Context--Wallpaper and Sound

The wallpaper and sound for this page were chosen deliberately.

The wallpaper is made from Hieronymus Bosch's triptych Garden of Earthly Delights. Painted in the early 1500s for wealthy secular patrons, the triptych is meant to be read from left to right. The left panel is The Garden of Eden before the fall of man. (The paperback cover for Oryx and Crake was taken from this panel--the three little critters from the front cover are above and to the right of the white giraffe.) The middle panel represents orgiastic, earthly sin, and the right panel damnation. When the doors are closed, the earth appears inside a sphere. For a better look at the art and info about the artist:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_of_Earthly_Delights#Left_panel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch


The sound is "Run Straight Down" from Warren Zevon's dystopic 1989 album Transverse City.

I found this album at Great Escape (our local cd store) while I was reading Oryx and Crake for the first time, in the summer of 2007. It seemed like the perfect soundtrack for the novel.

The lyrics:

(4-Aminobiphenyl, hexachlorobenzene Dimethyl sulfate, chloromethyl methylether 2, 3, 7, 8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-para-dioxin, carbon disulfide)

(Dibromochloropane, chlorinated benzenes, 2-Nitropropane, pentachlorophenol, Benzotrichloride, strontium chromate 1, 2-Dibromo-3-chloropropane)

I went walking in the wasted city
Started thinking about entropy
Smelled the wind from the ruined river
Went home to watch TV

And it's worse when I try to remember
When I think about then and now
I'd rather see it on the news at eleven
Sit back, and watch it run straight down

Run straight down
Run straight down
I can see it with my eyes closed
Run straight down

We've been living in the shadows all our lives
Where it's stand in line and don't look back and don't look left and don't look right
So we hide our eyes and wonder who'll survive
Waiting for the night...

Fluorocarbons in the ozone layer
First the water and the wildlife go
Pretty soon there's not a creature stirring
'Cept the robots at the dynamo

And it's worse when I try to remember
When I think about then and now
I'd rather see it on the news at eleven
Sit back, and watch it run straight down

Run straight down
Run straight down
I can see it with my eyes closed
Run straight down



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Zevon