Abstruse Goose added a mysterious little tag that says something like, “Now, how many pop culture references can you find?” None for me, not one, geezer that I apparently am. But I did get the astronomy/physics references.
The stardust one: maybe you already know this but most every element — the lithium in our batteries, gold in our rings, carbon in our own selves — was made in the last drastic moments of those supernoved stars I was telling you about, and then flung out into space to be made into more stars and their planets and whatever the planets come up with in the way of life. So literally, actually stardust.
The worldline in space/time: make a graph, time on one axis, space or location on the other, put a little particle down in the bottom left corner, and set it loose. As it moves from location to location through space, it inevitably moves forward in time, and the little line connecting its locations and times is called its worldline. The universe has a worldline, and so do we. That word is a piece of physics poetry.
The increasing entropy/thermodynamic equilibrium one: that’s the heat death of the universe. I already told you about that too. So in simple gratitude, you ought to at least explain the pop references to me.
“All you touch and all you see” is from Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon (“Time” I think).
The “unique snowflake” line is, I think, from “Fight Club.”
Thank you. I don’t even try to keep up any more, so I miss all these things.
I recognise quite a few, but nailing them down’s another thing entirely, due to synapses failing to click in when they’re needed.
“You’ve been running through my mind all day…” Is that something by Chris Kristofferson, or maybe Jackson Browne? “We’re only stardust…” is obviously an ironic take on Joni Mitchell’s Woodstock. Those apart, sorry, hopeless.
BTW, really loving the book!
I’ll bet my synapses click less than yours do.
I’m so glad you’re liking the book — really. I just came back from an astronomy talk that Jim Gunn gave. The host introduced him by saying only, “If you don’t know who Jim Gunn is, you haven’t been paying attention.”
The Pink Floyd line is from `Breathe’ I think. “All those memories…” is the dying line of Rutger Hauer’s Replicant character in Bladerunner. Those are the only two I could place, but they’re both good ones.
From the geezer community, and regardless of my personal feelings about Rutget Hauer, I thank you.
“You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake … ”
Chuck Palahniuk, American journalist and satirist, author of The Fight Club.
Just finished the book. Blown away. Going to put a full(er) review on my blog.
Dopey? I think not!
Oh Tim, thank you so much. What a very nice review — you must have been the guy I was writing to all along. http://timbobig.blogspot.com/2010/12/grand-and-bold-thing-by-ann-finkbeiner.html
“And some day, man will be gone. There will be nothing to show that we were ever here… but stardust.”
That’s a quote from Danny Boyle’s tragically under-appreciated film, Sunshine.
Abstruse Goose himself looked over these comments and said you pretty much got them.
“All you touch and all you see” — Pink Floyd
“You’ve been running through my mind all day” — generic pickup line
“All those memories…” — Bladerunner
The “snowflake” line — Fight Club
The “stardust” line” — Sunshine.
He said he was impressed.