technicat reviewed Chasing the sun by Richard Cohen
totally absorbed until, why
This is a really fascinating book that's like a history of civilization with the sun as the main character, with plenty religion, philosophy, and science of course, but I was most intrigued by the accounts of artists who tried to capture the essense of sunlight and color, to the extent of even staring at the sun Trump-like. That's a bit horrifying but even more disturbing was the author mentioning a scene in a Leni Riefenstahl film as his favorite, and then nothing else, as if we're discussing a scene in Star Wars. I mean, I think we're past the idea that we can separate the artist from the Nazi. That's at page 384, so I got about three quarters of the way through, but I can't go on, it was good while it lasted.
update: ok, I finished the last stretch, where I found most interesting the coverage of …
This is a really fascinating book that's like a history of civilization with the sun as the main character, with plenty religion, philosophy, and science of course, but I was most intrigued by the accounts of artists who tried to capture the essense of sunlight and color, to the extent of even staring at the sun Trump-like. That's a bit horrifying but even more disturbing was the author mentioning a scene in a Leni Riefenstahl film as his favorite, and then nothing else, as if we're discussing a scene in Star Wars. I mean, I think we're past the idea that we can separate the artist from the Nazi. That's at page 384, so I got about three quarters of the way through, but I can't go on, it was good while it lasted.
update: ok, I finished the last stretch, where I found most interesting the coverage of how science fiction authors wrote about the sun, and most exasperating his discussion of global warming. I guess it's not surprising, he's a literature professor, so he's at his best waxing about art and books, but when it comes to science debates, he seems to have trouble with quantitative evaluation of evidence, 90-10 is the same as 50-50 "well on the one hand some people say this and on the other hand some people say the opposite, so let me finish with a quote from this poet"