juushika

Title: Through the First Antarctic Night, 1898-1899
Author: Frederick A. Cook
Published: 1900
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 520
Total Page Count: 536,025
Text Number: 1963
Read Because: I have Problems; Project Gutenberg has this one
Review: This is the first primary source that I feel like has not appreciably added to my understanding of Antarctic exploration, in that, between Sancton's Madhouse at the End of the Earth and Guly's papers, particularly "'Polar anaemia': cardiac failure during the heroic age of Antarctic exploration", I'd already read the good bits, and better contextualized than in Cook's direct account. What's left is a fairly uninspired narration with repetitious but, worse, often ineffective meditations on the Antarctic atmosphere. There's not much insight into the human factor even as regards Cook himself, the fascinating period medical understandings are better analyzed elsewhere, and while it's a glimpse into Cook's narrative style, that style is scattershot and unreliable. Eminently skippable, but given that accessible Belgica resources are thin on the ground, I'm not mad I read it.

(FWIW, Arçtowski's narratives are more spread out and obviously weighted towards science, but I still liked them more: that bias and brevity makes the peeks of a distinctive sarcastic voice, the foibles of the expedition, and the polar atmosphere all feel better chosen and more valuable.)

Title: Diary of the "Terra Nova" Expedition to the Antarctic, 1910-1912
Author: Edward Adrian Wilson
Published: Humanities Press, 1972
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 280
Total Page Count: 534,000
Text Number: 1955
Read Because: rabbithole; borrowed from OpenLibrary and Interlibrary Loan (I really thought I wouldn't finish it before my ILL arrived, and yet...; still, ILL helps for looking at the pictures)
Review: Unlike Scott's, this diary is edited to include relevant pre-expedition content, which means: Wilson out in the world, being racist. It's a productive reminder of the culture framing these particular men, especially as racism and exploration are entwined; indeed, racism (via a lack of furs and dogs) helped get Wilson dead.

Wilson wrote primarily for family, and that audience feels present and limiting: this is anecdotes and birds, but the anecdotes are active and chock full of social dynamics from Wilson's frustrated and bemused position as science team lead. Insofar as a certain kind of restrained suffering was both holy and masculine, Wilson got top marks; both understated and honest, profoundly self-abnegating, and unexpectedly funny, this more than anything that I've read about the Terra Nova expedition thus far makes me want to reach for a biography, because the man is almost absent his own narrative, which is fascinating and frustrating and insightful.

Title: The Worst Journey in the World
Author: Apsley Cherry-Garrard
Published: 1922
Rating: 5 of 5
Page Count: 820
Total Page Count: 532,130
Text Number: 1947-8
Read Because: this fill in threesentenceficathon 2025, ebook via Project Gutenberg
Review:
A (rather complete) telling of the tragic 1910-1913 Terra Nova expedition, compiled from the author's memories and journals as well as the journals of other men present. Rather complete, I say, because this begins with departure; the packing and sea voyage sections could probably be skimmed, but I've been itching to read about the close quarters & logistics of historical sailing so I appreciated them. The slow cascade from petty errors to great tragedy is more profound, more linear, in retrospect and/or knowing the hero worship/criticisms of Scott to which Cherry-Garrard is responding. But as that narrative builds:

Cherry-Garrard is unexpectedly adroit, moving through tone and time, the long slow trudge of sledging and setting up depots to living among fellow explorers to the overwinter journey to obtain emperor penguin eggs which, frankly, is the titular worst. He's funny, morbidly so, both intentionally and in the horror of hindsight; I took multiple pauses to independently research topics like historical British artic exploration gear (particularly clothing and sleeping bags), and, sincerely, this expedition was a hell of their own devising. The following summer's attempt at the pole reiterates some of the slow build of pacing and is a quiet, well-considered horror, a detailed account that avoids pure hero worship but also bitterness, that becomes something like a study of the stiff upper lip: persisting through suffering is not an accomplishment but a good way to elicit more of the same.

This isn't five stars in the sense of perfect; Cherry-Garrard, for all his care, still gives Scott too much credit and is absolutely a product of the echo chamber of his time; and, yes, the text occasionally drags. But in the sense of laughed, cried, would not stop talking about this with anybody in hearing range for a month--I'm obsessed. Exceeds expectation, surprisingly quotable, full of crunchy details but also honest in its character sketches and psychological focus, and, I agree: the worst journey in the world, remarkably evoked.

CW for animal abuse because, while the humans could by and large consent to suffer, the same was not true of the ill-husbanded dogs and horses of the expedition. Absolutely bonkers decision-making and self-justifications where the animals were concerned.