The Futility Thread

[raptor517]

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speechless

i don't think you can put into words what you would feel after that

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i can. a big fat bullet in my mouth.

[adsman]

Yeah, I remember reading that in Bryson's book and thinking that a day like that would sure put your life into perspective. Not only had his relatives plundered his estate, but his wife had remarried and his seat in the Royal Academy of Sciences had been given to somebody else. He eventually solve the estate plundering after lengthy litagation, the king gave him back his seat and he remarried, apparently living happily for another 21 years.

From Wiki;

"Le Gentil himself was the author of Voyage dans les mers de l'Inde, fait par ordre du Roi, à l'occasion du passage de Vénus, sur le disque du Soleil, le 6 juin 1761 & le 3 du même mois 1769 par M. Le Gentil, de l'académie royale des sciences. Imprimé par ordre de sa Majesté, two volumes, Paris 1779 and 1781."

I don't understand French, but I imagine that lengthy title has something to do with wanting to top yourself in various nasty ways.

[mwalsh2020]

bbv.

alternatively, reminds me a little bit of The Count of Monte Cristo, what an awesome book

[cjmewett]

[ QUOTE ]
From Wiki;

"Le Gentil himself was the author of Voyage dans les mers de l'Inde, fait par ordre du Roi, à l'occasion du passage de Vénus, sur le disque du Soleil, le 6 juin 1761 & le 3 du même mois 1769 par M. Le Gentil, de l'académie royale des sciences. Imprimé par ordre de sa Majesté, two volumes, Paris 1779 and 1781."

I don't understand French, but I imagine that lengthy title has something to do with wanting to top yourself in various nasty ways.

[/ QUOTE ]
I find it unbelievably ballsy that after all that, he publishes this book, the title of which describes his failure in humiliating detail: "Voyage through the Indian seas, made by order of the king, on the occasion of the passage of Venus across the face of the sun, June 6, 1761 and the 3rd of the same month in 1769..." All he needed to do is add "...and I never did see the damn thing."

[mjkidd]

Wouldn't it be great if what actually happened was that this guy just dicked around for 9 years, did nothing, set up nothing, and then came back to France and was all "Yeah, sorry guys. Clouds. What are you gonna do?"

[Bob Moss]

I'm glad to hear that that Antarctica story is true, because I recently bought some beer that had a short summary of it on its label. I quite enjoyed the beer and the story, but wasn't sure whether to believe it was true.

I saw this picture on the beer, and realized I had no choice but to buy it.

[dw2006]

OP's story reminded me of Alfred Russel Wallace who was the first person to come up with the idea of natural selection. Around 1850 Russel was researching plants and animals in South America and had kept detailed diaries and samples of specimens for several years. On the way back to England the ship he was travelling on caught fire and he had to abandon his entire collections that took him years to assemble.

[SomethingClever]

[KotOD]

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I read "Endurance" by Alfred Lansing, that uses diaries and first hand accounts of the Shackleton expedition to tell the entire story.
-Zeno

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Check out the Darien expedition:

http://www.amazon.com/Darkest-Jungle-Exp...2835&sr=8-1

In 1854, Isaac Strain, an ambitious young U.S. Navy lieutenant, launched an expedition hoping to find a definitive route for a canal across the isthmus of Panama. For hundreds of years, the Dari‚n isthmus had defied explorers; its unmapped wilderness contained some of the world's most torturous jungle. Yet Strain was confident he could complete the crossing. He was wrong. He and his men quickly lost their way and stumbled into ruin. Balf (The Last River) vibrantly recounts their journey, a disaster on a par with the Donner party or the sinking of the whale ship Essex. Using logs kept by Strain and his lieutenants, as well as other period sources, Balf follows the party from their first missteps (their landing boat capsized in roiling surf) to their near-miraculous rescue two months later. Strain and his crew endured exhaustion, heat, starvation and infestations of botfly maggots, which grew under the skin and fattened on human tissue. The men were forced to make heartbreaking life-and-death decisions; e.g., voting to leave behind sick companions who couldn't keep up with the rest (one shrieked after them as they trudged deeper into the jungle). Some men surrendered to despair; two of them quietly conspired to commit cannibalism.

[KotOD]

You might also like the Franklin Expedition:

http://www.amazon.com/Frozen-Time-Fate-F...3061&sr=8-2

British expedition sets out to find the Northwest passage, gets caught in the ice, split up, drag tons of unnecessary non-survival personal effects over ice pack and islands, contract "mystery" disease and all go insane. They die scattered around northern Canada, the last of the survivors die 5 years later!