October Readings
The Martian - Andy Weir
Mark Watney strikes readers as quite ordinary. We’re in his head, and it’s like our own, or rather his thoughts are similar to what we might share aloud with an ironic tone. I didn’t realize until recently most astronauts - at least American astronauts, are in fact ordinary people. A Netflix documentary I watched recently follows a dad as he prepares for a launch, he was previously in the air force. He has kids and lives in an average house and has normal problems. They also don’t really earn much. I think it’s a bit different in other nations, though. But of course, for a special capstone Mars mission the crew are extraordinary - like Watney.
The voice we hear isn’t totally candid, though. While he shares with us his thoughts following disaster and a very high chance of death, he knows he is being watched - even if it’s from a century down the track or from a satellite, his conduct at times feels like how people ironically tweet about mundane struggles, “back on my bullshit lol” except he’s on mars and he nearly exploded himself.
He always has a joke - something the Ares psych says signifies his resilience. I’m not sure about that, but we have to trust her because she’s the expert - and certainly he is resilient, so she must be right - BUT all the men I know who are like that are certainly miserable. Watney does seem one of those men who slaps you on the shoulder and says “how’s it going?” but really, the act almost aggressively says “let’s talk about anything but how we are and how we feel. Please, I wouldn’t know how to respond if you said anything other than what you’ve been up to lately”.
The tech and particularly the problem solving is very fun - the most pleasurable aspects of the tale. A lot of NASAs ‘real life’ technology is explored with great care, as Watney improvises in extraordinary creative ways to hack together some solution. We get to learn a little about space exploration and a number of scientific disciplines. Probably the only missing detail is Lenovo ThinkPads as the SysOps sturdy workhorse - which I’m sure it still will be in 2035.
Back on earth there is a scramble to respond - how to manage public perception, funding and politics. In the end it is the crew and Rich Purnell’s maths that can provide a mutinous last-ditch plan. It has to be this way, only the collective individuals can choose to engage in something so obviously dangerous and unlikely to succeed. No one else can ask them to do that, or even ask them to choose if they want to or not.
Unimaginably large amounts of money, engineering hours and anguish are spent on the Watney rescue. It feels natural - I’m sure if this really happened something similar could unfold, and so it should. Watney and people on earth are of course aware of this expense, but it isn’t even a question. It’s worth it and we can’t abandon him. This does leave us wondering – God, just imagine if the whole world wanted to make an incredible effort to resolve any number of disasters experienced every day in the grotesque world we inhabit?