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"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.
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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.
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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 :\.
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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.)
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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.
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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.
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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".
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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.
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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.
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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*
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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
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"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.
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kmboots, I'm with you on The Giving Tree. Horrible book.
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Blayne Bradley
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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." Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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")
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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.
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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!
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Blayne Bradley
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posted
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.
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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.
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