Today has been a happy day for my inner geek.
On picking up and flicking through this year’s programme for the EISF, I involuntarily let out a squeal of delight. This also caused me to confess my latest, and most wrong-indeed man crush to two complete strangers, who were interviewing me for a job. (And yes, I do imagine that my chances of getting said job were much diminished, if not destroyed outright, by my outburst.)
The object of my latest mental dalliance is Brian Cox, presenter of BBC 2′s ‘Wonders of the Solar System’. Man of science, physicist extraordinaire, and all round wonderful creature, he somehow makes talking about things that I will never be able to understand the most engrossing thing ever. Planets and physics, I’m talking about you. Sigh.
Yes, you have my full and undivided attention...
Anyway. What was I talking about?
Oh yes. The wonderful news is that this fine man of science is going to be in Edinburgh for some events during the Science Festival that include a screening of ‘Wonders of the Solar System’ at the Filmhouse on the 12th April at 8:30pm followed by a Q&A (gasp!), and a talk at Edinburgh University’s Informatics Forum, ‘Why does E=mc2?’ on the 11th April at 8:00pm. I will be most certainly be going to both. Yippedy yip yip, and indeed, hooray!
Now, imagine my delight then when, already quivering and almost frantic with joy, I turned the page to discover that Philip Hoare will be giving a talk called ‘The State of the Whale’ on the 9th April at 8:00pm (Informatics Forum, again). He’s the writer of two of my favourite books — ‘Serious Pleasures: The Life of Stephen Tennant’ and ‘Leviathan’ — and an absolutely astonishingly gifted writer at that: stylistically sublime and bursting with erudition, with a surprisingly emotional quality that I find irresistable. I cried in the street reading ‘Leviathan’ — and it was only the first chapter proper, how shaming! He is, quite simply, one of the greatest writers around.
In Awe of the Awesome
Lawd! Walking through Leith Links at this point, festival programme clutched in hand, I was ready to lie down among the crocuses and joyfully expire… what looked like three rabid dogs running wild off the leash only just prevented me from doing so.
