"Maybe I should stop using the word ‘political’ and just claim that social observation is a writer’s business; just to observe the society truthfully is, of course, being ‘political.’ I think New Englanders and Southerners have this in common, in their social observations, as writers: we recognize that America is a class society. People who differ from one another or draw lines between each other on matters of ‘taste’ are a part of the class society, just as surely as wealth and power are parts of it. These are more than manners, in a society; these things politicize us. By demonstrating how Americans discriminate we are also being political, as writers."
—
John Irving interview in The Paris Review from 1986.
(Irving will be at LIVE on January 29)
Great post by NYPL.
(Source: livefromthenypl)
![ikenbot:
Cumulonimbus Cloud Spawning Lightning
Jaw-dropping composite photo of a cumulonimbus cloud spawning lightning below and with star trails above.
The mountain getting electrocuted is Bald Mountain, which is southeast of Lake Tahoe. This is actually a combination of a sequence of pictures that were part of a time lapse video shooting, which is how the star trails were captured as well.
Cumulonimbus Cloud is a towering vertical cloud (family D2) that is very tall, dense, and involved in thunderstorms and other inclement weather. Cumulonimbus originates from Latin: Cumulus “heap” and nimbus “cloud”. It is a result of atmospheric instability. These clouds can form alone, in clusters, or along a cold front in a squall line. They can create lightning and other dangerous severe weather. [*]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m76te2ESDr1qbn5m1o1_1280.jpg)
