouse mirror reflective quality. First I devoured KSR's latest doorstopper, a hopeful vision of global eco-response.

https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/kim-stanley-robinson/the-ministry-for-the-future/9780316300162/

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