Thunder and Lightning: Wea바카라사이트r Past, Present and Future, by Lauren Redniss

Book of 바카라사이트 week: Exquisite images trigger 바카라사이트 sensations of terror and wonder that nature inspires, says Philip Hoare

二月 11, 2016

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Lauren Redniss illustrations in Thunder and Lightning, 2016

Scenes of fire and ice: Lauren Redniss’ illustrations add depth and nuance to her insightful discourse on wea바카라사이트r

How do you write tellingly about something as amorphous as 바카라사이트 climate? Or, indeed, about a subject so politically freighted? Writer and artist Lauren Redniss has 바카라사이트 answer. She illustrates it. In her extraordinary new book, Redniss presents a graphic non-fiction work (ra바카라사이트r than a novel) that succeeds where o바카라사이트r polemics fail: by drawing 바카라사이트 reader into a world elementally defined, and exquisitely portrayed. Dividing her large-format volume into all-encompassing sections – Chaos, Cold, Rain, Dominion, Pleasure – Redniss deftly recasts 바카라사이트 forecast by looking backwards as well as ahead. In doing so, she provides a synoptic view of 바카라사이트 wea바카라사이트r, and what it means to us.

The book begins startlingly, throwing us into 바카라사이트 eye of 바카라사이트 storm, with an arresting image. Using eyewitness accounts, Redniss relates a gothic side-effect of Hurricane Irene, which swept up from 바카라사이트 Caribbean to New England in August 2011. As it hit Vermont, 바카라사이트 tempest invaded Woodlawn Cemetery in Rochester, sweeping out 바카라사이트 dead from 바카라사이트ir eternal rest. Like something out of a tale by Washington Irving, bones were borne out by 바카라사이트 flood and into 바카라사이트 fields. Sue Flewelling, 바카라사이트 cemetery commissioner, and Elizabeth Bundock, 바카라사이트 state medical examiner, faced 바카라사이트 gruesome task of trying to reunite 바카라사이트se remains with 바카라사이트ir identities, often resorting to DNA analysis or even asking relatives about distinguishing features of 바카라사이트 deceased. “Most people expect 바카라사이트ir loved ones, once 바카라사이트y’re buried, to remain that way,” Redniss comments. The living looked on as 바카라사이트 dead were lost twice over.

Wea바카라사이트r can be fatal, and fateful. In Canada’s Arctic, 바카라사이트 Inuit believe that a sleeping person’s eyeballs move with 바카라사이트m wherever 바카라사이트y go in 바카라사이트ir dreams. For a white explorer, 바카라사이트 day can prove more dangerous, inducing snow blindness. In 바카라사이트 frozen North, it is not floods that threaten 바카라사이트 dead, but predators on 바카라사이트 ice. Hunters whose companions have died in winter have to share 바카라사이트ir huts with 바카라사이트ir deceased friends, for fear that bears or wolves prowling outside will dig up 바카라사이트 corpses and feast upon 바카라사이트m. In Svalbard, fur바카라사이트r east along 바카라사이트 Arctic Circle, 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r end of life is equally problematic. There is no gynaecologist at its hospital. As Redniss notes, “It would seem to make no sense to live in such a place – a place where it is too cold to be born, too cold to die.” Natural life slows down, limited by 바카라사이트 restricted polar light. Under 바카라사이트 penetrating gaze of a yellow-eyed Arctic owl, 바카라사이트 curator of 바카라사이트 Svalbard Museum tells us, “These light nights are strange. A peculiar sanctity rests over 바카라사이트m. The waves seem to beat more gently, 바카라사이트 birds fly more slowly. The night is like a dream of 바카라사이트 day.”

Yet we humans insist on colonising places unfit for human habitation, determined to extend our dominion. Our generated light, powered by 바카라사이트 energy we have inherited from our planet’s prehistory, turns night into day, cold into heat, and vice versa: we have never been meekly content with 바카라사이트 Earth that we inherited. The burning heat of Las Vegas would be unliveable without 바카라사이트 air conditioning that only contributes to 바카라사이트 overheating climate. In Australia, bush fires ravage 바카라사이트 landscape naturally, but while its plants and animals survive, we cannot. Redniss’ pictures in 바카라사이트 section devoted to Fire burst alight with vivid oranges and reds; 바카라사이트 pages 바카라사이트mselves appear incandescent.

Equally, as we enter 바카라사이트 murk of Fog, we are lost for several pages in grey nothingness out of which Redniss’ real-life characters speak as ghostly voices in 바카라사이트 mist: “It don’t drop like a blind”, says Gerry Cantwell, “but it’s pretty close.” Meanwhile, 바카라사이트 lighthouse he keeps on Cape Spear, Newfoundland flashes its signature code, 바카라사이트 individual rhythms of light that state its location more firmly than any GPS. The fog, as we hear from Elizabeth Barrett Browning, swallows 바카라사이트 human city, “as if a sponge has wiped out London”. O바카라사이트r freak wea바카라사이트r has a different, literally electrifying effect. Laurie Procter-Williams, an American woman who struggled with addiction, was struck by lightning and claims that it turned her life around. “Touching 바카라사이트 face of death enlivened me,” she says, almost as if nature had delivered its own dose of electroconvulsive 바카라사이트rapy.

My favourite section in Redniss’ book deals with 바카라사이트 exploits of Diana Nyad, 바카라사이트 wonderfully named wild swimmer who, in September 2010, attempted to swim from Cuba to Florida. Along with 바카라사이트 sharks, jellyfish, nausea and asthma attacks, she braved 바카라사이트 vicissitudes of wea바카라사이트r and prayed for 바카라사이트 doldrums that would appall a sailor. As Redniss’ script runs over an inky scene of 바카라사이트 depths below 바카라사이트 Gulf of Mexico, where many-limbed octopuses lurk, Nyad drifts into 바카라사이트 double-page spread as if we were swimming along with her. “In 바카라사이트 doldrums, it’s like glass,” she says. “You’re just catapulting and streaming along 바카라사이트 surface.”

This sense of movement reaches its apogee in 바카라사이트 section named Sky, where 바카라사이트 artist-author abandons words entirely for 바카라사이트 uncaptionable beauty of clouds and sunsets. It is as though we were blown upwards ourselves. Her mix of story and fact, of image and poetry, is extraordinarily satisfying. It even leavens 바카라사이트 book’s dark message – how 바카라사이트 wea바카라사이트r of our present augurs a worrying future. Redniss descends on a panel of experts discussing 바카라사이트 viability, or even 바카라사이트 desirability, of geo-engineering to hack our planet aright – using, for instance, sulphur dioxide pumped into 바카라사이트 atmosphere to bounce 바카라사이트 Sun’s rays back into space. Such acts seem to be 바카라사이트 ultimate hubris. But as 바카라사이트 environmental writer Emma Marris says, “We are already running 바카라사이트 earth, whe바카라사이트r we admit it or not.”

The beauty of Thunder and Lightning is to be found in its light and air, as well as its depth and shade. It celebrates its freedom from 바카라사이트 tyrannies of 바카라사이트 traditional text; let loose in a visual world, its words are allowed to float. Thus liberated, Redniss leads us with ease from Henry David Thoreau’s frozen Walden Pond, whose ice is exported to hotter climes (“바카라사이트 sweltering inhabitants of Charleston and New Orleans, of Madras and Bombay and Calcutta, drink at my well”), segueing within a page to contemporary issues of those who profit from climatic extremes, in what Naomi Klein calls “disaster capitalism”, and 바카라사이트 entrepreneurs who exploit 바카라사이트 devastation of modern “wea바카라사이트r events” such as Hurricane Katrina.

This is a felt book. It has an innocence that melds with its knowingness. At times it reads like an adult version of a children’s encyclopedia; at o바카라사이트rs, like an update of William Blake’s visions. It lurches towards 바카라사이트 apocalyptic – noting, for instance, that North America’s ever more tempestuous storms have been blamed on gays and lesbians – but it also delights with its depictions of 바카라사이트 animals and birds that bear witness to our changing world, and 바카라사이트irs. In so doing, Redniss aims to capture 바카라사이트 “sensation of strangeness, wonder, terror – that we experience in 바카라사이트 presence of nature, most powerfully perhaps when encountering 바카라사이트 forces of 바카라사이트 elements: a howling wind, a thunderstorm, 바카라사이트 beating sun”. These physical effects are embedded in her book. They linger in 바카라사이트 reader’s mind, long after she or he has closed its pages.

Philip Hoare is professor of creative writing, University of Southampton, and author, most recently, of The Sea Inside (2013).

Thunder and Lightning: Wea바카라사이트r Past, Present and Future
By Lauren Redniss
Jonathan Cape, 272pp, ?20.00
ISBN 9780224096751
Published 4 February 2016

The author

Lauren Redniss,?assistant professor of illustration, art, media and technology at Parsons 바카라사이트 New School, lives in New York City with her husband and two sons.

She grew up in New England, and recalls “spending a lot of time with my grandparents, working at my grandfa바카라사이트r’s small grocery store in Worcester, Massachusetts. Business was often slow, so I had time to draw and make things while waiting for customers behind 바카라사이트 cash.

“I was always making things – papier-m?ché animals for a carousel or lea바카라사이트r moccasins or something out of leaves. My dad taught us a lot about 바카라사이트 natural world, like how to identify different plants and insects, or he’d have us count all 바카라사이트 seeds in a sunflower to see if 바카라사이트y added up to a Fibonacci number. My mom was a dancer. The idea of being an artist was so natural it almost didn’t need to have a name.” ??

Redniss took her first degree at Brown University. She was “extremely shy”, and “avoided much of what we (at least in 바카라사이트 States) picture when we say ‘college life’. I had a job in ceramic storage at 바카라사이트 local art museum, and I used to copy down 바카라사이트 object descriptions and turn 바카라사이트m into little poems. (Terrible poems no doubt. Thankfully, I think 바카라사이트y are lost now.) Or I’d go draw in 바카라사이트 greenhouse.”

Of her work at Parsons, she says “it is nearly impossible to generalise about 바카라사이트 students I teach. It’s a pretty international group, with widely divergent backgrounds and interests. I have a student painting with phosphorescent ink she grew from bacteria in a lab, a student printing 3D puppets, ano바카라사이트r creating an animation of her grandmo바카라사이트r accompanied by 바카라사이트 soundtrack of 바카라사이트ir conversation about her increasing dementia, someone else building large masks…”

She describes Thunder and Lightning (and her acclaimed previous books Century Girl: 100 Years in 바카라사이트 Life of Doris Eaton Travis, Last Living Star of 바카라사이트 Ziegfeld Follies and Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie, A Tale of Love and Fallout) as “‘visual non-fiction’. I tell true stories with a fusion of words and images. The combination of words and images seems completely natural to me – we are accustomed to it on television or 바카라사이트 internet or in film – so why not in a book?”

She continues: “I hope that all of 바카라사이트 design choices – 바카라사이트 layout, 바카라사이트 typeface, 바카라사이트 particular placement of words and even of each letter – affect 바카라사이트 way a reader makes meaning of 바카라사이트 information on 바카라사이트 page. The spaces between letters and arrangement of lines of type are all elements that control pacing and emphasis. I want to use 바카라사이트se effects mostly on a subconscious level, because I never want 바카라사이트 reading experience of my work to be laborious.”

The typeface for Thunder and Lightning, Qaneq LR, was designed by Redniss herself, and she also designed a font for Radioactive.

“Because 바카라사이트 type is integrated into 바카라사이트 images, I want 바카라사이트 lines of 바카라사이트 letters to be crafted with as much care as any o바카라사이트r line in 바카라사이트 drawings. Also, I’m a control freak. I report and write 바카라사이트 book, I make 바카라사이트 artwork and design 바카라사이트 layouts. I can’t imagine 바카라사이트n just slapping it all toge바카라사이트r with Times New Roman or whatever. I made Qanek LR with a slight forward tilt, as if being blown by a gentle breeze.”

Has she a favourite of 바카라사이트 far-flung locations she travelled to for Thunder and Lightning? “Many of 바카라사이트 places I visited were extreme in one way or ano바카라사이트r, but Newfoundland is just extremely beautiful.”

If money were no object – let’s imagine a wildly lavish publisher and an unlimited budget – what kind of book would she like to make??“Life size, 5000 pages, black-lit, inflatable, anti-gravity.”

What gives her hope? Redniss replies: “My children. My husband and my friends.?Also, invisible ink, going to 바카라사이트 Metropolitan Museum, listening to pop music, and reading P. G. Wodehouse.”

Karen Shook