Simon Winchester, author, journalist and self-proclaimed "bad geologist," had the Modern Languages auditorium bursting at its seams, as he talked about his book "Katarka" yesterday.
Winchester has been in the news for his research in history, culture, ecology and religion, said Provost George Davis.
Davis invited Winchester to speak at the Provost's Visiting Scholar Program on Creativity and Imagination because the author finds ways to "open up the unusual," Davis said.
"He has an appetite for all those relations between cultures," Davis said. "I think he is intrigued with creativity."
Winchester said he decided to write a book about Krakatoa, the island located between the larger Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Java, because he was stunned by a 500-foot growth of the island's volcano in 25 years.
A major eruption in August 1883 caused the volcano and six cubic miles of the island to vaporize and throw debris up to 30 miles high. As a result, the Earth cooled down for months, producing an increase of rainfall, Winchester said.
"Endless, endless cold rain - that was the reason why Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein," Winchester said with a humorous undertone, but he also insisted on the direct effects of the eruption in the minds of people all over the world.
About 40,000 people died as a result of tsunamis that were caused by the eruption, Winchester said, and the eruption also produced the loudest sound ever heard by humans and was heard more than 2,000 miles away.
Winchester managed to cheer the audience up by a fluctuating between great seriousness and humor as he talked about a man who was caught by the wave and surfed on a crocodile into the jungle, until the wave "deserted him and a presumably extremely angry crocodile."
Winchester tied the Krakatoa eruption into a wider circle of historical events, including religion, media, the economy and geography.
Davis was ecstatic about the author's visit and said he admired Winchester's ability to draw the audience into the story.
"He roamed. He's got the big picture but develops it with details," Davis said. "You feel like you are being influenced by someone who takes an event and peels it like an onion, peel after peel, after peel."
Andy Smarzinski, a chemistry sophomore, said he had never heard of Winchester, but he thought hearing him speak was a worthwhile experience.
"I loved it. It was exciting, informative, descriptive," Smarzinski said. "He is an excellent writer; it was very dramatic."
Davis said that speakers like Winchester help the Tucson community see what the university does, and it is important to invite people who are not affiliated with the university.
Winchester will be signing his books at the UofA Bookstore today from 10 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.