Tuesday, June 30, 2009

When Fiction Becomes Fact - Quicksand

Here's a link to an old post by a bright and curious blogger named Matt Rubenstein. Matt discusses a new scientific invention; or more like a new scientific weapon. The new product may one day be used in warfare. What might this unconventional weapon be you ask?




You may not think of Quicksand as a brutal weapon, but believe me when I say there's no death more frightening nor unforgiving than this engulfing body-snatcher. With the stealth and silence of a thief in the night, it lies in wait, unnoticed underfoot. 

By the time walking mammals realize the fatal mistake of their steps, panic then prayer become their only avenues of recourse. 

Quicksand renders all five human sense organs inoperable. The silent killer's advantage is its ability to hide in plain sight, while the unsuspecting mammal's inability to see, hear, smell, taste or feel its presence, until its too late, becomes their own undoing. It is the perfect trap!

As the sand begins filling up the orifices of the head (ears, nose and throat), this mucky murderer leaves its poor victims with a grounds eye view of a retreating world; a world so full of promise and adventure only seconds before that last, fateful step. The sinking victims are granted a final look-see by the murderer, as they stare out in horror at a setting landscape with not a soul in sight. A victims last conscious thought: being buried alive in an unmarkable grave. N0oooo!

I think the classic French poet/novelist Victor Hugo describes it best in his short story "Caught in the Quicksand":

"The sand rises; the sand reaches his shoulders; the sand reaches his neck; the face alone is visible now. The mouth cries, the sand fills it - silence. The eyes still gaze - the sand shuts them; night. Now the forehead decreases, a little hair flutters above the sand, a hand comes to the surface of the beach, moves and, shakes, disappears. It is the earth-drowning man."

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