Comments
  1. The Atavist MagazineLESLIE JAMISON8/3/1469 min
    3 reads5 comments
    10
    The Atavist Magazine
    3 reads
    10
    You must read the article before you can comment on it.
    • Jessica2 years ago

      This is a stunning story. The sound clips and interview snippets are absolutely worth a listen. The illustrations are outstanding.

      A part of me empathizes with Mary Daher—it’s difficult to work on a research topic, publish results, and then become overwhelmed with all these questions about projections and interpretations of your work in ways you probably don’t want to consider... even more so after Bill Watkins passed away. She must have wanted to preserve some parts of 52 Blue in his memory. But humans are creatures of feeling, and we have survived through story. The stories we tell ourselves can ultimately be the bare sustenance for managing incredibly difficult circumstances in our lives... that is how 52 Blue has impacted so many, and why Leonora’s story is so compelling and impactful.

      Joe was right when he said that the whale is just a whale. And so was Leonora when she said the whale is everything. Happiness is a kind of truth. Feeling is a kind of fact.

      • DellwoodBarker2 years ago

        I don’t know how you find all this Gold, Sister! Thank You! I needed the emotional cleanse this read offers. On a roller coaster here of transforming work, residence, community, human connections, issues with my ears/hearing and it is Wild! Reads like this are salve and hugs and magical and grounding, simultaneously.

        • Jessica2 years ago

          Completely agree—so magical and grounding, and really touches on all aspects of humanity.

          And there’s so much love and innocence in how people reacted to 52 Blue, like this one:

          “I wish we could all help and play whale songs for him.” She wanted to know why “we can build laptops and smart phones but we cannot figure out a way to get this whale some companionship?”

          • DellwoodBarker2 years ago

            You Are An Incredible Spirit Sister! ReadUp is Lucky to have you, Shining Star, Here! I am Grateful you are Here!

            I hope this gets AOTD and more read this 💎.

    • DellwoodBarker2 years ago

      69 Incredible Minutes of Memorable Reading! I am in Awe of this read.

      Leonora is a Truly Fascinating Individual and her story is inspiring. Chapter Seven where 52 & L story finally interweave open the floodgates for me and I was sobbing.

      I also Loooove how each chapter tends to begin from a different perspective like all these intriguing puzzle pieces of 52.

      I, like Jessica, Love the audio clips within this one. The add more dimension.

      My gawd, this read about a Whale is Therapeutic Medicine!

      Sometimes we need to be heard so badly we hear ourselves in every song the world sings, every single noise it makes: I will start screaming now and I will not stop. Maybe desire and demand are just the same song played at different frequencies. Maybe every song is a healing song if we hear it in the right mood—on the heels of the right seven weeks, or the worst ones, the ones lost to us forever.

      A singer in New Mexico, unhappy at his day job in tech, wrote an entire album dedicated to 52; another singer in Michigan wrote a kids’ song about the whale’s plight; an artist in upstate New York made a sculpture out of old plastic bottles and called it 52 Hertz. A music producer in Los Angeles started buying cassette tapes at garage sales and recording over them with 52’s song, the song that was quickly becoming a kind of sentimental seismograph suggesting multiple storylines: alienation and determination, autonomy and longing; not only a failure to communicate but also a dogged persistence in the face of this failure.

      I would love to know who the NM artist is and the album.