Don't Be Fooled
Let me just start off with the quickest thing a reader learns when they pick up Space Chronicles: It has no entertainment purposes. The story line in this book does not make you want to read the next chapter and it doesn't make you want to finish the book. With that being said, I can also say that it does't even make an attempt to grip the reader into a state of emotional captivation. This is because it is not a novel, but rather an interesting textbook in disguise as a thrilling space bedtime reader. There are no spoilers because truth be told there is nothing to spoil. Have you ever seen a student get upset because their teacher told them what they were going to read? No. I can all but guarantee that if someone picks up this book expecting a novel, they wont get past the first chapter. It takes a strong will to learn in order to read this book, because of frankly how dry and technical the language is.
Even though this book isn't meant to pull the reader into an immersive story-line, I did in fact have a reason for being written. The reason the author, Neil deGrasse Tyson, wroth this book was to restore the human desire to venture into the voids of space. Since this assumes that he is trying to convince the reader to believe what he does, he wrote this book as a very well thought out and comprehensive persuasive essay that is interesting enough to actually read. This is accomplished by separating the book into three separate parts that build upon each other. These parts are: "Why", "How", and "Why Not."
Even though this book isn't meant to pull the reader into an immersive story-line, I did in fact have a reason for being written. The reason the author, Neil deGrasse Tyson, wroth this book was to restore the human desire to venture into the voids of space. Since this assumes that he is trying to convince the reader to believe what he does, he wrote this book as a very well thought out and comprehensive persuasive essay that is interesting enough to actually read. This is accomplished by separating the book into three separate parts that build upon each other. These parts are: "Why", "How", and "Why Not."
Why |
This was by far the hardest part of the book to read in my opinion. This is caused by all of the scientific concepts Tyson introduced to me for the first time. For example, it was difficult for me to follow the chapter, "Exoplanet Earth" (Tyson 26-33) because it constantly referenced chemistry, biology, and radio communications topics that I was simply ignorant to. This part of the book took me the most time to get through for a couple of reasons. Mainly due to the fact that it is first in Tyson's order of persuasion, but also because I had to frequently spend time research what he was actually talking about. I believe that this is a major flaw in Tyson's writing and in the future he should attempt to convey concepts in a simpler way.
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How
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By this point in the book, the reader has made it past the most grueling chapters. Tyson, after now convincing the reader that we need to expand space operations, (If they were not convinced then there is not reason to continue reading) goes into detail of how we are going to accomplish this. However I was not too impressed with this section because it lacks any kind of depth to any plan. I can attribute this to the fact that he wrote this assuming people with minimal knowledge on the subject would be the readers. Whatever the case is, I think Tyson missed the point of the section by only briefly describing HOW we are going to advance in space travel to the point where "the solar system becomes our collective backyard—explored not only with robots, but with the mind, body, and soul of our species” (Tyson 137). To make things worse, he only started explaining himself in the ninth chapter (How to Reach the Sky) of the "HOW" section.
Tyson ends his argument by asking the simple yet complex question being, "Why Not?" (Tyson 189). He is referring to societies reasoning for not seeking the desire to explore space. One of the most common cliches is that, "Why are we spending money up there when we have problems down here" (Tyson 252). In one regard this way of thinking makes sense. However wouldn't suck if Earth was going to be doomed by an asteroid or comet and we simply didn't have enough time to prepare for it. Sure, one could argue that we have the technology to see it coming, but what if we see it 100 years away? This is a problem considering it could take over a thousand years to fully colonize a planet as close as Mars is. Tyson argues this in the very last chapter of the book as well as in the "WHY" section. This should tell the astute reader that this is a very important and scary reality. Tyson says that he "is worried by this scenario" (Tyson 252) and in order to solve the problem, we need to stop putting a "Band-Aid on this or that problem" (Tyson 253). The Band-Aids that he is acknowledging are the missions that only send astronauts into low-earth orbit. I too believe that as a society we need to stop this underfunded shenanigans of simply trying to keep the space program alive, but instead go back to our traits within us to explore. It has been half a century since the last time humans exited low earth orbit. I think that it is time to stop looking at the past and instead create a future for humanity. |