I saved donated books about space all year to make a display for the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing, July 20, 1969.
(There were more books than these too.)
(Annika, thanks for Starman! I enjoyed it and was happy to pass it on--it sold right away.)
I was surprised that while I was setting this up, many people told me the Moon landing was fake.
I can understand why some people are attracted to conspiracy theories against the government (e.g, they feel disempowered and used by powers beyond their ken or control).
It's odd to me, though, that these people thought going to the Moon was so hard, we couldn't do it for real, that it wasn't just an extension of what we humans always do:
People have been getting in crafts and launching into the unknown since we discovered wood floats.
You have the Internet in your pocket, and you think driving to the Moon is unbelievable?
There're plenty of reasons to disapprove of the use of resources––you know Gil Scott-Heron's great "Whitey on the Moon"?
"A rat done bit my sister Nell,
With Whitey on the moon..."
And I can understand why people feel NASA doesn't represent them; but it's sad that we all can't claim it as part of our ongoing human drive to explore.
Some people don't, can't? enter into the science of it... and maybe can't judge the relative feasability of things. Maybe the Internet seems on par with going to the Moon to them?
They didn't grow up, maybe, watching things like this educational TV clip, "The Size of the Universe" from 1957, presented here on The Rewind by Ben Leddy, son of Michael of blog Orange Crate Art.
My parents were big on mental exploration, so it's hard for me to enter fully into the mindset of people whose curiosity and imaginations weren't encouraged, or were actively discouraged. That's like a cold and arid planet...
I drew this, "asternot" in 1967, when I was six. My father laminated it, and when he died fifty years later, in 2017, it was still up on his bedroom wall.
In fact, it was practically the only sign of my existence in his house.
If I'm going to be represented by one thing I did, this one's fair.
(There were more books than these too.)
I was surprised that while I was setting this up, many people told me the Moon landing was fake.
I can understand why some people are attracted to conspiracy theories against the government (e.g, they feel disempowered and used by powers beyond their ken or control).
It's odd to me, though, that these people thought going to the Moon was so hard, we couldn't do it for real, that it wasn't just an extension of what we humans always do:
People have been getting in crafts and launching into the unknown since we discovered wood floats.
You have the Internet in your pocket, and you think driving to the Moon is unbelievable?
There're plenty of reasons to disapprove of the use of resources––you know Gil Scott-Heron's great "Whitey on the Moon"?
"A rat done bit my sister Nell,
With Whitey on the moon..."
And I can understand why people feel NASA doesn't represent them; but it's sad that we all can't claim it as part of our ongoing human drive to explore.
Some people don't, can't? enter into the science of it... and maybe can't judge the relative feasability of things. Maybe the Internet seems on par with going to the Moon to them?
They didn't grow up, maybe, watching things like this educational TV clip, "The Size of the Universe" from 1957, presented here on The Rewind by Ben Leddy, son of Michael of blog Orange Crate Art.
My parents were big on mental exploration, so it's hard for me to enter fully into the mindset of people whose curiosity and imaginations weren't encouraged, or were actively discouraged. That's like a cold and arid planet...
I drew this, "asternot" in 1967, when I was six. My father laminated it, and when he died fifty years later, in 2017, it was still up on his bedroom wall.
In fact, it was practically the only sign of my existence in his house.
I'm telling Ben!
ReplyDeleteThe first ones wouldn't embed — they must have changed their settings.
MICHAEL: I'm glad I could embed this one. It really did make me think about how educational TV (and now videos, etc.) *is* educational--not just in presenting information, but in making learning normal.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Ben!