Big Dead Place

Big Dead Place examines daily life in Antarctica, with a look at historical overviews of early Antarctic explorers, the local history of the region's two largest U.S. bases, and the internal culture of the U.S. Antarctic Program. Working for that program, self-proclaimed "smirking lackey" Nicholas Johnson quickly finds a world far from his preconceived vision of a pristine frontier and a noble scientific mission. His naiveté turns to lurid astonishment at the milieu of interdepartmental squabbling, posturing, and politicking. The book moves with mordant style into the madness of life in this outpost, with insider accounts of violent parties at the South Pole, a crazed manager who tries to fill his boots with antifreeze, the enraged administrator who confiscated an unauthorized shower curtain, sex on the altar in the Chapel of the Snows, a ghost that has haunted the food freezer for years, and a scientist terrified of the region's perpetual darkness.