4 ms·

Total Eclipse (1982)

49 points by samclemens 9y ago

bokononon 9y ago
Thanks, I'll read that tonight. Another work by Annie Dillard, 'The Force that Drives the Flower' was also published in the Atlantic and it's a pleasure to read (YMMV): https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1973/11/the-force-that-drives-the-flower/308963/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1973/11/the-for... 'Pilgrim at Tinker Creek', the book it was excerpted from, won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1975.
52-6F-62 9y ago
I got excited and thought at first glance this was referencing the film about Arthur Rimbaud before I saw the date. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Eclipse_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Eclipse_(film)) Confusion aside, I'll definitely give this a read!
- joe5150 9y ago
  same here!
- DonHopkins 9y ago
  I got excited that it might be about this 1981 Klaus Nomi song from "Urgh! A Music War": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmLk2vSXXtk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmLk2vSXXtk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urgh!_A_Music_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urgh!_A_Music_War
  - 52-6F-62 9y ago
    16 year old me wishes he'd seen this
thorin 9y ago
I thought this was going to be about the spectrum game! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Eclipse_(1988_video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Eclipse_(1988_video_game...
dogruck 9y ago
Wow, what a beautiful piece. Fascinating mix of philosophy and art and science. It also made me even more excited to see the eclipse on the 21st. I had been wondering if people would scream.
ideonexus 9y ago
Magical piece. I have a related question, what are my fellow HNers doing for the eclipse? My original accommodations fell through (over-booked), and now I'm driving the family 12 hours west to camp in a friend's backyard in Nashville the night before the event (much lower chance of cloud-coverage west of the appalachians). At this point, everything along the path of the totality, hotels and camping, is completely booked. The day of the eclipse, my biggest fear is cloud-coverage. So I'll be checking the weather and planning to hit the road at a moment's notice. I worked landscaping in college, and it's not hard to drive one town over to avoid clouds, but with so many people attending this thing, I anticipate a high-probability of traffic congestion.
- mikestew 9y ago
  Driving down to Oregon on Friday, wander around the U. S. Forest Service roads looking for dispersed camping. There’s a lot of U. S. Forest in that area, so I can’t imagine every dispersed camping spot will be spoken for. Most people turn around when they see “pavement ends”, I imagine, so I think we’ll be fine. VW camper with onboard water tank and kitchen, we can boondock it for a few days. It’s that or nothing. Every campground and motel within the totality band in OR has been booked for six months. I’m hoping we get there a few days early, plop down in the middle of nowhere and not be bothered. I’m truly curious to see how it goes. Could be the clusterfuck that’s predicted, could be a bust when less than hardcore folks decide it’s not worth the hassle. Cloud cover in the OR high desert in August? How many times have I wished for such while on the motorcycle in OR? If that rare event were to happen on eclipse day, then God truly hates us. YMMV in other parts of the country.
  - mordechai9000 9y ago
    I will be flying in to SeaTac from AK on Friday night and driving down to Oregon on Saturday. We have a place to stay in Bend, but no plans beyond driving back North to the region of totality. Redmond, 15 miles north gets 38 seconds of totality. We would like to be as smack in the middle as we can manage, but it will depend largely on traffic and weather. We will probably try and find a nice open field and hang out during the event, then head back to Bend sometime the same day. We may also wind up heading east from Bend, then north, again depending on traffic and weather.

49 points by samclemens 9y ago

Thanks, I'll read that tonight. Another work by Annie Dillard, 'The Force that Drives the Flower' was also published in the Atlantic and it's a pleasure to read (YMMV): https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1973/11/the-force-that-drives-the-flower/308963/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1973/11/the-for... 'Pilgrim at Tinker Creek', the book it was excerpted from, won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1975.

52-6F-62 9y ago

I got excited and thought at first glance this was referencing the film about Arthur Rimbaud before I saw the date. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Eclipse_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Eclipse_(film)) Confusion aside, I'll definitely give this a read!

joe5150 9y ago
same here!
DonHopkins 9y ago
I got excited that it might be about this 1981 Klaus Nomi song from "Urgh! A Music War": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmLk2vSXXtk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmLk2vSXXtk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urgh!_A_Music_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urgh!_A_Music_War
- 52-6F-62 9y ago
  16 year old me wishes he'd seen this

thorin 9y ago

I thought this was going to be about the spectrum game! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Eclipse_(1988_video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Eclipse_(1988_video_game...

dogruck 9y ago

Wow, what a beautiful piece. Fascinating mix of philosophy and art and science. It also made me even more excited to see the eclipse on the 21st. I had been wondering if people would scream.

ideonexus 9y ago

Magical piece. I have a related question, what are my fellow HNers doing for the eclipse? My original accommodations fell through (over-booked), and now I'm driving the family 12 hours west to camp in a friend's backyard in Nashville the night before the event (much lower chance of cloud-coverage west of the appalachians). At this point, everything along the path of the totality, hotels and camping, is completely booked. The day of the eclipse, my biggest fear is cloud-coverage. So I'll be checking the weather and planning to hit the road at a moment's notice. I worked landscaping in college, and it's not hard to drive one town over to avoid clouds, but with so many people attending this thing, I anticipate a high-probability of traffic congestion.

mikestew 9y ago
Driving down to Oregon on Friday, wander around the U. S. Forest Service roads looking for dispersed camping. There’s a lot of U. S. Forest in that area, so I can’t imagine every dispersed camping spot will be spoken for. Most people turn around when they see “pavement ends”, I imagine, so I think we’ll be fine. VW camper with onboard water tank and kitchen, we can boondock it for a few days. It’s that or nothing. Every campground and motel within the totality band in OR has been booked for six months. I’m hoping we get there a few days early, plop down in the middle of nowhere and not be bothered. I’m truly curious to see how it goes. Could be the clusterfuck that’s predicted, could be a bust when less than hardcore folks decide it’s not worth the hassle. Cloud cover in the OR high desert in August? How many times have I wished for such while on the motorcycle in OR? If that rare event were to happen on eclipse day, then God truly hates us. YMMV in other parts of the country.
- mordechai9000 9y ago
  I will be flying in to SeaTac from AK on Friday night and driving down to Oregon on Saturday. We have a place to stay in Bend, but no plans beyond driving back North to the region of totality. Redmond, 15 miles north gets 38 seconds of totality. We would like to be as smack in the middle as we can manage, but it will depend largely on traffic and weather. We will probably try and find a nice open field and hang out during the event, then head back to Bend sometime the same day. We may also wind up heading east from Bend, then north, again depending on traffic and weather.