41 pages • 1 hour read
Rachel MaddowBlowout
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 16-17Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 16 Summary: “This Ain’t No Disco”
This chapter explores Big Oil and Gas’s foray into drilling in the Arctic, a high-risk endeavor that has also provoked the wrath of environmentalists around the world. Maddow tells how two maritime vessels operated by Shell, the Kulluk and the Discoverer, or Disco, fared in the Arctic conditions. The Disco, completed in 1966, was originally used as a bulk carrier that transported wood from America to Asia. Drilling in the Arctic was highly risky, even dangerous, not to mention detrimental to the environment. Yet the prospect of producing exorbitant profits, due to the Arctic’s absurd amount of gas and oil, were too tempting to ignore. Yet after both the Kulluk and the Disco suffered severe mechanical failures, Shell announced a pause in its Arctic drilling program. For the rest of the industry, Shell’s venture became a cautionary tale: Perhaps the Arctic is too wild and unpredictable to sustain long-term drilling efforts.
Chapter 17 Summary: “Such a Man Is Born Once Every Few Decades”
Maddow focuses on the story of Guccifer, a Romanian hacker whose real name is Marcel Lehel Lazar. Guccifer unraveled many of America’s powerful elite, from politicians to celebrities, such as Colin Powell, Hillary Clinton, and Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes. Guccifer caused more damage, more fear and paranoia, than any of the Russian spy rings that had infiltrated in the United States. Guccifer’s efforts began in 2013 and continued until January 2014, when he was arrested in his small home in Sabateni, Romania. Guccifer was difficult to pinpoint, and his agenda and motives were unclear. Yet, as Maddow points out, Guccifer’s online exploits became a test run “for something way more destructive […] apparently somebody in Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin was paying very close attention. Why should some underemployed Romanian paint salesman be having all the fun in America?” (216). Maddow suggests that Guccifer paved the way for the Russian interference that played a vital role in the 2016 US presidential election.
Chapters 16-17 Analysis
Each one of these chapters examines a different kind of conflict. In Chapter 16, Maddow’s story about Shell’s attempts to drill in the Arctic is a clear example of character versus nature, in this case the crews of the Kulluk and the Disco battled volatile conditions in the Arctic. In Chapter 17, the hacker Guccifer is framed as the villain/antagonist in a story of character versus society. As Guccifer wreaked havoc on the world with his online exploits, he positioned himself against the Western world. Through each of these chapters Maddow also reminds the reader of the expansiveness of the oil industry and the subsequent global intrigue that comes along with it.
Related Titles
By Rachel Maddow
