Skip to main content

438 Days (continued.)

Ch. 7 A Fight for Life:  Cordoba gives up.  Asks A. not to eat him when he dies.  After he dies, Alvarenga talks to him for a while.  Finally Cordoba, essentially a mummy, is gently buried at sea. Depression for A.
Ch. 8 Swimming with Sharks:  A. hones his hunting skills; flock of birds on board.  Cruelty of boats.  He sees them repeatedly, but they don't see him.  No flares, no matches. Risky, stupid swim to Styrofoam.
Styrofoam's whiteness lures more birds to his boat and to his stomach. Swimming strategy to avoid sharks:  when the smaller fish are relaxed, he is relaxed.  When they panicked, he got back on board.
Ch. 9  Encounters with a Whale--huge creature, several times longer than his boat; eye as large as A.'s head;  whale shark--30,000 pounds; talks to the gentle giant; carries whole ecosystem with him.
Whale Shark leaves, baby takes it's place.; rowdy, smashes boat.  3mph drift is faster!  Moonless nights hardest, can't judge the next wave; 90 in the day; 85 at night; turtle blood his greatest source of nutrients and energy.
Ch. 10  Road to Nowhere; soccer games played by birds; scratched his name on metal bands of birds; one bird as pet--"I would spend hours speaking to a person and would talk with him for hours.
Resourcefulness:  Turtle shell as sombrero; talks to himself of beautiful women; pretend long walks or drives or bike rides.  "I could induce my mind that I was actually doing something. Not just sitting there, thinking about dying.
Ch. 11 & 12  Boat escapes its circular flow (doldrums) and heads west--great--but his food source dries up again. Rain stops. Must eat his pet bird . . . eats fingernails . . . barnacles from boat . ..  another close call with large ship that just sails by, not seeing . . . physical failure.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Oppenheimer . . . film

 Solid opening 30 minutes (we're treating this like a mini-series).  O's involvement with left-wing causes . . . rift with Einstein (O thinks of him as over-the-hill and Einstein knows it.)  First splitting of atom.  Lawrence Lab in Berkeley--Lawrence practical applied physics . . . not O's strength.  Main actor is from Peaky Blinders.

The Master Chapter 2

February 1895 (Alice died in 1892) Money problems, jealousy of Wilde; time spent with Lord Wolseley1; off to Ireland to lick his wounds; Irish unrest--Irish landlords boycott all social events; much time spent with manservant Hammond (homosexual attraction again); fancy dress ball, appalling to James, who is only happy in company of Hammond, though Hammond remains a servant and no more; little girl alone on the grounds--inspiration for Turn of the Screw?; conflict with Webster who alludes to Wilde's successful play and HJ's failure; Wolseley was an  Anglo-Irish  officer in the  British Army . He became one of the most influential and admired British generals after a series of successes in Canada, West Africa, and Egypt, followed by a central role in modernizing the British Army in promoting efficiency. He served in Burma, the  Crimean War , the  Indian Mutiny , China, Canada and widely throughout Africa—including his  Ashanti  campaign (18...