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Margaret Lazarus Dean is the author of The Time It. Takes to Fall. She is an associate professor at the University of Tennessee and lives in Knoxville.
Fotografie: Joe Vaughn

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Ugly lies the bone [theatre progamme] — Medewerker, sommige edities1 exemplaar

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Algemene kennis

Geboortedatum
1972
Geslacht
female
Nationaliteit
USA
Woonplaatsen
Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
Beroepen
Associate Professor

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Besprekingen

It is a history of the US Space Shuttle Program, but it is also a travelogue and a literary history of a genre. The author chronicles her trips around the US following various stories about the space shuttle and along the way she tells the history of the shuttle program as well of the places and people she met. She write of Ponce De Leon and his exploration of the Florida coast as well as about NASA and how it is financed. She laments the passing of America's active role in manned space flight and its over dependence on the space programs developed by other countries. While writing this history and travel book she also squeezes in essays about narrative nonfiction and creative nonfiction writing. This is the what she teaches at the University of Tennessee as a tenured professor at that institution. To accomplish this she writes about the works of some of the pioneers of creative nonfiction, concentrating on those who wrote about the space program. In particular that is Norman Mailer, Tom Wolfe, and a few other authors about the early space race and the Apollo era. The author deftly pulls all of these elements together into a ménage a trois that works in the very modern way of creative nonfiction. I highly recommend this book.… (meer)
 
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benitastrnad | 5 andere besprekingen | Mar 31, 2022 |
Great Book. The story and the writing are both the kind that stick with you long after you put the book the down.
 
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sunshine608 | 7 andere besprekingen | Feb 2, 2021 |
Margaret Lazarus Dean has always been interested in the space program, to the point of writing a novel about it: The Time It Takes to Fall, set at the time of the Challenger disaster. A few years after that book was published, the U.S. space program was winding down entirely. Dean decided to immerse herself in the history of the space program and attend the last three shuttle launches to find out what exactly it is that makes space travel seem so romantic and adventurous, what it means to be a spacefaring nation, and what will happen when the U.S. astronauts don’t have their own program to call home.

I really enjoyed this book. Dean writes well and with feeling. The descriptions of the launches took my breath away, and I liked that she didn’t sugarcoat any of the less noble emotions (like people being annoyed about waiting for Atlantis to land: yes, impatience and boredom are a thing, even when the thing you’re waiting for is a space shuttle and few people have access to your vantage point). The contrasts between her experience and those of previous space journalists were interesting too.

Dean talks about the knock-on effects of shutting down the space program: the surrounding community loses a livelihood too, if the space workers and the tourists aren’t coming in the numbers they once were and the jobs that replace the spaceport don’t offer the same benefits. With this she paints a well-rounded picture of the last days of American spaceflight, or at least American public spaceflight—while SpaceX has started to get into the rocket business, there’s an argument to be made that space exploration is a public endeavour and should be done for the benefit of everyone on the planet, in the interests of research and discovery, not just to amuse those who can pay the astronomical (pun intended) price tag.

I’d recommend this book if you like journalistic non-fiction and/or want to read about the space program from an enthusiast’s perspective. It’s as technical as it has to be, without being dry. And the bibliography gives the interested reader lots more places to explore.
… (meer)
 
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rabbitprincess | 5 andere besprekingen | Sep 24, 2019 |
"...I have come to feel that the end of the space shuttle is going to be the ending of a story, the story of one of the truly great things my country has accomplished, and that I want to be the one to tell it." (39)

For some reason, I associate spaceflight with the month of February. I'm not sure why. I tried to unpack this reasoning as I read Leaving Orbit, but I cannot say there is any cause for my association. Perhaps it is because when I think of spaceflight, I think of Challenger. I was only six at the time of the explosion. We didn't watch the launch in my first grade classroom—I recall little talk of it beforehand—though neighboring, older classes were watching that day. I remember a teacher from one of those classes came into the room, whispered to my teacher who responded with a gasp. She cautiously announced the accident to the class. We watched this strange adult behavior with awe for only a couple minutes, then returned to coloring our paper coins copper and silver. By the time I unpacked and processed what had happened during the January launch it may have been February. Perhaps this is the reason for my association. Maybe none of this matters, but each February since this book has been published, I have set it on my reading table only to put it off for one more year.

I don't have the same love for spaceflight that Margaret Lazarus Dean does. I am amazed by the cosmos. I appreciate the beauty of the universe and of stars and planets. It is the majesty of space that I love. Space vehicles in and of themselves do nothing to excite me. That said, I always thought the shuttle was a majestic vehicle. Unlike the rockets before it which ripped apart the sky and penetrated the exosphere, the shuttle was a graceful and beautiful bird that merely skirted space. Unlike the gruff military men of 1960s spaceflight, the astronauts of the shuttle were men and women of the sciences and engineering. Apollo delivered gray lifeless stones. The shuttles set into motion the objects that sent back images of distant galaxies, images that far exceeded our expectations.

So I may not be the target audience for this book. Certainly, I have a greater appreciation for the shuttle than perhaps the average person, but I have no strong opinion about the likes of Aldrin. Even so, I really enjoyed Leaving Orbit. Dean gorgeously unpacks the history of spaceflight throughout this book. It's a wonderful blend of expert research and personal reflection. Leaving Orbit is the story of spaceflight, but it is also the story of Dean's love for spaceflight. This is unlike any work of non-fiction I've read before because it's clear that the author pours her heart into every page. She is incredibly passionate about the topic. Leaving Orbit is a eulogy for not only the shuttle, but modern spaceflight in general, and it is written by someone who knew and loved the deceased very much.

Dean's love for all-things NASA is so great that it could easily be called a religion. She makes pilgrimages, studies the holy works, and offers sacrifices. But Leaving Orbit's appeal wanes in those moments when the author becomes overly evangelical. When she attempts to explain away the doubters, the book becomes less about the glorious experience of spaceflight and more about the argument. Look, I've had doubts about the feasibility of humans traveling 240,000 miles in a metal cone with a twelve-foot diameter and a computer with less memory than the flash drive in my pocket. Even more unbelievable is the fact that without any previous experience, truly accurate data or test runs, they were able to get off the surface of the moon and return to earth. Honestly, it would be much more believable if the first two or three missions failed to return. It's natural for any intelligent person to question. All religion asks us to do is move a mountain from time to time. We either have the faith to believe in the impossible or we do not. Apollo is no different from any other god.

Despite these few hiccups, Leaving Orbit is such a stupendous read. Even though it is bursting with so many marvelous facts, I wanted more. I watched the launch videos. I read the official reports. I developed a greater appreciation for spaceflight in general. And it wasn't enough. My heart was broken for those who've invested their lives into the space program, and I hope against hope that one day the program will soar again.
… (meer)
 
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chrisblocker | 5 andere besprekingen | Mar 30, 2018 |

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