Skip to main content

“Voyage to the Moon”

Image from amazon.com

“Voyage to the Moon” is one of many texts collected in an anthology of P. Craig Russell’s work, titled Isolation and Illusion: Collected Short Stories 1977-1997. This is a three part tale of an Earthling who is sucked up by the moon’s gravity well and transported to its surface. Having landed in a lush forest, the adventurer stops to admire a delectable flower, and its mere scent makes him twenty years younger, foreshadowing a society where mores are the opposite of those on earth and youth is more highly prized than age. Shortly thereafter, he is discovered by the race of men who inhabit the planet. Unfortunately, they make sport of him and treat him as an oddity until he encounters a man from the sun who helps him navigate his way through this world. Russell’s simple playful lines and broad color palette render a caricatural depiction of this seventeenth century science fiction novel—with its exotic world and denizens—that complements and extends the text yet is fitting for modern sensibilities. “Voyage to the Moon” would find a home in a literature study of early science fiction that includes works such as Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon, H.G. Wells' The First Men in the Moon, and Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. In addition, it couches social commentary in an outlandish plot, thus it is critical without being biting; consequently, this tale would make a nice introduction to other indirect critiques of modern society such as Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Becoming a Comics Librarian and the Importance of Joining a Community of Practice

  Originally published April 5, 2023 Library Developments Blog |  Library Development and Networking Division Texas State Library and Archives Commission ***** As a freshly-minted librarian, I was hired to serve at THE high school bearing my district’s name alongside an amazingly zany, veteran librarian who knew the current collection inside and out as she’d been the one to revitalize it with bond money just prior to my arrival. To say that I was intimidated about what I could possibly have to contribute is more than an understatement. So when the moment of truth arrived and I was handed a “small” purchase order to get my feet wet, I. Was. Stymied! Her  fingerprints were all throughout that collection, and what  she  didn’t read our assistant  did . How would I ever fit into this team?! What could I possibly contribute?! To be honest… after teaching a core, tested subject for fifteen years, I was just beginning to read young adult literature regularly...
Post a Comment
Read more

My Equity Statement

Although I’ve led a relatively privileged life, I’ve never been allowed the luxury to forget that I am Black and that this life is Promethean fire, stolen from those who would refuse me such power. From a young age, I was raised with an awareness that the life I enjoyed was hard-won, secured by generations of conscious decisions to undermine institutional inequity, and that it could only be retained and furthered by never seeming too Black,  always outworking non-Black peers,  and pretending obliviousness to shock at my excellence. I was groomed to live as an exemplar of this rhetorical triangle, persuading the powers of American society not to bar my way to success and perhaps even grant the same opportunities expected by my non-Black peers. At home, I was taught to blend into non-Black America as a successful woman capable of navigating any social register. I grew up the daughter of college-educated professionals in an upper-middle class, predominantly white neighborhood in ...
Post a Comment
Read more

ARSL 2024 Conference Recap

  Originally published October 25, 2024 Library Developments Blog  |  Library Development and Networking Division Texas State Library and Archives Commission Waiting outside Gate 21 where the scent of pizza from the nearby Eastside Pies booth filled the air, I excitedly chatted about the transitional weather with my new teammate – to quote James Hurst “summer was dead but autumn had not yet been born” – the logistics of traveling for work, and our preparedness to attend the 2024 Association for Small and Rural Libraries (ARSL) conference . Neither of us truly knew what to expect, but we had been told that ARSL is THE conference for rural and small libraries, with conference organizers who not only understand the constraints of these libraries but also the unique opportunities for their being chrysalises of change. The conference theme “Libraries are (r)Evolutionary” proclaimed the event aimed to provide an opportunity for exploring the transformative power of rural and sm...
Post a Comment
Read more