Blue Machine

On the surface, this book seems like it would unlock a fascinating perspective on the oceans of the world. It is pitched from the first chapter as considering how the ocean is the largest machine on earth, a perspective I thought fascinating and also one that matches with a lot of social theory. Yet as the writing unravels, the machinic element seems to go out the window, replaced with quite disconnected anecdotes of the ocean that draw from history, geology and personal experience.

It is worth mentioning that I think Helen Czerski is probably an excellent scientist, and a thoughtful one too. But the writing was put down as if narrating a BBC television programme (which is her day-job). The paragraphs are full of intrigue that is missing the visual information to make it coherent, leading you into a paragraph with hints and clues only to reveal several pages later what the writing is about. This does not suit the medium of print at all. Also, the chapters are far too long and often meander wildly into different themes from where they start out. And if you are familiar with postcolonial theory there are quite a few clangers, such as sections where non-western historical scientists are described first by their features rather than their achievements (a Chinese eunuch stands out in my memory) while western scientists are introduced to sections where they have no role to play (captain Cook is mentioned at the beginning of a section about Hawai'i referencing geological activity thousands of years before he landed there, and is then never referenced again in the whole chapter – did he need to be mentioned at all?!). While some sections were interesting, they were mostly scientific history that were quite matter-of-fact, such as how the currents work or how discoveries had been made. In the end, I just found this a frustrating slog, and wished it had been what it had promised.