Sometimes I sit all day at the computer looking up arcane science stuff. I find out some of the most fascinating things! Like how there really is the study of monsterism, called, Greekly enough, Teratology. Technically it's the study of birth defects, but that doesn't really cover the full rage since it extends far beyond humans to include all or our fellow mammals, animals, insects, even into the plant realm as well. So, I like the most literal translation best. It just fits.
I think we're doomed, by the way. I know, I know, all the time people are shouting, THE END IS NEAR! It hardly bears any meaning anymore. The basis of my belief rests solely on how truly fucking polluted the planet is. If I were a Christian and I worked for say, Monsanto, I might just insist that this is all God's Will. That the slogan, 'Better Living Through Chemistry' is really a prayer. And why not? The toxic red bloom that flourishes off the Gulf Coast is beautiful and deadly, just like God's wrath. And we don't know that it's a bad thing. Depleting the oceans of oxygen could just be God's way of choking some love into them, like Homer throttling Bart on The Simpsons. Right?
Oh my. Back to scaring the bejesus out of myself...
Posts
10 comments:
'teratos' can also mean marvel. It doesn't have to be a monster.
Yes, but I like the monster :)
oh god. we are in so much trouble. i just saw that horrifying movie called "food, in.". we are in terrible shape (in more ways than one/myself included) and we might just be doomed this time. sigh.
whoops. i meant to type "food, inc."
I just finished Kinsolver's "Aniimal, Vegetable, Miracle" (I think you were reading it when you visited MT?). It was inspiring, preachy, terrifying, and sometimes funny...I liked it and have been inspired to "go local" as much as possible.
It's hard not to despair. We are a big 'ol mess. Damn.
Yes, Gyp, I was reading that book then! Sadly, I abandoned it like a bastard love child on the steps of Basilica di San Bernardino. Caty's reading, Animal, Veggie, Miracle right now :D And I'm reading the November issue of Smithsonian and scary science stuff online ;)
In the interests of full disclosure, I interrupted my reading of "Animal, Vegetable, Mineral" to re-read "Long Way Gone," but that was for work. I didn't get too far into the Kingsolver book yet, either. It wasn't gripping me, but nonfiction doesn't do that a lot, except for when it's written like fiction or like a really good joke. (Hats off to you, Mary Roach.)
Mary Roach is my hero! No one has ever written a book about death that's accessible, funny, and more funny. If she'd written the Tibetan Book of the Dead, everyone would be a Buddhist, for the jokes, if for no other reason.
It's the footnotes, actually. Funniest footnotes ever.
Remember the bit in 'Bonk' where the urologist at a convention displayed his home made penial dysfunction 'cure'? I almost wish I'd been there. I love screaming in horror in public!
Post a Comment