Orbital by Samantha Harvey – Winner of The Booker Prize for 2024, in competition with James by Percival Everrett, the latter is the author of Telephone – my note on it is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2021/07/a-finalist-for-2021-pulitzer-prize-for.html where I have a few thousand reviews - 9 out of 10

 

Orbital by Samantha Harvey – Winner of The Booker Prize for 2024, in competition with James by Percival Everrett, the latter is the author of Telephone – my note on it is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2021/07/a-finalist-for-2021-pulitzer-prize-for.html where I have a few thousand reviews

 

9 out of 10

 

This is an impressive, short novel, I think I have read that it is the second shortest to win the Booker Prize, just behind Offshore https://realini.blogspot.com/2018/03/offshore-by-penelope-fitzgerald.html and is the Penelope Fitzgerald magnum opus was about not being on the shore, Orbital is Off Earth, in orbit

 

I have seen a documentary about being in space and it was interesting to see how well researched the novel is, the difficulty of being up there is so well explained, through the stories of the six cosmonauts – I understand the Chinese call them tyconauts, or something like that – American, British, Italian, Japanese and two Russians

The politics of earth do not apply so much in space, still, there is the time when they say the toilet is for Russians only, then in retaliation, they will not be able to use the bike, overall, there is this feeling that from over there, many of the petty tensions from earth would appear minuscule, at least for a short period

 

The human organism is not well adapted to space travel, indeed, it was in The Economist -a different species may be needed, that is humans that develop different capacities, ergo, they would no longer be Sapiens https://realini.blogspot.com/2021/02/sapiens-brief-history-of-humankind-by.html but a new kind of creature

Various developments affect the organism, and if for those months the astronauts can recuperate, to send people to Mars would be a different, impossible endeavor for now, it will be a better goal to try and save this planet, have it useable for humans, earth will continue the exist, even if humans are extinct, and they may wipe out life

 

One passage that had an impact in particular is about…Las Meninas by Velasquez – Shaun is the American in the crew, when he was fifteen, he had this lesson about the painting 🖼 which disoriented viewer:

What it was they were looking at? A painting inside a painting. Velasquez is in the painting, creating a painting 🖼 we see the reflection in the mirror - what is the real subject of the painting? King and Queen, the daughter or us?

Or is the subject art itself- which is a set of tricks and artifices within life- or life itself- which is a set of illusions and tricks and artifices within a consciousness that is trying to understand life through perceptions and dreams and art?

 

-          Well, what about this fundamental question?

 

This movement in space - Space shreds time to pieces. In a day they circle the earth 16 times, see 16 sunrises 🌅 and 16 🌇 sunsets. Ground crew tell them to look often at the watch to anchor your mind – made me think of elections

I have just returned from the vote – liberal for me, in case you wonder – but there is a danger that the next president is a far-right nut case, who talks about microchips in the Coca Cola drink, denies the moon landing, an absolute moron in other words, who came in at the…top, due to a numerous following, met a fan a couple of hours ago

 

Wrose, she is a woman, and I was asking her about supporting the other candidate, in the last round, there is this fool and a woman – the latter was not a favorite of mine, indeed, mea culpa, for the first round I did not even bother to vote, sure that there is no chance that lunatics will come to the front of the line

 

-          Well, this one did!

 

He has a campaign that copies Putin, swimming the same style, on horseback and…judo, what is disastrous is that the lunatic is not only using the techniques, he admires the tyrant, hence, he will push this country eastward, instead on keeping it on track, in the European Union, NATO where we have been doing well

His fans say look at Orban, Hungary had success, but that is not because of this other moron, it is in spite of him, and he is seen as not just an eccentric, but an idiot, useful for the likes of Orange Jesus and Putin, hopefully, we will elect the candidate of the right, no the extremist, and we will continue to be ‘normal, banal’

 

Nonetheless, it is an alarm bell, and a sign that there are so many who embrace stupidity, nationalism, imposture, conspiracy theories – in the sauna, at the club downtown, where you would expect more refined clients, there were a couple of ghouls, vey vocal in the support for this would be president of a Russian province

For if he wins, that would be the plan…well, it is hyperbole, but the direction will surely change, the barbarians will have gained a major victory, and to hear how they talked ‘pula, fut’ like the most vulgar of gangsters…

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

 

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

 

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”