Watch Your Step, Son
It’s a bodacious Tuesday. 40 years after the moon landing, Buzz Aldrin waxes poetic: “I, along with mankind, achieved a pinnacle of magnificence of advancement of humanity to come down from the trees. We came down from the trees. We came out of the caves. We rubbed two sticks together. We made wheels. We had an automobile. Then we decided that we could fly like a bird. We dreamed of things up in the sky that were mysterious, mythical things, and we challenged ourselves to put a human on the moon. What a bodacious challenge confronting people on the surface of the Earth. And as a result of that challenge, two guys managed to walk on the surface. That’s magnificent.” Sci-fi writers and readers weren’t so thrilled. Tom Wolfe hasn’t seen the feat matched. Another pioneer was the first female Pulitzer Prize winner, Marguerite Higgins. Her novel, War in Korea, has just been published for the first time in Korean. Neil Young may be the fourteenth greatest Canadian, but Alexandra Molotkow would rather America keep him. In case you missed it, explore the relevance of God in the Atlantic. A bit of advice – keep the moon landing in mind. – Andrew Geer
– Forty years ago this week, science fiction writers were media celebrities—at least for a few hours. When Neil Armstrong stepped on to the surface of the moon on July 21, 1969, his “giant leap for mankind” was not just a fulfillment of President Kennedy’s promise of a lunar expedition before decade’s end. It also validated the starry-eyed dreams of a legion of pulp fiction writers. — Cursing Neil Armstrong in Conceptual Fiction
A Communist POW in Korea
– The Korean-language version of a book on the 1950-53 Korean War by U.S. journalist Marguerite Higgins (1920-1966) has recently been published for the first time, raising domestic awareness of this unique example of women’s participation in the war. — Marguerite Higgins in The Korea Times
– Well, let’s see now … That was a small step for Neil Armstrong, a giant leap for mankind and a real knee in the groin for NASA. The American space program, the greatest, grandest, most Promethean — O.K. if I add “godlike”? — quest in the history of the world, died in infancy at 10:56 p.m. New York time on July 20, 1969, the moment the foot of Apollo 11’s Commander Armstrong touched the surface of the Moon. — Tom Wolfe in The New York Times
Caption Not Necessary
– Matt Valentine doesn’t speak the way he sings: in a nasal warble, something like Hans Moleman doing falsetto. The way he moves onstage, slumped forward, stomping out the beat, reminds me of someone I know. It all starts to make sense when I notice his Tonight’s the Night T-shirt, hear his cover of “Powderfinger,” and learn that his dog’s name is Zuma. Yes, Valentine and his partner Erika Elder, who record under the name MV & EE, really love Neil Young. — Neil Young in The Walrus
– When I was a teenager my rabbi believed that the Lubavitcher Rebbe, who was living in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, was the Messiah, and that the world was soon to end. He believed that the earth was a few thousand years old, and that the fossil record was a consequence of the Great Flood. He could describe the afterlife, and was able to answer adolescent questions about the fate of Hitler’s soul. — God in The Atlantic
Video: Neil Young 1971 BBC Concert
