Magellan's Log: Iris Murdoch: All Is Water

It’s enough to make you wonder if Iris the child was not at some point traumatized by Thales. Water, water, everywhere. Liquid, frozen, vapor, steam. Small quantities, huge quantities. In the air, on the land, underground. Given half a chance, her characters swim, or at least think about swimming. In Ennistone everyone swims every day, because at the heart of the town is the Baths, a spa dating back to the Romans if not before built over a large hot spring. No ordinary spring this, it has many outlets, many temperatures, even its own little orgasmic geyser known as to the locals as "Lud’s Rill," or "Little Teaser," where "scalding water spits up at intervals to a height of three or four feet."