14. Aqueous Vapour
- Tom Payne
- Jul 10, 2025
- 2 min read
Updated: Dec 16, 2025
I suppose the thick air, as well as the transparent, is in both cases saturated with aqueous vapour;—but also in both, observe, vapour that floats everywhere, as if you mixed mud with the sea; and it takes no shape anywhere: you may have it with calm, or with wind, it makes no difference to it. You have a nasty haze with a bitter east wind, or a nasty haze with not a leaf stirring, and you may have the clear blue vapour with a fresh rainy breeze, or the clear blue vapour as still as the sky above.[1] What difference is there between these aqueous molecules that are clear, and those that are muddy, these that must sink or rise, and those that must stay where they are, these that have form and stature, that are bellied like whales and backed like weasels, and those that have neither backs nor fronts, nor feet nor faces, but are a mist—and no more—over two or three thousand square miles?
I again leave the questions with you, and pass on.
Footnotes
‘Where the Wind Blows’ – a short DIY film response by Destiny Ehiozuwa, BA (Hons) Acting and Performance, Sheffield Hallam University, Thursday 11 December 2025.
My response mainly comes from my interpretation of passage 14. When first reading this, I got the impression of vapour being something everyone knows about, but no one can really describe what it looks like because it can take on many forms. I decided to use a strong wind sound effect throughout my film; the section where the wind is described as bitter is what influenced this decision.
My film tells the story of a girl searching for something. What exactly she is looking for isn’t known; that is left up to interpretation. What is she looking for? Why is she looking? Why did she decide to go now? Is it even important? The answers to these questions can be decided by the viewer.
This project made me think more carefully about the ways in which weather can affect the meaning of a story and affect the way other people interpret your story. Using different sound effects and audio clips on a video that is silent can change the original intended meaning and also leaves the project up to the interpretation of the viewer.