[lit-ideas] Re: Annie Proulx [antifreeze]
- From: Robert Paul <robert.paul@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 18 Dec 2005 11:09:53 -0800
But if the antifreeze is diluted, then I'm wrong. I always thought
ethylene glycol was a good way to manage one's life once one decided the
party's over. I'm not suicidal, just think everyone has the right to
choose their death. Of course the government for some strange reason
doesn't agree. Excruciating pain is not to be sought out. Maybe that's
why antifreeze isn't pure ethylene glycol, to keep people from using
it.
Well, it's the ethylene that's diluted in the antifreeze.
I'm not a chemist. Ethylene glycol is the molecule. To "dilute" the
ethylene part would be to change it into a different substance.
Nonsense. To dilute something simply means to make it less concentrated.
The molecules are 'farther apart.' Scotch doesn't cease to become Scotch
just because water's added to it.
I said I'm not suicidal. There are philosophical issues here that don't
have ism's attached to them. For centuries, for all of recorded history in
fact, death was just a part of life. People talked about it, accepted it.
Now death is something that happens to others. Nobody talks about it
unless they're seriously disturbed as you obliquely point out. This ethic
of life at all costs, to wit, Teri Schiavo, even as the planet is destroyed
at the rate of 50,000 species every year is, in my opinion, warped.
And this is relevant how?
This is where I think you're wrong. From what read (and I read a *lot* of
things) it's the EG that's inherently sweet. But I will defer to you.
You're right. Although EG is odorless it apparently tastes sweet.
This is bizarre. Why would they put natural food coloring into antifreeze?
Well, they don't, really.
Seriously disturbed people do a lot of things, like invade countries for no
reason. Nobody's championing all those animals in New Orleans who were
killed by poisonous water that resulted from lack of preparation. The glee
in your words "seriously disturbed" invalidates any seriousness in them
Robert Paul
Reed College
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