Of a Fire on the Moon

Fülszöveg

The incisive blend of reportage and reflection which distinguishes the work of Norman Mailer is well known: his famed account of the peace march on the Pentagon, Armies of the Night, merited the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.
Now he has written OF A FIRE ON THE MOON, an astonishing work unusual in scope, subject matter and approach. With his perceptive and thoughtful eye, equally adept at examining the whole world or a small part of it, Mailer confronts the science of space — the technology which has hurtled man away from his native planet. Mailer, as Aquarius, as alien observer, and as participant, dissects the bureaucratic structure, the machines, the people, the society which initiated this unnerving and unprecedented venture into the unfamiliar.
Chopping through the nearly inpenetrabie web of computerese surrounding NASA and the deliberately sexless sterility of Houston and Cape Kennedy, he reveals the marrow of this operation, the motivation and the meaning in... Tovább

Fülszöveg

The incisive blend of reportage and reflection which distinguishes the work of Norman Mailer is well known: his famed account of the peace march on the Pentagon, Armies of the Night, merited the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.
Now he has written OF A FIRE ON THE MOON, an astonishing work unusual in scope, subject matter and approach. With his perceptive and thoughtful eye, equally adept at examining the whole world or a small part of it, Mailer confronts the science of space — the technology which has hurtled man away from his native planet. Mailer, as Aquarius, as alien observer, and as participant, dissects the bureaucratic structure, the machines, the people, the society which initiated this unnerving and unprecedented venture into the unfamiliar.
Chopping through the nearly inpenetrabie web of computerese surrounding NASA and the deliberately sexless sterility of Houston and Cape Kennedy, he reveals the marrow of this operation, the motivation and the meaning in human terms. From the psychology of men — Von Braun, Armstrong, Gilruth, Petrone, Aldrin, Collins, Slayton — to the psychology of machines
— Saturn V, LEM, Mission Control Center
— Mailer provides provocative and trenchant insights into the symbiosis of science and magic; the changing definitions of death and time, the sensuous, dread, the forgiveness and damnation in the face of technology.
Continued on second flap
Continued from first flap
Ranging from the detailed structure of the Apollo rocket to an analysis of the society which created It, Mailer conveys the full essence of this experience, elucidating as has' never before been attempted the heroic, monumental and conceivably sinister aspects of the science of space and interplanetary exploration.
OF A FIRE ON THE MOON: an unprecedented synthesis of science and literature written from an entirely new vantage point, and marked by the wit, the penetrating insight, and the philosophical scope which have long distinguished the works of Norman Mailer.
Norman Mailer began his writing career in 1941 by winning Story Magazine's annual college writing contest. Since then he has written more than a dozen books of prose, poetry and drama including The Naked and the Dead, Barbary Shore, Advertisements for Myself, An American Dream, Armies of the Night and Miami and the Siege of Chicago. A co-founder of the Viiiage Voice, Mr. Mailer has also authored scores of articles for magazines and newspapers. He received both the Pulitzer Prize and the 1969 National Book Award for Armies of the Night.
Jacket design by Sarah El Bindarl Vissza