"The Next Fifty Years in Space" by Erik Berhaust, printed in 1964.
It is sad for so many reasons.
The greates is perhaps the promise this book offered. It begins talking about the US's future turning our little part of the solar system into a productive work and play area. There are moon colonies and mines on Mars. There is so much here that never moved beyond the imagination of some dreamers.
It is sad for it was written during the Kennedy administration, with much discussion of him, though it was published after his death. The comments made about President Kennedy and almost overlooked VP Johnson can not imagine Dallas and Oswald.
It is a platantly propaganda book, disparaging the Soviets, ignoring the Chinese, and presenting a world much colder than even todays--politically.
It is a book that patronizes women, claiming they shall benefit the greatest from the Space Age--because new cosmetics and undergarments will make them prettier. The next chapter calls on the US to teach more women engineering, not so that we can have a balanced fair society, but so that we can catch up to the Russians.
It is a book that one moment presents a fair and logical look at what should have been doable over the past 50 years--traveling to the moon, space stations, local system space flight, and then jumps to aliens and inter-planetary flight as if the distance to the next star was about the same as the distance to Mars.
It gets some things almost right--all mail will be handled by satellites, instantaneously around the world. Weather Satelites will make surving Hurricanes and other disasters easier because we can see them coming. Remember, this was a time when the number of satelites in orbit was under a dozen.
Yet it gets some things so wrong--the assumption that we will allow fusion reactors to be commonly built into spacecraft for propulsion. Sure, that might work, if we could guarantee that they wouldn't be used as bombs by some fanatic. Imagine 9/11, but with Nuclear Fusion Reactors on ships dropping from orbit.
It talks in candid format about the need to grab the ultimate high ground in space, and aim those weapons on our neighbors. There is a debate on whether nuclear missiles or lasers would make the better satelite offense system.
Ion Propulsion, Water Plasma Propulsion, Photonic Propulsion and other systems are discussed, systems that are now but footnotes in science books, but that people spent their lives researching.
quote:Dr. Sanger has proven in theory that the photonic rocket will make it possible for a space vehicle to travel at the speed of light.
Leaving the "Proved in theory" oxymoron alone, does this book go on to extol the virtues of light-speed travel? No. It comments that the photonic exhaust of this ship could be used as a death beam to destoy enemy rockets or ships.
They predict that on earth, such a beam could destroy rockets in the atmosphere.
They don't even consider the problem these ships would have leaving a trail of destruction behind them whenever they fly.
I picked up this book for free from a freecycle group. It sells on Amazon for $15, but I won't sell it. Its difficult to read, boring in many spots, and the writing is sadly done, but I'll keep it. Sometimes we need to see how wrong we were to realize there is no ultimate disaster in being wrong now.
Posted by El JT de Spang (Member # 7742) on :
Hmm. The saddest book I've ever read was Where the Red Fern Grows.
Is there anything more southern than a grown man crying about a fictional boy losing his dogs?
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
The saddest book I ever read was The Remains of the Day. I can't imagine anything worse than reaching the end of life and realizing you blew it, that you ran from every chance of happiness, and that all your work was a sham.
Posted by Brinestone (Member # 5755) on :
*agrees with Katie*
Posted by theCrowsWife (Member # 8302) on :
*agrees with JT*
That book and The Bridge to Terebinthia were the two that I thought of when I saw this thread title. Both of those were fifth grade reading assignments, and they both made me cry in class. So much for my strong girl persona :\.
--Mel
Posted by Raventhief (Member # 9002) on :
The last 20 pages of Last Days of Summer. <-- greatest book ever.
Posted by kmbboots (Member # 8576) on :
Wow, Dan, I can see how that could really break your heart. All the lost potential. Just reading your post makes me feel that we have gotten bogged down. What do you see as a way to get back to space? (Without, of course, creating evil weapons and subjugating women.)
Posted by Scott R (Member # 567) on :
quote:What do you see as a way to get back to space? (Without, of course, creating evil weapons and subjugating women.)
Picky, picky.
Posted by breyerchic04 (Member # 6423) on :
I hate reading really really sad books (there's no way on earth I will ever read Where the Red Fern Grows, and I know it), but I had to read Bridge to Terebithia in 5th grade, and loved it. I decided i wanted to write a sequal, where he would would have a new friend who was even more sheltered than himself. And it would have been amazing, oh well, you know 5th grade dreams probably aren't great, I wanted to be a fairy too.
But I'm not sure that's the saddest book I've ever read.
Posted by peterh (Member # 5208) on :
For me, the saddest was The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. For spoilerific reasons, I won't go into details, but no other book left me so depressed.
Posted by Altáriël of Dorthonion (Member # 6473) on :
Well, who will argue that one of the saddest books was the Giving Tree? I cry every time I read it... seriously, I do. Although, one of the saddest pieces of literature I've read was the original "The Little Mermaid".
Posted by Youth ap Orem (Member # 5582) on :
The only book I ever cried after reading was Where the Red Fern Grows. I told my girlfriend that and she was amazed because she's never seen me cry before.
Posted by MyrddinFyre (Member # 2576) on :
That book would get to *anyone*, at least that's my theory.
Posted by Irami Osei-Frimpong (Member # 2229) on :
"On the Beach," by Nevil Shute.
Posted by kmbboots (Member # 8576) on :
(giving up on the space discussion)
The book that made me cry the most (and a lot of books made me cry) was "The Time Travelers Wife". I was wrecked. I truly could not see through the tears and my chest hurt from sobbing. There were times when it almost hurt too much to continue. It was brilliant.
I think "The Giving Tree" (though I like Shel Silverstein) is kind of icky.
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
I can't even think about it without crying. Mostly because what it describes really happened.
Posted by Amanecer (Member # 4068) on :
quote: Well, who will argue that one of the saddest books was the Giving Tree?
I'll agree. I also think that book is horrible. Every time I read it I want to kill the boy and hug the tree. *shudders*
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
The saddest books that made me cry which is embarassing are- Prayer for Owen Meany Bridge to Terebithia Elfquest (don't laugh, the way she draws those big-eyed elves just gets me...) HP 6 Beloved didn't make me cry, it was just depressing...
There's more, but I am at work and cannot think of them
Posted by kmbboots (Member # 8576) on :
Could they re-title it "The Enabler Tree"?
Posted by sarcasticmuppet (Member # 5035) on :
"A Day No Pigs Would Die." I read it when I was in the fifth grade.
Posted by Narnia (Member # 1071) on :
"The Girl in the Box." I read it in junior high and it was just so depressing. It had a crappy beginning and a crappy ending, but the story she told in the middle was so powerful to me back then that I ended up reading it several times.
Posted by dkw (Member # 3264) on :
kmboots, I'm with you on The Giving Tree. Horrible book.
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
I disagree with the assertion "lets not do it because it may be dangerous" with great tools come great responsibility. Sure the nuclear bombs were horrible weapons, but they're peace time aplications makes them worth the effort, almost worth the cost of those sacrificed for societies progress.
That a terrorist might use such devices for ill is something we must fight and make sure it never happens, not killing the tree because it might fall down and destory the house.
Posted by libertygirl (Member # 8761) on :
One of the saddest books I have ever read is ' That was then this is now'. So sad but I keep rereading it and keep crying.
Posted by Megan (Member # 5290) on :
Count me in on being disturbed by "The Giving Tree." I adore Shel Silverstein's work, but yeah, I just wanted to slap the selfish boy/man.
Posted by kmbboots (Member # 8576) on :
And he learned nothing. I think the fact that the tree was female and liked being used up by this unappreciative jerk was what really annoyed me.
Posted by Bella Bee (Member # 7027) on :
I can't believe no-one's mentioned 'Little Women' yet! Same goes for Jane Eyre, when
SPOILER, I guess...
her best friend at that horrible school - is it Helen? - dies.
Oh, and Pat of Silver Bush, by LM Mongomery, yet another childhood friend death.
I guess that sort of thing always really got to me, because it's a bit of a nightmare at that age, that your best friend might suddenly kick the bucket one day.
But OSC's 'Lost Boys' made me cry more than any of those books put together.
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
I was just talking about The Giving Tree with my son, because he had to read it in a foreign language for school. He said that the tree was like the most pathetic friend ever, trying to do anything to win the affections of the boy. I told him that he missed the point entirely. The tree is the mother figure, who is willing to sacrifice anything, even her own life, so that her child can prosper and be happy, and that her sacrifices are purely motivated by love, not by any expectation of reward.
He said, "That's your interpretation, Mom." Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
quote:Originally posted by Bella Bee: SPOILER, I guess...
her best friend at that horrible school - is it Helen? - dies.
But OSC's 'Lost Boys' made me cry more than any of those books put together.
Helen Burns was not just Jane Eyre's best friend, she was also, evidently, her lesbian lover.
And Lost Boys was a severely creepy book. I wasn't so much saddened as seriously creeped out. If I had come up with such a story, I'd have trouble sleeping at night.
I will admit to crying at the end of Love Story and Summer of My German Soldier. Of course, I read them when I was in the 6th grade, so it's been a while, but I can't remember crying so deliciously over any other books.
Posted by Megan (Member # 5290) on :
Summer of My German Soldier was sad...but, if I'm recalling correctly, it doesn't even come close to the depression fest that is the sequel, Morning is a Long Time Coming.
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
Lost Boys How could I forget that? It had me weeping my eyes out the last time i read it.
Posted by kmbboots (Member # 8576) on :
quote: Helen Burns was not just Jane Eyre's best friend, she was also, evidently, her lesbian lover.
Huh?
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
quote:Originally posted by kmbboots: Huh?
Well, it my English teacher didn't discuss it, but it was always obvious from my reading of the book. Didn't strike you that way? All that climbing into bed together, embracing, yadda yadda yadda?
Posted by kmbboots (Member # 8576) on :
I'll have to check, but I got the impression that Jane and Helen were about ten at the time. Of course that could be because I was about that age when I read it the first time.
Or you could just be winding me up.
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
<looking around the room> No, really. I thought it was obvious to everyone. Just me? Huh.
Posted by kmbboots (Member # 8576) on :
That you're pulling my leg?
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
I'm not leg-pulling. I really think they are lovers.
Posted by kmbboots (Member # 8576) on :
I am going to have to check that out when I get home. Did you think that they were older?
I'll let you know in the morning.
Posted by Bella Bee (Member # 7027) on :
I think it might just be a cultural change which leads the modern reader to delve too deeply into the ways in which people in the past used to show affection to one another. I read something a while ago which suggested that Jane Austen was having an incestuous relationship with her sister because they used to sleep in the same bed... not taking into account that this was perfectly normal and done in every home. But it's fun to insinuate - I know I love to and most English teachers make a career out of it.
A high school English teacher of mine once borrowed my umbrella in class and used it to demonstrate a sexual metaphor, and I've never quite looked at an umbrella quite the same way since. But if she were Jane's lover, it would actually be even sadder.
Posted by Glenn Arnold (Member # 3192) on :
I'll second "A Day No Pigs Would Die."
But add that in the sequel, "A Part of the Sky," things get even worse. And if you've read the first, and haven't read the second, you know at least part of why they kept getting worse.
I had "A Day No Pigs Would Die" read to me in fifth grade. I read it myself in 6th grade, and have read it many times since.
(Robert Newton Peck came to our school both years, and held a competition to name the sequel to "Soup" at our school. It was "Soup and Me")
Posted by Architraz Warden (Member # 4285) on :
For sad and depressing books, where does The Lorax rank on y'all's list?
And I'll (what, fourth?) Where the Red Fern Grows.
Posted by Silent E (Member # 8840) on :
Tess of the D'urbervilles is pretty sad, as is the Hunchback of Notre Dame, but I'll have to think a while about whether either of them is the saddest I've ever read.
Come to think of it, the book of Mormon (within the Book of Mormon) is right up there, as well.
Posted by sarcare (Member # 8736) on :
Night, by Elie Wiesel has got to be on this list. I just finished it this morning.
Posted by El JT de Spang (Member # 7742) on :
To top of my list of "Books that made me cry" at two is Say Goodnight, Gracie.
*pats self on back for thoroughly successful derailment*
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
quote:Originally posted by Bella Bee: I think it might just be a cultural change which leads the modern reader to delve too deeply into the ways in which people in the past used to show affection to one another. I read something a while ago which suggested that Jane Austen was having an incestuous relationship with her sister because they used to sleep in the same bed... not taking into account that this was perfectly normal and done in every home ... But if she were Jane's lover, it would actually be even sadder.
I really didn't think I was so out on a limb, here. Jane and Helen aren't assigned to the same bed. They land up in bed together because they love each other. I am sure that there is no, um, intercourse, or penetration, or anything, but there is definitely hugging, kissing, staring deeply into one another's eyes, baring souls, long walks together. Jane draws Helen's portrait. There is a definite physical attraction there, as well as an emotional sympatico.
Bah, this thread is getting all deraily on the subject. I'm starting a new one!
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
I'ld think Speaker of the Dead is the only book on the second read that made me cry. Waaaaait, when Flint Fireforge died in the Dragonlance novels also made me cry.
But generally books like the above would make me feel depressed.
Posted by libertygirl (Member # 8761) on :
quote: Summer of My German Soldier was sad...but, if I'm recalling correctly, it doesn't even come close to the depression fest that is the sequel, Morning is a Long Time Coming.
Summer of My German Soldier was written well and very sad but Morning is a Long Time Coming seemed pretty stupid to me. I was very disapointed.
I have to agree about Night. That book easily made me cry.
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
Donor Boy made me cry.
Posted by BGgurl (Member # 8541) on :
For me, the only title that comes to mind is Freak the Mighty
Oh yeah, Flowers for Algernon comes in as a close second.
Posted by Will B (Member # 7931) on :
The Yearling Freckles Posted by HectorVictor (Member # 9003) on :
quote:Originally posted by El JT de Spang: Hmm. The saddest book I've ever read was Where the Red Fern Grows.
Is there anything more southern than a grown man crying about a fictional boy losing his dogs?
That was definitely the saddest book I ever read.
=======SOTH AND SOTG SPOILERS!!!!=======
However, I did cry a bit during SotH when Carlotta dies and at the end of SotG, when it talks about Petra reading the Hegemon.
Posted by Altáriël of Dorthonion (Member # 6473) on :
quote:Originally posted by HectorVictor:
quote:Originally posted by El JT de Spang: Hmm. The saddest book I've ever read was Where the Red Fern Grows.
Is there anything more southern than a grown man crying about a fictional boy losing his dogs?
That was definitely the saddest book I ever read.
=======SOTH AND SOTG SPOILERS!!!!=======
However, I did cry a bit during SotH when Carlotta dies and at the end of SotG, when it talks about Petra reading the Hegemon.
I cried during those and also during the Women of Genesis. In the Bible, those women were only mentioned, but there was no real character development. I felt so sad knowing that the women OSC portrayed them as have been dead for at least 4k years...
Posted by Irami Osei-Frimpong (Member # 2229) on :
I'm revising my entry.
Sarah by J.T. Leroy, and nobody dies.
Posted by Cashew (Member # 6023) on :
Lost Boys had tears streaming down my cheeks first time I read it (47 yr old male, sitting at Honolulu Airport with my wife and kids waiting for our plane home!You can imagine what my teenagers were thinking). The only other book that made me cry was The Boy With No Shoes, by William Horwood.
And isn't nuclear FISSION the explosive one? I thought nuclear fusion was safe, and we haven't been able to do it yet...
Posted by advice for robots (Member # 2544) on :
I thought We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates was a very sad book, although it has kind of a happy ending.
Where the Red Fern Grows made me cry. I remember sitting there on the couch reading it and crying. I can't remember how old I was when I read it, but old enough not to cry at the drop of a hat. It was a sad book.
Posted by erosomniac (Member # 6834) on :
Am I the only one who laughed and laughed at Where the Red Fern Grows?
Maybe I was too old when I read it, but I found the story to be a cheap set of tricks designed to manipulate you emotionally. It was so blatant to me that I was put off, until I decided that the author must have done it on purpose to entertain, so I laughed instead.
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
I was just annoyed that
spoiler
BOTH OF THE DOGS HAD TO DIE! Then the mother and father, who were already irratating as it is because the father would have taken the boy's hard earned money and bought a MULE with it. With his money! At least his grandfather was cool, giving him candy and stuff and telling the boy that he'd help him out. But the parents were all like, well, it was God's will because we couldn't move to the city (and the city sucked by the way, beating up that boy and picking on his dogs) with a pair of country dogs. That really is not comforting by any stretch of the imagination as he loved those dogs and it sucked to lose both of them because of some stupid mountain lion. Grr, that was annoying... That poor kid Posted by HectorVictor (Member # 9003) on :
quote:Originally posted by Cashew: And isn't nuclear FISSION the explosive one? I thought nuclear fusion was safe, and we haven't been able to do it yet...
First off, where in the world did that come from, lol?
Secondly, they both produce energy, and if there is enough mass, an explosion. The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were fission bombs, while the more-powerful hydrogen bomb, or H-bomb uses a fission reaction as a trigger to create the necessary pressures and temperatures for fusion to take place, causing deuterium and I think tridium to fuse into elemental He (please correct me if I am wrong on the isotopes).
Finally, there are reactors that use both fission and fusion (separately of course, i.e., different reactors) to produce energy. These have the potential to be "explosive" but are contained within strong magnetic fields, and are surrounded by giant vats of water that insulate the extremely high temeperatures needed to cause the reactions. As of now, we have just surpassed the barrier in fusion technology so that we now get more energy out of fusion than we put into it. However, we are still far from the point at which the net energy produced is enough that it has any useful value whatsoever. The reactors that currently provide power for populations are all fission reactors.
Posted by Cashew (Member # 6023) on :
It came from the first post: "Yet it gets some things so wrong--the assumption that we will allow fusion reactors to be commonly built into spacecraft for propulsion. Sure, that might work, if we could guarantee that they wouldn't be used as bombs by some fanatic. Imagine 9/11, but with Nuclear Fusion Reactors on ships dropping from orbit."
And thanks for the explanation.
Posted by HectorVictor (Member # 9003) on :
Ah, thx for that Cashew.
Posted by Bean Counter (Member # 6001) on :
I have seen a laser launch system that could work very well with a ground based dedicated fussion source, using the ground laser to turn a ramjet filled chamber into a plasma spewing rocket, or you could use anything, water, sewage, whatever you could keep coming as the laser vaporizes it.
In fact the Book Footfall which harkens back to the same era and makes many of the same points has aliens setting up such a system here on Earth as well as other space based weapons. It also discusses the Orion, a massive space station, essentially a giant iron mushroom cap that is launched by means of nuclear fission bombs. Nasty on the environment but a quick and dirty way to put a lot of mass into space.
Still I think that we have a cusp at hand where it will no longer require government interest to start the move into space, the cost benefit will soon mean large investment groups will start us in the right direction and the government will have to play catch up!
BC
Posted by 0range7Penguin (Member # 7337) on :
They have both been mentioned on here already but i think the two saddest books are definantly,
1. Bridge to Taribithia. This one actually made me tear up.
2. Where the Red Fern Grows. Our teacher read this too us in my fourth grade class. I didn't cry with all my peers arround me but I got the biggest lump in my throught.(I spelled that wrong)
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
quote:Originally posted by 0range7Penguin: I got the biggest lump in my throught.(I spelled that wrong)
So...spell it right! Posted by Irregardless (Member # 8529) on :
quote:Originally posted by Blayne Bradley: Waaaaait, when Flint Fireforge died in the Dragonlance novels also made me cry.
LOL, I wasn't expecting anyone to post it -- but same here. Poor Flint.
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
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