My book on the history and development of rope as one of mankind’s earliest and most useful tools is coming from St. Martin’s Press this August 12. But don’t wait, you can preorder it today so you don’t miss a day of reading the best nonfiction book of the century (I might be biased). Even if you can’t tie a single knot you’ll love this story of human ingenuity, industry and, sadly, sometimes cruelty too. Click here to preorder.
In June 1752 Ben Franklin conducted what is called his “kite experiment” that proved lightning was electrical in nature. He famously did this by flying a kite in a thunderstorm with a metal key tied to the kite line. The idea sounds a bit dangerous and Ben, indeed, is usually shown cavorting in a field as lighting cracks all around him. In reality, the wily Franklin wasn’t quite so willing to sacrifice himself for science. And hemp cordage was part of both his personal protection and electrical sensing system.
JKizzieHumanities/Wikipedia
As any scribbler who is lucky enough to get published knows, writing the book is the easy part. The real grind commences after the manuscript wings its way to the publisher. Then the writer is called upon to do that thing most writers avoid: sell. They must hobnob, chat and engage; throw themselves headlong into the churning wheels of the media machine — if the machine even notices them!
Writers have perennially faced this challenge. Had there been podcasts down through history, it might have gone something like this…
A big guitar at the entrance to Paracho de Verduzco, Michoacán, Mexico. Kevin Read/Wikipedia
In Mexico, the settlement of Paracho de Verduzco is guitar town. And just as in centuries past, rope is still used as a tool in assembling the higher-end handmade instruments.
The town has several guitar manufacturers and custom makers. According to Laura Fraser writing in Craftsmanship magazine, almost everyone in town is connected to the craft of guitar making.
“Today, locals estimate that 90% of the people who work in Paracho make guitars or guitar parts (the population is about 35,000), producing some one million instruments per year.”
It was great fun to meet host Willa Paskin and producer Evan Chung and be a guest on the Slate.com podcast “Decoder Ring.” Paskin and Chung’s idea for this episode was to look at books that describe history and society through the lens of a single object — which, of course, in my case was rope! Give it a listen and follow “Decoder Ring” — a great pod for curious people.
@StMartinsPress #ropebook
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/decoder-ring/id1376577202?i=1000700830640
Archeological site in Niah Cave on the island of Borneo. Azreey/Wikipedia
The story of human civilization is tied to rope! According to a paper published in the Journal of Archeological Science recent archeological finds in the Philippines and Indonesia suggest that Southeast Asian people were far more advanced in boatbuilding, offshore fishing and voyaging than previously thought and much of their expertise was based on their use of rope. These societies appear to have had more advanced technology 40,000 years ago than those in Africa and Europe, which previously were considered the leaders in these techniques.
The study found evidence of plant fiber usage and the “extraction of fibers necessary for making ropes, nets, and bindings essential for boatbuilding and open-sea fishing.” These people apparently used rope not only for fishing nets and tackle but also structurally for lashing together their boats. In my book Rope I write about the amazing seafaring and navigation skills of Austronesian people in settling the Pacific islands and how rope was an essential tool in that great ocean voyaging effort. You can preorder the book here.
Okay, that’s a pretty weak way to draw you in with a silly pun that uses the title of my book Rope – How a Bundle of Twisted Fibers Became the Backbone of Civilization. But it could have been worse. I could have written Get Twisted! (so many ways to do that! But this is a family blog) or Get Bundled! (maybe not so intriguing) or Get a Backbone, dammit! (yeah, stand up for yourself!) Or even Get Civilization! but that might send you off to buy the latest version of Sid Meier’s Civilization game — which is a great game but that was hardly the point I was trying to make.
Maybe the best thing at this point is to just provide you with the info that you can enter to get a giveaway copy of Rope by clicking on this link.
Now I’ll just sidle away inconspicuously.
Big Rock (or Orotok in the native Blackfoot language) is a massive glacial erratic eight kilometers (five miles) west of Orotoks, Alberta in Canada. Coaxial/English Wikipedia
Rope Ends – bits and pieces on cordage. In my upcoming book Rope, I write about the use of cordage to move big hunks of rock for little construction projects like the Egyptian pyramids and Stonehenge in southern England. One theory has it that bluestones used at Stonehenge were glacial erratics — large boulders pushed by glaciers during the Ice Age that when the ice melted were left behind amidst the different local rock (the glacially-moved rock has to be different from the local rock to make it an erratic. For example, the 400-ton Yeager Rock on the Waterville Plateau in Washington is not a true erratic since it is of the same type as the rock surrounding it).
When it comes to moving rock, glacial power is mind bending — the largest known erratic is a megablock in Saskatchewan with dimensions of 18 miles by 23 miles, or more than 400 square miles of bedrock carried or pushed along by an advancing ice sheet. This little stone chip is 100 meters or 330 feet thick in places.
Stonehenge in 2007. Old Moonraker/Wikipedia
When 2,000-foot thick glaciers moved southward to cover the British Isles, the ice sheets pushed one or two ton rocks like they were grains of sand. Some scientists say the bluestones from Wales were transported south to the Salisbury Plain and deposited there when the glaciers retreated. The builders of Stonehenge took advantage of the bluestone lying at their feet. Of course, even if this theory is true, the bluestones weren’t all left at Stonehenge’s doorstep. They would still need to have been dragged some miles to the building site, likely on wooden sledges with long ropes to allow for plenty of workers to put their backs into it.
Apple Computer, that firm highly protective of its intellectual property (IP), didn’t always follow the rules when it came to other folks IP rights. On January 24, 1984 Apple Computer started selling the original Macintosh computer, which had, unbelievably, a mere 128k of RAM.
Apple introduced the computer with a highly produced commercial directed by film director Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner, etc.). The commercial ran during Super Bowl XVIII and was called “1984” and referenced George Orwell’s dystopian novel of the same name. The one minute spot was shot for more than $300,000. Scott incorporated local British skinheads to play the part of the shuffling drones, which visually echoed Fritz Lang’s SciFi masterpiece Metropolis.
The ad was only broadcast on network TV once. One reason for that may have been attorney & producer Marvin Rosenblum. He owned the film and TV rights to the novel, which he had purchased from Orwell’s widow, Sonia. After seeing the ad, he sent Apple a cease-and-desist letter threatening legal action if the ad were to run again. Rosenblum went on to executive produce director Michael Radford’s film of 1984, starring John Hurt, Suzanna Hamilton & Richard Burton. The film had its own controversy when Virgin Films replaced parts of the Dominic Muldowney’s original orchestral score with songs from the group The Eurythmics. #Apple #1984 #SuperbowlAds #intellectualpropertyrights #IP #1984AppleAd #RidleyScott #JohnHurt #RichardBurton #MichaelRadford #TheEurythmics #dystopianfilms #dystopianmovies #scifimovies
The Elizabethan poet Sir Edmund Spenser
On January 13, 1599 the poet Edmund Spenser died in London. Spenser, who was famous for his poem “The Faerie Queen” that celebrated the Elizabethan era and for frequent poetic subjects of love and beauty, had a less beautiful side. He served in Ireland and was said to have been present at the massacre of Italian and Spanish soldiers who had surrendered to the English following the Siege of Smerwick in 1580. Sir Walter Raleigh, who led the beheadings, was later charged with the crime when he fell out of favor with Queen Elizabeth. For that and other charges Raleigh himself was beheaded in 1618.
An 1860s illustration imagining the beheading of Sir Walter Raleigh in 1618.
Later, in 1596, Spenser later wrote a controversial treatise on English rule in Ireland that called for the eradication of all Irish laws, customs and the Irish language to pacify the island and forestall further Irish rebellions. Spenser called for a scorched earth policy to deprive “carrion-eating” rebels of sustenance and their ability to live off the land. The tract was never published in Spenser’s lifetime.
It was ultimately printed in 1633 by Anglo-Irish historian James Ware. In 1936 British writer C.S. Lewis, who was born and spent his early boyhood in Northern Ireland, harshly criticized the poet, writing that Spenser was corrupted by the “wickedness” of the Elizabeth policy in Ireland.
#SirEdmundSpenser #Elizabeth I #ElizabethanEra #SirWalterRaleigh #England #Ireland #SmerwickMassacre #IrishRebellion #EthnicCleansing #massacre #SecondDesmondRebellion