Eruption

 Here is a nice big volcano painting I have just finished and some other stuff that I have photographed in slightly better quality.

Angela Carter Volcano Postcards

I was looking through a collection of postcards that Angela Carter sent to her friend which have recently been made into a book. There were a couple of volcano postcards which are cool, it follows that Angela Carter would like volcanoes cos she's amazing but I can't remember much about her apart from fairy tales and feminism which are two of my fav things. It also means that Angela Carter can be added to the list of volcanic feminists along with Susan Sontag and Isabel Allende.

Sorry this is a lazy post, I am too hungover and hungry to give it justice. But here is a link to the rest of the postcards http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/gallery/2012/jan/22/angelacarter#/?picture=384776941&index=0.

A Still Volcano Life

I wanted to write a post today but wikipedia is down so there is little I can write about. It's due to the SOPA, PIPA thing (which I can't quite be bothered to understand/ care about but I am aware it's very important) so there is little I can write about. So I'm going to put up a lovely volcano poem by Emily Dickinson, it's not really about volcanoes just mentions them. It was in the Love, Lust and Lava zine so a few people might have read it already.

A still—Volcano—Life—
That flickered in the night—
When it was dark enough to do
Without erasing sight—

A quiet—Earthquake Style—
Too subtle to suspect
By natures this side Naples—
The North cannot detect

The Solemn—Torrid—Symbol—
The lips that never lie—
Whose hissing Corals part—and shut—
And Cities—ooze away— 


Obviously I can't find out anything about it from wikipedia but I like the quiet depressing tone. Apparantely some more Emily Dickinson poems mention volcanoes especially Vesuvius, wish I could find out about them, I miss wikipedia. 

And here is a lovely picture of Santa Ana in El Salvador.

Photo Story

Here is the only volcano related Christmas present I got this year, I am going to tell the rest of this story in pictures alone, mainly because I promised my blog editor/mummy that this post would be mistake free, so the less I write the better.

If the product says its for kids (or kidz) anywhere then it's lying and if you wanna see an erupting volcano then come round my house.

Fuck Yeah! Volcanoes and Feminism!

I have finished reading The Volcano Lover and I was really interested in the portrayal of women in the novel so I can finally write a post combining my two main hobbies of volcanoes and feminism. My only other real hobbies being plants and watching sport. I know that the author Susan Sontag was a feminist but none of the stuff I have read about the book has dealt with the women in it, which is annoying as I will have to write my own thoughts on the book. The novel is set in the late 1700s and based on the life of Sir William Hamilton. The basic plot is that the English Ambassador (The Cavaliere) in Naples is obsessed by collecting art and by the volcano, Vesuvius. He is married to Catherine, a good a dutiful wife to whom he has not a loving but a pleasant marriage. Catherine dies and The Cavaliere takes up with his nephew's mistress, Emma, whom he later marries. She then gets it on with Horatio Nelson during a revolution in Italy, at the end of the novel Emma dies a poor alcoholic. The roles for women are clearly 'Mother', 'Wife' and 'Mistress' and their existence seems to be based around what they can do for men or their children, which is probably a reflection on the historical context  of the novel. The novel ends with the viewpoint of the four main women in the novel whereas the rest of the novel is largely focussed on the Cavaliere and has ignored the women which is a pointer to how women's views and experiences are often pushed aside.

So there is the volcano which is powerful, strong and firey and represents an opposite to the Cavaliere's ordered and peaceful life and also the carefully manufactured art he collects. The Cavaliere falls in love with Emma for her beauty (as a piece of art) and also because he can teach her things, she being from the 'lower classes'; the Cavaliere has previously had this kind of teacher relationship with a pet monkey, viewing a wife in the same way as a monkey is clearly problematic. So it is Emma's affair with Nelson that is the firey and passionate relationship, the volcano; while Emma loves the Cavaliere he is mainly a father figure. As with Vesuvius the Cavaliere is once more observing this volcano that he cannot really understand or be part of. Which I think is pretty much the central problem of volcanoes and why I don't want to be a volcanoligist because you can never really understand volcanoes or be their friend, you can only have a destructive relationship with them. It's a bit like the film 'Grizzly Man' where he spends his whole life wanting to be friends with bears and looking after them and they end up eating him so basically volcanoes don't give enough back. After that little tangent I'll go back to the book, so basically for the Cavaliere the volcano is something he loves and admires but never quite understands and can't get too close to in contrast to the art he collects. I could go on but I won't because I've already given away enough of the plot (but it's all pretty obvious, its not like giving away the ending to Sherlock Holmes or something) and you should read it, it's a good book. Here are some better reviews on the book from The New York Times and The Independent.

Emma Hamilton 

If that's a bit wordy here's a link to the other famous Italian volcano Etna which is a lovely volcano.

Also if you do have any other ideas on volcanoes and feminism then let me know as that will be the ultimate zine. 

Deep Sea Sulphur

I have always been fascinated by deep sea sulphur vents that are powered by volcanoes and are therefore incredible. However incredibly life has been found in these regions which can reach 400 degrees Celsius, have absolutely no sunlight and high sulphur content. This has completely challenged the way that scientists think about life and dispelled that fact that sunlight is always needed for life on earth and that organisms can use entirely different metabolic pathways which gives us an insight into all the amazing and weird ways that life could form. It also reminds us of how little we do know about life especially in the depths of the ocean and also the insignificance of man, readers of this blog will know I find this very comforting (another blog theme is that it could give an insight into life on other planets). These creatures have been found near Antarctica here is an article and some pictures.

 Yeti Crab

Pale Octopus not to be confused with Paul the Octopus (who I fucking love)

I have been posting a lot recently and I have just finished reading The Volcano Lover so I also need to write about that which I'll do when I'm feeling less ill. 

End of the World

Now as much as I hate using the Daily Mail as a source, I am about to, which is because I think I have found the cause of the 2012 apocalypse (I think you need to name apocalypses by year because they are so frequently predicted that otherwise everyone would just get them confused). But anyway the cause of the end of the world will be a supervolcano under a lake near Bonn called the Laacher See Volcano and at the very least it would cause flight devastation all over Europe. The volcano last erupted ages ago and the lake produces carbon dioxide so it's due to erupt soon. The eruption is predicted to be around the same size as the Pinatubo eruption in 1991 although if the volcano is going to cause the apocalypse it will have to be bigger than that one, which was a VEI of 6.

To apologise for the awfulness of this post, here's an apocalypse related tip, if you ever need to perform Apocalypse Now in charades then break it down into syllables as Apple-Lips Now.

New Year, New Island

Following a volcanic eruption in the Red Sea a new island has formed. It is fairly common for underwater eruptions to create new islands but they normally don't last long, sometimes they disappear and regrow many times before becoming stable, this was the case with Anak Krakatau. But for some reason islands in the Red Sea tend to be more stable than in other places. The island has formed around the gaps in the Arabia and Africa tectonic plates close to the Zubair Group of islands between Haycock Island and Rugged Island (which the quick minded among you may have noticed is the name of the 'Rival Island' on Father Ted where Father Dick Byrne lives). The new island has not been named yet, probably because it may not be stable, I don't have any ideas for the name (apart from Craggy Island) but I don't think I'm qualified to name an island.

Perhaps the most interesting example of a new island performing after an eruption is Surtsey which is the southernmost point of Iceland and formed in 1965 and has been eroding away since then. Which has happened to other Icelandic islands formed in this way. Surtsey is interesting because during its short lifetime we have been able to track the formation of life on the island as the island was firstly inhabited by lichen and moss. Flora, birds and insects also live on the island, however it is thought that the island will fade away.

Happy New Year and I only got one volcano related Christmas present this year which I'll post about when I can be bothered.