Favorite Articles Issue 1 – Exploration
May 11, 2021
When I was young my grandfather stayed in contact through the post, but rather than send letters expressing the personal, he sent his favorite articles clipped out of the Los Angeles Times. The clippings, which arrived in plain white envelopes, were an expression of what my grandfather found valuable: new scientific discoveries, modern engineering marvels, or anything related to space and flight.
At the time, I didn’t have the same zeal for those topics as my grandfather, but I later learned to love reading what other people find fascinating, and eventually took on reading as a hobby before making it a livelihood. As such, although my grandfather’s mail never included an accompanying note, the act of cutting out the articles, stapling the related sections together and putting them in the post spoke volumes about the importance of sharing one’s passions.
My grandfather’s newspaper-clipping is admittedly old fashioned, but in like manner I would like to share my favorite articles with you. Taking inspiration from my grandfather, as well as three of my favorite websites (Digg, Metafilter, and The Electric Typewriter), I am creating a new space where I will share a few of my favorite articles from the web.
Exploring Limits
This week I’ve linked to three articles that explore limits: one set in space, another in the Antarctic and a third underwater. Each article essentially explores the limits of the human body, but along the way mental and psychological limits are also pushed to the extremes. In the hostile environments introduced in each article, explorers encounter loss, loneliness, and failure, but in ways large and small they ultimately persevere.
Space
Chris Jones’ (2007) “Home” is a gripping true life account of modern space travel that examines both the travails of living at the edge of one’s limits and the complications of wasting away in space while waiting for a ride back to Earth.
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a26367/esq0704-july-astro/
Polar Exploration
“The Most Terrible Polar Exploration Ever: Douglas Mawson’s Antarctic Journey” written in 2012 by Mike Dash explores survival at the limits of existence. Cold, lonely, and hungry are three adjectives that don’t begin to describe the extent of the misery experienced by Douglas Mawson as he survives life in one of the most inhospitable environments on the planet.
Physical Endurance
Alex Hutchinson’s (2018) “Pushing the Limits of Extreme Breath-Holding” follows the dedicated Brandon Hendrickson, a free diver whose pursuit of the breath holding world record has left him three minutes shy of Stéphane Mifsud’s eleven minute and thirty-five second static apnea title.
https://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/pushing-the-limits-of-extreme-breath-holding