Today's selection from -- Barbarian Days by William Finnegan. How waves are formed.
"Here is how waves form. A storm out at sea churns the surface, creating chop -- smaller and then larger disorganized wavelets, which amalgamate, with enough wind, into heavy seas. What we are waiting for on distant coasts is the energy that escapes from the storm, radiating outward into calmer waters in the form of wave trains -- groups of waves, increasingly organized, that travel together. Each wave is a column of orbiting energy, most of it below the surface. All the wave trains produced by a storm constitute what surfers call a swell. The swell can travel thousands of miles. The more powerful the storm, the farther the swell may travel. As it travels, it becomes more organized -- the distance between each wave in a train, known as the interval, increases. In a long interval train, the orbiting energy in each wave may extend more than a thousand feet beneath the ocean surface. Such a train can pass easily through surface resistance like chop or other smaller, shallower swells that it crosses or overtakes."
A couple of other fun notes related to previous meetings. I don't know where you come down on the election campaigns, but George Saunders has been attending Donald Trump events around the country and has written a highly entertaining account of his experience for The New Yorker. By the way, Saunders' first novel is scheduled for publication in February. If you looked closely at the photo of my proposed Summer reading stack last time, you may have noticed the arc for Lincoln in the Bardo. But I'm saving that one for now. Incidentally, I'm still soliciting Summer reading updates, so if you've read anything good, post it as a comment to the blog for everyone to see (thanks Bart!)Lastly, I was so happy to see that The Sellout was just selected to the long list for the Man Booker Prize, one the most high profile literary prizes out there. My admiration for this novel continues to grow and I've been recommending it to everyone I know. So best of luck to Paul Beatty!
