Delirious | Jotup

Meet J.A. Baker – the influential nature writer you’ve probably never heard of

Retrieved on:

Wednesday, April 10, 2024

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Transcending both nature writing and environmentalism, his novel continues to inspire and speak to new generations.

Key Points:

Transcending both nature writing and environmentalism, his novel continues to inspire and speak to new generations.
It showcases Baker’s life, highlights how The Peregrine still resonates today, and considers how his nature writing influenced the Essex landscape.
To hold them and look up at the sky – Baker’s Essex sky.

Born in Chelmsford, Essex in 1926, Baker dreamed of being a writer, but his father deeply disapproved of the idea.
He found love, got married, and worked in various jobs he disliked, eventually settling at the Automobile Association.
The Peregrine recounts the story of a bird over ten winters, but Baker’s archive is the story of a very private man.

Baker’s landmark book, The Peregrine, is part-love letter and part-eulogy to a bird of prey under threat from human actions.
Between 1940-1946, the government’s Destruction of Peregrine Falcons Order resulted in a cull of hundreds of peregrines to protect carrier pigeons that they prey on.

Leaving a legacy

The Peregrine has influenced other high-profile naturalists and conservationists including Sir David Attenborough, who narrated the audiobook, and author Robert Macfarlane.
Baker’s legacy resonates deeply with inspiring filmmakers such as Shaunak Sen and Werner Herzog who said of The Peregrine: “It’s a most incredible book.

Today, peregrines are once again back in Baker’s Essex sky.
Alongside Hetty Saunder’s brilliant biography of Baker, My House of Sky (2017), the exhibition draws upon his archive and some little-known letters of his from the Richard Burton Archives at Swansea University that give an extraordinary glimpse into his life.

Sarah Demelo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

'This is the way the world ends': Nevil Shute's On the Beach warned us of nuclear annihilation. It's still a hot-button issue

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, July 18, 2023

Eliot’s The Hollow Men (1925), concludes:

Key Points:

Eliot’s The Hollow Men (1925), concludes:
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
Indeed, Nevil Shute’s classic novel of nuclear annihilation, On the Beach, published in June 1957, used Eliot’s famous lines as an epigraph.

‘Australia’s most important novel’

Journalist Gideon Haigh calls On the Beach “arguably Australia’s most important novel – important in the sense of confronting a mass international audience with the defining issue of the age”.
In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river.
This comes to the fore in the following passage, which focuses on a dinner party hosted by Lieutenant Commander Peter Holmes of the Royal Australian Navy.
The atmosphere is both claustrophobic and delirious:
For three hours they danced and drank together, sedulously avoiding any serious topic of conversation.
The reason why the guests at Peter’s party are so keen to avoid serious talk is both simple and depressing.
This is the way Shute’s novel of nuclear extinction ends: not with a bang but with a whimper.
Released at the height of the Cold War, On the Beach struck a chord with millions of concerned readers.

Usefully entertaining

A copy had found its way to the desk of John F. Kennedy, the next president of the United States.
Shute famously detested the movie, which received decidedly mixed reviews.
Her husband’s reply is revealing:
‘I don’t know […] Some kinds of silliness you just can’t stop,’ he said.
While the science in the novel was somewhat flawed, Shute’s cautionary tale undoubtedly spoke to the collective zeitgeist.
Read more:
Friday essay: if growing US-China rivalry leads to 'the worst war ever', what should Australia do?

Enduring influence

The influence of Shute’s novel, which was remade in 2000 as a film for Australian television, can be observed in various post-apocalyptic works, including George Miller’s Mad Max franchise and the late Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.
It seems increasingly likely the world as we know it is coming to an end – if it hasn’t already.
On The Beach runs at the Sydney Theatre Company 24 July to 12 August 2023, with previews 18–21 July.

Key Digital’s scalable AVoIP system comes in clutch for sports bars’ big season

Retrieved on:

Monday, February 28, 2022

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Its also when sports bars need to make sure their audio and video is in major-league shape, and scalable AVoIP technology from Key Digital is just the winning ticket to make that happen.

Key Points:

Its also when sports bars need to make sure their audio and video is in major-league shape, and scalable AVoIP technology from Key Digital is just the winning ticket to make that happen.
EMB Pro AVs system design included Key Digitals KD-IP822 AV over IP encoders and decoders, which seamlessly integrate with the installed third-party Creston control system, providing exceptional signal paths and allowing the video system to be used for digital-signage applications.
Key Digitals AV over IP product family offers near-limitless scalability, and leave room for future expansions as often as the restaurant would like.
Were really happy with the system and look forward to expanding our AV even further in the future.