Abstract
Scientists are known to enjoy finding the perfect epigraph for their PhDs, books, or papers. These sometimes illuminate, but equally often provide a pleasurable puzzle for the reader. So what does it say about the mindset of a Polar over-winterer, when the South Pole research station's head scientist opens his final report with this quote from The Epic of Gilgamesh? Antarctica is a place of superlatives, whether it be the coldest, darkest, highest, driest, quietest, or stillest—and each superlative is countered, it seems, by its opposite, depending on where you look. A glance along an Antarctic-themed bookshelf reinforces this impression: is it The World's Most Mysterious Continent, as the subtitle of science writer Gabrielle Walker's book proclaims, or is it, in the title of dishwasher and waste management employee Nicholas Johnson's book, just a Big Dead Place?
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