Review of Creation Lake

Picture a very successful “Hit Woman."  And she is willing to take on other nefarious tasks that don't quite seem like hits.  The government, the American government, hires her to take on the most challenging of hits. 

The author Rachel Kushner does us no favors as she shows this youngish woman in her fits and starts accomplishing her work.  It seemed to me most of the time that Sadie (not her real name) was in over her head.   She also has an ailment where she sort-of passes out that you’d think would cause a hit woman to take up a different line of work, but we learn sort of after the fact that she usually succeeds.  On one occasion when she doesn’t, she was fired, but we learn along the way that only means she no longer works directly for the government answering to a boss, but subsequently, agencies in the government feel free to give her ad hoc assignments.  

So what’s all this business about Bruno, Neanderthals and very dark caves?  Bruno is a sort of philosopher who impresses Sadie, but in a passing way.  Sadie looks for him as she’s bailing out of her most recent “hit” (in quotes because the target, Paton, is killed in an accident.  Sadie’s employers pay her without question because they don’t always know how she does it).

There is a lot of very well-written, interesting but as far as I can tell after a single reading, material irrelevant to what is presumably the main narrative, not all of it even true.  For example, someone argues convincingly that the Neanderthals discovered tobacco and Sadie, believes it.  She speculates that she probably has a large amount of Neanderthal DNA accounting for her inability to quit smoking.

Someone could advance the observation that Kushner’s well-written, interesting but irrelevant (to the purported main narrative) information is more interesting than Sadie’s narrative.

I’m no doubt being unfair inasmuch as I read most of the novel underestimating Sadie.  Perhaps I would appreciate the novel more upon a second reading.

I was very impressed with Rachel Kushner’s writing style and erudite cleverness. 

No Homo Sapiens DNA in Neanderthal Thorin

 Scientists Just Sequenced the DNA of Thorin The Last Neanderthal Ever And It Rewrites History (youtube.com)

Just watched this video.  Scientists have an complete genome from a Neanderthal who lived about 42,000 years ago in France.  They nick-named him Thorin from Lord of the Rings. 

 Homo Sapiens from that time show Neanderthal DNA, as we do today -- 2% to 4%, and we don't each have the same Neanderthal DNA.  Scientists identified all the different Neanderthal DNA found in homo sapiens examined so far and it amounts to something like 30% of the Neanderthal DNA.   Common theories developed by the scientists who examined Thorin revolved around the idea that contact between the two species was friendly so naturally some contact became romantic, hence, our Neanderthal DNR.

So of course, Scientists examining Thorin looked for evidence of homo sapiens DNA in his DNA sequence, and . . . didn't find any.  They did find evidence of inbreeding.  I listened to the narrator's conjectures about how that could be the case since Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens lived near each other in France for a long time.  The Scientists theorized that their wanderings were wide and maybe they just never encountered each other.

Bu coincidence I am currently reading CREATION RIVER, a finalist for the Booker Prize, and the author, Rachel Kushner, has one of her characters theorize about how homo sapiens got Neanderthal DNA, and one of the theories was "rape."  We might not hear that theory from many legitimate scientists working with DNA who seem to favor 

The theory that the Neanderthal was an Apex predator which drove Homo Sapiens into near extinction (by means of rape and cannibalism) may be given a boost by these findings.  Perhaps the little group which included Thorin and was engaged in inbreeding had thus far survived the Cro Magnon competition which may not have included rape.  

And so on

 

I’d apparently died, and found myself

In an elaborate open working space

With desks one against the other.

I walked along looking for mine.

Susan looked up, “Oh, you won’t be 

In here.  You’re a Program Engineer.

There are different things for you to do.

“But what if I want to be with you?”

“That’s silly,” she said smiling at the girl

Sitting at the next desk.  “You just won’t.

We’re different now – no more human

Urges or constraints.  We’re here and 

Will do whatever needs to be done.

You are different from we who need

Each other, something we knew back 

When we were one, you and me.  I like

Being here amongst the many, hearing

The sighs, the recollections.  You’ll

Sequester yourself as you always

Always have, and there’s a need

For that, which is wonderful for you,

You’ll dream of other things, worlds

Perhaps for all we know, hunkered

Here amongst so many with all their

Worries still lingering.  You on the 

Other hand are fine alone.  You’ll

Don your gear and move out beyond,

Never giving me a further thought.”

July 4th 2024

 

My blood pressure annoyingly

Up, slams in my brain again,

Commemorating one of the

Rampaging diseases that took 

Her away, and I once more, 

Agitated beyond control, pace,

A lion in a cage, raging.

Despite my opinions and

Rationalizations, I know

Everyone born of woman

Must surely die, but why

Her so many years before.

My intense examination

of whatever passes keeps me

Moving back and forth each

Passing year.  Do you hear

A yelling, a celebration? It

Will not be me or mine. 

Perhaps this steam blinding

Me will syphon the indignity

Of my continuing existence.

UPON THE WALLS

 

They stand upon their walls

Waving their fists, spending

Their wrath upon those who

Speak against them, Ukraine

Assuredly.  Poland and 

Finland should be next.

Amongst the brethren another

Rages against the Taiwanese

“Scatter you!  Flee, for I 

Shall surely pounce when

You least expect.”  Meanwhile

We fearful free count missiles

And tanks and tremble.

The end is near.  There is

A sound of grinding

In our ears, an inexorable 

Coming of evil riding 

On a devilish red horse. 

The jaunty rider smiles 

Down at us his handiwork.

TRICK OF SIGHT

Off to the left, a trick

I thought, of defective eyes,

I saw a hovering cloud, gray

Round about but black within.

I searched for a glowing 

Coal but it faded in

A slight breeze took flight.

A reflection perhaps it seemed

When I wondered what it meant.

So many things mean from

One day to the next

Then begin to fade.

She did that when part

Of her ceased to function.

Her vivacity left her

At once, leaving just

The cloud, the frailty

Of her gray tendrils

Seemed at first to reach out

But finding nothing suitable

To grasp, fell apart.

Anchored in the past

 

Off to the left, a trick

Perhaps of defective light, 

A hovering cloud, gray

But black inside, glowing

As coal might with fire

In its center.  A breeze,

A rose and it took flight.

It grasped at its

Possibilities.  My mind

Flailed, like a boat at anchor.

So many memories from one

Day to the next.  She 

Began in my thoughts

To crumble.  Her vivacity

Left her finally,

Leaving just 

A frail cloud

With tendrils 

Reaching back 

For one with too

Much substance to follow.