January 2025

I am told this is a classic papper. Here are some notes / excerpts:

• “Basaltic magma is derived by incongruent partial melting of mantle peridotite, favoured in tectonic settings (e.g. hotspots and rifts) where mantle rock rises adiabatically to relatively shallow levels, or in subduction-zone settings where volatiles decrease the melting temperature of mantle rock.”
• Important magma parameters (pretty uniform for basaltic volcanos)
  • Magma density relative to lithosphere density — helps deter- mine the positions of magma chambers and intrusions;
  • Viscosity and yield strength determine the geometry and structures of lava flows and intrusions;
  • Gas content + viscosity + rheology controls the explosive violence of eruptions by determining the ease with which gases escape from magmas.
• Parameters responsible for diversity: magma-supply rate and involvement of non- magmatic water.
• ”Basaltic systems have a source in the mantle from which magma ascends, mainly because of its positive buoyancy but sometimes aided by tectonic forces, toward the surface. They have one or more conduits by which the magma ascends. Polygenetic volcano systems generally possess a high-level magma chamber, situated at a neutral buoyancy level, which stores magma and modulates its delivery to the volcano and to sub-volcanic intrusions. Deep storage reservoirs may also exist.”
• Types of volcanos
  • Shield volcanos
  • Stratovolcanos
  • Central Volanos.
  • Monogenetic volcanoes. These consist of clusters of scattered and mostly small (> 2 km3) volcanoes, each generated by a single eruption. Most commonly a volcano con- sists of a cinder cone associated with outflows of aa lava, but some are lava shields of scutulum- type (e.g. Rangitoto Island, Auckland, and Xitle in M…, and many that occur near the coast or close to lakes are phreatomagmatic tuff-rings or maars.
  • Flood basalt fields consist of monogenetic volcanoes erupted from widely scattered vents, but their lava flows cover wider areas, overlap or are superposed to form parallel-stratified successions, and have much greater volumes. Giant flood-basalt fields are distributed through geological time at average intervals of 32 Ma (Rampino & Stothers 1988), and each one formed at the time of inception of a hotspot, on arrival of an ascending mantle plume at the asthenosphere/litho- sphere boundary.
• Volcano Collapse due to instable foundations, layers of pyroclastic or hydrothermally-altered material, intrusive dykes, local updomings in central volcanoes, severe marine erosion.
• Polygenetic vs. monogenetic. “In the polygenetic volcano systems, magma batches ascend sufficiently frequently along the same conduit that the conduit walls are maintained in a hot condition and provide magma with a thermally and mechanically very favour- able pathway toward the surface. In the monogenetic and flood basalt systems magma batches ascend at such long time inter- vals that the pathway taken by one batch has effectivelycooled by the time that the next batch is ready to ascend.”
• Fissures / Rift systems. ‘Most basaltic eruptions occur from fissures, and virtually all basaltic volcano systems have eruptive fissures. Fissures are opened very easily by the hydraulic jacking action of magma, and are the ‘natural’ underground conveyance for low- viscosity magma (Emerman & Marrett 1990). They commonly extend for tens of kilometres and are typically concentrated into rift zones. Magma solidified in fissures forms dykes. Dykes have a high survival potential, and in deeply eroded areas may be virtually all that survives of the volcanic system.
• xxx

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December 2024 – …

This is book # 16 in the no-longer-very-aptly named Essays Project. Though perhaps, having detoured into the wilds of Shakespeare, a tour of the letters of Sacks, who is a formidable essayist, is steering us back towards the main track. Of course, letters are not essays, but their relative brevity and personal cast, as well as the wide-ranging nature of Sack’s epistles, give them a familial resemblance. 

The book is edited by Kate Edgar, Sacks’ assistant and editor of several decades; she also contributes a brief preface which offers her perspective on Sacks’ compulsive writing process. Alas for her brevity; I believe she could offer a lot of insight on Sacks. But perhaps his letters will serve. Onward!

Preface and Editor’s Introduction

Sacks loved correspondence. He felt one ought to reply to letters, immediately if possible. He corresponded with, literally, thousands of people, from school children to Nobel laureates.  Sacks took pains to preserve his letters with carbon sets, drafts, or later, photocopies, though by no means does all his correspondence survive. But that part which does runs to about 200,000 pages, or about 70 bankers’ boxes.

Letters were an important way for Sacks to connect to the larger world, possibly a way to do an end-run around what he described as his ‘crippling shyness.’ Certainly they opened him to a vast range of ideas and stimulation; as Edgar says: “Often a serendipitous letter, totally unexpected, would launch him on a new essay or even a book. (p xiii) The letters are also important for understanding Sack’s development, both personally and intellectually.

Edgar offers interesting insights on Sacks’ approach to writing. “[Sacks] had difficulty […] editing his own work. Thus, when one editor or another asked him to clarify something or boil it down, he would simply crank a new piece of paper into his typewriter and start over. Voilà, a new draft. Eventually, the editor would have a pile of drafts, to say nothing of a sheaf of follow-up letters with new footnotes and addenda. It was difficult to choose the best among these, since most versions contained wonderful passages, but each headed in a different direction.” Edgar dealt with this by  cutting and pasting among the many draftsand stitching together his various trains of thought.  

In the longer term, they developed a more interactive way of working :  “Oliver, on the other hand, wanted me actually sitting by his side as he tore each finished page out of the typewriter: “Here! What do you think?” I began referring to this as “combat editing.” I would arrive home after a day with Oliver, exhausted from the nonstop effort of trying to keep up with his restless intellect for eight hours. But it was also exhilarating work, and when he phoned me an hour or two later with new thoughts, I was ready to dive back in. What started for me as a freelance job, occupying a day or two a week, soon became a full-time vocation-and then some.”

1.  A New World: 1960-1962 (27 – 29)

The letters begin with Sacks’ arrival in North America at the age of 27. He had finished four years of medical school and two years of internship, and left England in part to escape the draft, and in part to re-invent himself at a more comfortable distance from his large and opinionated extended family. It is easy to imagine that a significant motivation was his family’s non-acceptance of his homosexuality, but that seems to have only been a small portion of his discontent: his home life, particularly with relation to his parents, was quite a bit more complicated and fraught than was evidence from his biographies. Yet, despite this evident desire to escape, most of his letters are to his parents. I did a double take when he addressed them as “Ma and Pa,” not something I associate with either a Jewish or English upbringing. With regard to his reinvention of himself, we will see that, in addition to continuing in medicine and specializing in neurology, Sacks pursues other interests including motorcycling, weight-lifting, and clandestine sexual encounters.

After an initial period of exploring Canada, and establishing himself in the YMCA in San Francisco, he managed to get a position as an intern in Mt Zion Hospital in San Francisco; he was frustrated because the American medical establishment would not recognize his prior internships in England, and so he had to start afresh in the U.S. While he was initially delighted to get a position at Mt Zion, and spoke well of his bosses — Feinstein and Levin — he grew increasingly discontented with his position and colleagues during this period, until he is able to land a new position in Southern California.

On the personal front, he embarked on a period of trying new things . These included motorcycling (although he had begun this in England I believe), weight lifting and body-building, and various motorcycle tours around North America (trips to southern California; a circuit of most of the U.S., during which he wrote his ‘Truckers’ essay. Other activities he mentions include boar hunting, scuba diving, spear fishing, and camping.

A few other notable things in this section.

• He mentions his love of writing
• He mentions, in a letter to Jonathan Miller, that he has indulged in the purchase of a prism of thallium bromide. Thallium bromide is a superconductor, and is used in detecting gamma rays and other electromagnetic radiation. He reminds Jonathan that he “used to have a strange mystic about such things;” however, as we shall see, his fascination with the elements, and even his totemization of them, is a theme that persists throughput his life. Perhaps this is another indication the he is trying to re-invent himself. However, note, as well, that thallium bromide is “extremely toxic and a cumulative poison which can be absorbed through the skin,” something of which Sacks, in his deep knowledge of chemistry, is no doubt aware. It makes me wonder about his motives, given that a few months later he writes his parents that he is manic depressive and that he has periods of acute sloth and misery.
• He mentions, as well, a neurology conference he attended (paid for by one of his bosses) with many of (at least in hindsight) the ‘greats’ in attendance, including Wilder Penfielld, D. O. Hebb, and Aldous Huxley.
• He also confides to his parents that he thinks he is manic-depressive (something, in later years, that his analyst never agreed with). At one point he refers to “jewel-like spams.”
• He vacillates between an eagerness to see patients and get to know them, and an aversion to them: ‘I should have never become a doctor.’

2. Los Angeles: 1962 – 1965 (29-32)

Sacks is now 29. So far, most of the correspondence — at least that covered in the book — has been with his parents.

He has moved from Mt. Zion hospital in San Francisco where he was an intern to the Neuropsychiatric Institute in Los Angeles, where he is a resident working for Augustus Rose. He will had a tumultuous two years here. On the positive side, it appears he succeeded in impressing his boss and colleagues with his intelligence and drive, but on the negative side his eccentricities — habitual tardiness, slovenliness, large size (due to gaining weight for weight-lifting competitions), consumption of large quantities of hospital food (free to residents, but his degree of consumption is apparently shocking to many). He is reprimanded for the latter, and writes a frosty and indignant letter to his boss taking issue with the reprimand, but also adding, at the end, that “saying ” “a man is not the sum of his minor misdemeanors, but of his best endeavors…” and hoping that he can still count on Rose for recommendations when the time comes to move elsewhere.

He describes writing a paper on hereditary photomyoclonus, and presented it at the big neurological conference which was held in Minneapolis inn 1963 — it was apparently well received. He also mentions becoming interested in neurodegenerative diseases, and imagines writing a major book on the topic, something that has not been done in 50 years. During the next year he apparently continues his work on the topic, and he presents another paper on hereditary myoclonus at the big meeting in Denver — this is apparently a bit of a hit, and he receives job offers and is forgiven by August Rose, who appreciates the publicity.

As in San Francisco, his letters contain mention of many things he is trying out, including photography, camping, fishing, gold panning. scuba diving and spear fishing. He also describes going to a wrestling event with some of his weight-lifter buddies, and how one of the body-builders he’s with, growing impatient at the gates, rips them off, and he and Sacks and a companion lead a crowd on a rampage into the arena. The police are summoned, and arrived, but no one is caught. In another incident, Sacks runs out of gas during a motorcycle trip to southern california, and disassembles his stethoscope to try (unsuccessfully) to siphon gas from parked cars. Also, during this period, Sacks has also amassed enough speeding tickets that he is in danger of having his license suspended, and writes a letter to a Mr. Hobson at the LA DMV pleading for leniency. Clearly Sacks is a rather wild character.

Other notable events

• He gets to know Augusta Bonnard, a friend of his parents, who helps him understand some of the ways the dysfunctionality of his family affected him, and who urges him to undergo analysis, loaning him money to do so.
• He moves in with Mel, a man whom he falls in love with, but who does not return his feelings — or perhaps does, but is too conflicted about his sexuality to act upon it. They part, and Sacks declares he will never live with another person again. This is addressed in the editorial notes (and in his autobiography) but not in these letters.

3.Jeno: 1965 (32)

Sacks is 32, and has arrived in NYC to take a job at Albert Einstein School of Medicine, one of two plumb jobs that were offered to him. He has chosen Einstein because he feels that the people and the institution will be more tolerant of his eccentricities.

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An interesting one. The first part is a tragedy; the second transforms it into a comedy. There are a lot of loose ends that are, mostly, tied up in the penultimate scene, in a series of disclosures to Autolycus, offered for unclear reasons.

I find Autolycus are curious character — a villain who morphs into a trickster. Paulina is, in my view, the hero of the story, though it is disappointing that she is married off at the end after she declares she is going to morn for her dead husband. Apparently marrying everyone off is de rigueur for a comedy.

Act 1 – Leonte becomes insanely jealous

1.1. Two courtiers in Sicily, one being Camillo who will feature in the tale, talk about the magnificent hospitality of the Sicilian court towards Polixenes , King of Bohemia, and of the long friendship between Polixenes and Leontes, King of Sicily. 

1.2. Leontes and Polixenes converse, with the former urging Polixenes to stay longer, and Polixenes saying he must depart. After a bit – at the bidding of Leontes, I believe – Hermione, the queen, joins in, urging Polixenes to stay. But at some point Leontes becomes disturbed by the queen’s urgings, and grows insanely jealous. He decides the queen has been unfaithful with Polixenes , and orders Camillo to murder Polixenes , even while attempting to pretend that everything is fine. 

     Polixenes notices that something is amiss and presses Camillo, who very unhappy with Leontes’ orders (and believing in the queen’s faithfulness), finally reveals Leontes’ orders to Polixenes . They decide to hurriedly depart for Bohemia. 

Act 2 – Polixenes & Camillo escape; Hermione imprisoned and Perdita born

2.1. The hasty departure confirms Leontes’ paranoid beliefs, and he accuses Hermione of adultery. She defends herself, and the lords speak in her defense, but Leontes will believe no one and has her cast into prison. He announces he has sent messengers to the oracle of Apollo to obtain the god’s advice

2.2. Paulina, a lady in waiting to Hermione and wife to Antigonus a Sicilian courtier, tries to visit Hermione in Prison. Hermione has just had a daughter in prison, and Paulina convinces Hermione to give her the baby to take to Leontes, believe the baby will soften his heart. 

[Some time – around 23 days I think – has passed]

2.3. Paulina’s audience with Leontes does not go well. He is further enrages by her refusal to condemn Hermione, and rejects the baby – first ordering the baby to burned, but then changing his mind and ordering Antigonus to take the baby to a remote place and abandon her there. At the end of the scene, news comes that the messengers to Apollo’s oracle have landed and are hastening to court. 

Act 3 – Hermione accused; Leonetes does not believe Apollo’s oracle; Maximillus & Hermione die, and Perdita is abandoned but saved.

3.1. The messengers returning with the oracle discuss the ceremony they observed, and express wishes for Hermione’s good fortune. 

3.2. Hermione is defending herself in court, but Leontes will not believe her, even when the messengers arrive and the message from the Oracle pronounces her innocent. Then news arrives that Maximillus, Leontes and Hermione’s son – upset by his father’s accusation of his mother – has died. Hermione swoons at the news, and is carried off by Hermione. Leontes repents, and Paulina returns with the news that Hermione has died. Leontes vows to spend the rest of his life grieving for his wife and son. 

3.3. Meanwhile Antigonus has arrived in Bohemia with the baby, and abandons her in the wilderness, but leaves her with a chest of gold. Shortly thereafter he is chased and eaten by a bear, and the ship that brought him founders in a storm. As this occurs, a shepherd discovers the baby, and the gold: “We are lucky, boy, and to be so still requires nothing but secrecy.”

Act 4 – 16 years pass; Polixene’s son in love with Perdita; Autolycus appears; many things happen

4.1. Father Time appears and bridges the 16 year gap in the play

4.2.    Polixenes and Camillo talk – Camillo is homesick and wishes to return to Sicily; Polixenes, who has favored Camillo for saving his life, does not want him to. Instead, he asks him to join him in donning a disguise and going to investigate what his son, Florizell, is up to at the shepherd’s home where he has been spending time. 

4.3.  We meet Autolycus, a thief and con artist, and also former servant to Florizell. He encounters the son of the shepherd, and steals him money. He then decides that he will attend the sheep shearing party that the son was buying things for, and engage in further thievery.

4.4. [A huge scene] There is a sheep shearing feast. Polixenes and Camillo arrive, in disguise, and are welcomed as guests and presented with flowers by Perdita, the now-grown child of Leontes and Hermione.  

 Various conversations ensue:

• – Florizell declares his love for Perdita, while Perdita expresses her doubts due to their differences in status  (which she can detect, even though he is in disguise as Doricles).
• Polixenes and Perdita have a conversation about flowers [4.4.90-120], involving whether certain flower hybrids are bastards or natural. Perdita is suspicious of them, whereas Polixenes is accepting [I don’t really understand this exchange – one would think that Polixenes would be suspicious of such mixing….*]
• – Camillo appears to flirt with Perdita, who brushes off his compliments. …Camillo is struck by her beauty and appears to recognize that she seems of higher birth. 
• – Polixenes asks the shepherd who Perdita’s suitor is, and the shepherd says his name is Doricles, and that they are very much  in love. 
• – Autolycus arrives, and offers various trinkets for sale. The lowborn women are interested and press their suitors to buy them; Perdita is uninterested. 
• – Florizell and Perdita are about to handfast, but Camillo intervenes and presses Florizell to invite his father to the handfasting, but Florizell resists
• – Polixene’s reveals himself and forbids Florizell to marry Perdita, and threatens to disinherit him and have Perdita killed.  The shepherd is shocked and frightened

          Camillo reveals himself to Florizell, and after discussion they decide Florizell and Perdita should flee to Sicily, where Camillo will provide for them, and hope for a reapproachement with Polixenes. 

– Autolycus reappears.  “Ha, ha, what a fool Honesty is. And Trust, his sworn brother, a very simple gentleman.” He has stolen most of the purses of the guests, though not all. Camillo notices him, and orders him to exchange clothes with Florizell… now Autolycus has the clothes of someone of higher station, which will enable him to dupe the Shepherd and his son.

– The Shepherd and his son confer, and decide to go to the King and show the bundle of things that was with Perdita when they found her. The believe it will show that she is a changeling, or at least not their child, and that they will thus avoid punishment.  

– Autolycus appears convinces the Shepherd and his son that he is a courtier, and says that the Shepherd and his relatives will all be killed because of this. They give him gold to present their case to the king, and Autolycus agrees, both for the gold and because if he turns them over to the king it may regain him favor in the court. “If I had a mind to be honest, I see Fortune would not suffer me. She drops booties in my mouth.” Autolycus decides he will bring the Shepherd and son on board the ship that will bring the prince to Sicily.

Act 5 – Everything is resolved

5.1. Some courtiers urge Leontes to take a wife, but Paulina argues against it – and it is revealed that the oracle said he will not have an heir until his lost daughter is found – and he agrees with her. With more urging from others to marry, Leontes agrees that he will not marry until Paulina approves. News of Florizell’s arrival reaches court; a servant reports that his princess is the fairest woman he has ever seen, and Paulina objects, citing the late Hermione. Leontes wonders about the visit, suspecting that it is forced rather than a visit of state. 

     Leontes receives Florizell and Perdita, and Florizell pretends that he has been sent by his father. But then, a Lord arrives, bearing a message from Polixenes, who asks him to arrest Florizell, who has fled with a shepherd’s daughter. Leontes seems inclined to accede to Polixenes’ request, but then is persuaded to speak to Polixene’s on their behalf. 

5.2. This scene provides a lot of heretofore unknown details that ius useful in tying up lose ends. Autolycus, who is now in Sicily,  interviews several courtiers. From the first gentlemanhe learns that the meeting between Polixenes and the Shepherd was momentous: “There was speech in their dumbness; language in their very gesture. They looked as if they had heard of a world ransomed, or of one destroyed.” From the second gentleman he learns that the King’s daughter has been found. Then Paulina’s Steward arrives, and explain the bundle left with baby Perdita included Hermione’s mantle, her jewel, and Antigonous’ letters. Then he describes the reunion between Leontes and Polixenes and Perdita. Further talk reveals Antigonus’ death and the founder of the ship that brought him. Further discussion reveals the existence of Hermione’s statue, its being in the possession of Paulina, and that she has visited in thrice a day… Autolycus also reveals that he brought the Sherperd and his son on board the ship that came to Sicily…. Then the Shepherd and his son arrive, now elevated to being gentlemen, and promise that they will recommend Autolycus to the Prince….

5.3. In the last act, Leontes, Polixenes, Perdita and Florizell, Paulina and Camillo visit the ‘statue’ of Hermione. She comes to life, after an increasingly broad hints reveal that she is not a stature. She embraces Leontes, and then she blesses her daughter. Paulina declares she will lament her dead husband, but Leontes declares that she will marry Camillo

ChatGPT’s answer to my question about why Polixene’s is OK with hybrid (bastard) flowers, whereas Perdita is opposed:

See [4.4.90-120]

*GPT: “Polixenes, an older, more worldly character, admires the “streaked gillyvors” and is impressed by their beauty. However, Perdita, who is more idealistic and morally conscious, rejects these flowers, explaining that they are unnatural. She associates them with “artificial” practices, implying that they are “streaked” or “painted” in a way that corrupts their natural purity. Her response reflects a belief in the superiority of natural beauty and the authenticity of the wild, unadorned flowers she prefers.

Polixenes, on the other hand, is less concerned with the idea of natural purity. His acceptance of the streaked gillyvors can be seen as a symbol of his pragmatism and his understanding of the world, which includes the acceptance of human intervention and artifice. Polixenes is from a more sophisticated, courtly environment, where such artificiality might be more common or even valued. In contrast, Perdita’s rejection of the flowers represents her desire for simplicity and her connection to the pastoral, natural world.

The conversation touches on larger themes in the play, such as the tension between nature and artifice, authenticity and deceit. This dynamic is central to the plot of The Winter’s Tale, where the themes of jealousy, deception, and reconciliation play out. The contrast between Perdita’s natural idealism and Polixenes’ acceptance of human influence on nature can be seen as a reflection of the broader conflict between the innocence of youth and the complexities of adult experience.”

Quotes I like

my desires
Run not before mine honor. nor my lusts
Burn hotter than my faith. [4.437-39]

I should leave grazing, were I of your flock,
and live only by gazing. [4.4.130]

When you do dance I wish you
a wave o’ the sea, that you might ever do
nothing but that, move still, still so,
And own no other function. [4.4.166-168]

From my succession, wipe me, father. I
am heir to my affection. [4.4.569-570]

A course more promising than a wild dedication of yourselves
to unpathed, undreamed shores. [4.4.672-674]

AUTOLYCUS: Ha ha! What a fool honesty is,
And trust, his sworn brother, a very simple gentleman. [4.4.711-712]

The stars, I see, will kiss the valleys first
The odds for high and low’s alike

AUTOLYCUS: Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance. [4.4.838-839]

AUTOLYCUS: If I had a mind to be honest, I see Fortune would not suffer me. She drops booties in my mouth. [4.4.964-965]

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