(3089/898) Lost and space

1114) Alex had never been that big a fan of current events anyway, but he had now come to feel that the world's cheerful shiny-toothed bullshitters were the primal source of all true evil.

Bruce Sterling
Heavy Weather (1994)

1115) Heroes must reflect what it is that we feel is ourselves at our best, what we would like to think we would have done under similar circumstances. Heroes make us strive to live up to that image of ourselves. Without heroes, we must make do with celebrities.

John Ford Noble
"When We Were Racing With the Moon" in
Sunday NY Times Art & Leisure Section (6/25/1995)

1116) Today, with clever computer graphics and other technological smoke-and-mirrors, we can create the verisimilitude of a flight to the moon, but no longer do we have the means or the will for the real thing.

John Ford Noble
"When We Were Racing With the Moon" in
Sunday NY Times Art & Leisure Section (6/25/1995)

1117) Playing the chief of manned space in "Marooned" (1969), Gregory Peck makes his big speech: "The trip to the Moon was just a walk around the block. We're going to the stars, to other worlds..." But of course we're not.

Thomas Mallon
"Visions of the Future, Relics of the Past" in
Sunday NY Times Art & Leisure Section (6/25/1995)

1118)
I remember when we were going to go up into outer space
I remember when the President said
We were going to look for things in outer space
And I remember the way the astronauts talked
And how everybody was watching
Because there was the chance that they would burn up on the launching pad
Or that the rocket would take off from Cape Canavral
And land in Fort Lauderdale five minutes later by mistake
And now we're not even trying to get that far
Now, it's more like the bus
Now it's more like they just go up high enough to get a good view
They aim the camera back down
They don't aim the camera up
And then they take pictures
And come right back to develop them
That's what it's like now
Now, that's what it's like.

Laurie Anderson
"New Jersey Turnpike" from
United States Live (LP, 1983)