Orbital is set over a 24 hour period in a spacecraft orbiting the earth. There are six people on board- four astronaut and two cosmonauts, four men and two women, five nationalities. During the 24 hour period the spacecraft orbits the earth 16 times- 16 sunrises and 16 nightfalls- but the residents of the spacecraft are expected to keep a standard time. “They feel space trying to rid them of the notion of days”, .but they follow a rigid timetable which has no connection to what is happening on earth below them.
It is just one day on board the spacecraft. A day like any other. In space stories you expect drama, aliens, equipment at a critical time. At the very least, you expect sexual tension. But there is none of that in this book. It is a day like any other, and when ground control jokes that they are all ‘yesterday’s news’, “(the astronaut) jokes back that better yesterday’s news than tomorrow’s, if they know what he means. If you’re an astronaut you’d rather not ever be news.”
There is a storm brewing in the Pacific, and though there will be many cameras directed at it from space, the six have been asked to document it too. The islands where the storm is likely to hit is intensely personal for one astronaut, but that is not a key element of the plot. Another astronaut loses her mother, but while memories of her mother dominate her thoughts as she goes about her tasks, that is not what the story is about either. Others reach key personal decisions. But the book is not about anything that happens. The book is a celebration of the thoughts of the six on board the spacecraft. The reason why they chose to go into space, their relationship with immensity of space and their musings on human barriers and national boundaries.Each realise they are where they are because of those who came before them, and they know that they will pave the way for the ones to come.
There are breathtakingly beautiful descriptions of the earth, and you almost yearn to be up there looking down. If, like me, you spent a large part of your childhood gazing at the night sky, trying to determine your place among the immensity of time and the enormity of space, this book is for you. Reading this book is like listening to the symphony of the heavens.
In the book, there is a description of Velazquez’s ‘Las Meninas’. Which of the many characters is the subject of the painting Shaun has wondered for years. “Pietro stares for a while at the painting, and a while longer, then says, It’s the dog….. The subject of the painting is the dog”. What is the book about, we wonder. Till the answer comes to us in a flash- the book is about Us.
No comments:
Post a Comment