Everyone keeps going on about the Titanic. I suppose it isn’t surprising, as it is the hundredth anniversary of the sinking after all. But, to be honest, it is getting rather annoying; everyone keeps calling it a mystery. What is mysterious about it? We know why it sank – it hit a goddamn iceberg! Given hat there have been bigger and more tragic sinking’s since then in terms of the loss of human life, why is it the sinking of this ship specifically which plays such a big part in popular culture and mythology? Indeed, I remember going to see James Cameron’s film in 1997 and being absolutely blown away by it (I hadn’t yet been initiated into the subtleties of film studies). I also remember my grandma telling the story of how her mother, my great grandma, was at school one day in 1912 when her class was interrupted by someone to announce the sinking. Why does this ship have so much resonance? It seems to haunt people as much today as it did a century ago. Was it the loss of life, or the irony of the fact that a ship said to be unsinkable sank on it’s maiden voyage? That is where the mystery lies for me – what is it about this ship and this story which haunts us so much even after so much time?