Thursday, October 04, 2007
Sputnik: My Part in its Downfall
Amidst all this fiftieth anniversary stuff, I've been trying all morning to think of a way of standing up that headline. But I can't. Though, a few years later, I do remember thinking too much fuss was being made about all such projects in view of what had been happening in sci-fi for decades. So perhaps my dandyish indifference was my part in Sputnik's downfall. Anyway, that gives me a chance to recommend, in case I have not done so already, the works of Stanislaw Lem, the second greatest SF writer after H.G.Wells. Everybody knows Solaris, of course, but try Fiasco, a compelling and utterly weird read.
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A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
But I thought it was a catapult shot from your back garden that sent Sputnik careering wildly off course and set the Russian space effort back by years. You're too modest, Bryan.
ReplyDeleteIt was an airgun, a .22.
ReplyDeleteSurprised to see the unwholesome appearance of gun fetishism on this blog.
ReplyDeleteI don't think too much fuss has been made about Sputnik. Sattelite communication has transformed the world and forms a huge industry. All the money the USSR and America shot into space is falling back down in the form of GPS and sattelite TV.
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