
Total Eclipse (1982) - samclemens
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/08/annie-dillards-total-eclipse/536148/?single_page=true
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ideonexus
Magical piece. I have a related question, what are my fellow HNers doing for
the eclipse?

My original accommodations fell through (over-booked), and now I'm driving the
family 12 hours west to camp in a friend's backyard in Nashville the night
before the event (much lower chance of cloud-coverage west of the
appalachians). At this point, everything along the path of the totality,
hotels and camping, is completely booked.

The day of the eclipse, my biggest fear is cloud-coverage. So I'll be checking
the weather and planning to hit the road at a moment's notice. I worked
landscaping in college, and it's not hard to drive one town over to avoid
clouds, but with so many people attending this thing, I anticipate a high-
probability of traffic congestion.

~~~
mikestew
Driving down to Oregon on Friday, wander around the U. S. Forest Service roads
looking for dispersed camping. There’s a _lot_ of U. S. Forest in that area,
so I can’t imagine every dispersed camping spot will be spoken for. Most
people turn around when they see “pavement ends”, I imagine, so I think we’ll
be fine. VW camper with onboard water tank and kitchen, we can boondock it for
a few days.

It’s that or nothing. Every campground and motel within the totality band in
OR has been booked for six months. I’m hoping we get there a few days early,
plop down in the middle of nowhere and not be bothered. I’m truly curious to
see how it goes. Could be the clusterfuck that’s predicted, could be a bust
when less than hardcore folks decide it’s not worth the hassle.

Cloud cover in the OR high desert in August? How many times have I wished for
such while on the motorcycle in OR? If that rare event were to happen on
eclipse day, then God truly hates us. YMMV in other parts of the country.

~~~
mordechai9000
I will be flying in to SeaTac from AK on Friday night and driving down to
Oregon on Saturday. We have a place to stay in Bend, but no plans beyond
driving back North to the region of totality. Redmond, 15 miles north gets 38
seconds of totality. We would like to be as smack in the middle as we can
manage, but it will depend largely on traffic and weather.

We will probably try and find a nice open field and hang out during the event,
then head back to Bend sometime the same day.

We may also wind up heading east from Bend, then north, again depending on
traffic and weather.

~~~
mikestew
Now that is hardcore. Here I was wondering if an eight hour drive was too much
trouble. :-) Keep in mind that all predictions are that traffic anywhere near
places like Bend, Redmond, or (worst of all) Madras is going to be a mess.
Plan accordingly, especially if you're used to AK where heavy traffic means
someone is in front of you at the stoplight. I'm hearing "hours" to get
through Bend or Redmond on eclipse day. But there are little to no historical
data to work with, so who knows?

Anyway, if you see an old yellow VW Westfalia with its top popped way up on a
hill northeast of Madras, honk as you go by.

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52-6F-62
I got excited and thought at first glance this was referencing the film about
Arthur Rimbaud before I saw the date.
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Eclipse_(film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Eclipse_\(film\)))

Confusion aside, I'll definitely give this a read!

~~~
DonHopkins
I got excited that it might be about this 1981 Klaus Nomi song from "Urgh! A
Music War":

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmLk2vSXXtk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmLk2vSXXtk)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urgh!_A_Music_War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urgh!_A_Music_War)

~~~
52-6F-62
16 year old me wishes he'd seen this

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bokononon
Thanks, I'll read that tonight.

Another work by Annie Dillard, 'The Force that Drives the Flower' was also
published in the Atlantic and it's a pleasure to read (YMMV):

[https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1973/11/the-
for...](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1973/11/the-force-that-
drives-the-flower/308963/)

'Pilgrim at Tinker Creek', the book it was excerpted from, won the Pulitzer
Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1975.

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thorin
I thought this was going to be about the spectrum game!
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Eclipse_(1988_video_game...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Eclipse_\(1988_video_game\))

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dogruck
Wow, what a beautiful piece. Fascinating mix of philosophy and art and
science. It also made me even more excited to see the eclipse on the 21st.

I had been wondering if people would scream.

