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Author
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Topic: Of a Fire on the Moon (Norman Mailer)
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andrex
Member Posts: 18
From: Melbourne, Australia
Registered: Jul 2004
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posted 04-28-2005 09:27 PM
  
I have just finished reading Norman Mailer's "Of a Fire on the Moon" (Little, Brown and Co., 1970). Just wondering what other readers thought of it? Although not overly heavy on tech detail, it certainly gave me a feel of the time, albeit through one strange man's eyes. |
randy
Member Posts: 2176
From: West Jordan, Utah USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 04-28-2005 11:34 PM
I thought it was a good book. Certainly not one of the best I've read on the subject, but a good one never the less. |
FFrench
Member Posts: 3161
From: San Diego
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 04-29-2005 10:34 AM
The style of the book is very much of its time, and Mailer keeps it very much focused on himself — but I think it captures very well how the mood of the times was increasingly divorced from NASA's engineering-oriented focus to carrying out their primary goals. Some interesting insights into how the Apollo 11 crew came across to outsiders at the time too. It captures a public disconnection that helps explain why Apollo slipped off the radar of public interest. |
DChudwin
Member Posts: 1096
From: Lincolnshire IL USA
Registered: Aug 2000
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posted 04-30-2005 08:54 AM
I know for a fact that Mailer did on-the-scenes research before the Apollo 11 launch because I was on the same press tour bus with him at the Cape before Apollo 11The book is a good example of the "new journalism" evolving at that time. |
Tykeanaut
Member Posts: 2212
From: Worcestershire, England, UK.
Registered: Apr 2008
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posted 10-05-2014 08:35 AM
This book has passed me by up until now as I've just ordered a copy and look forward to reading it. |
hermit
Member Posts: 186
From: Scotland
Registered: Jun 2009
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posted 10-05-2014 09:04 AM
I tried to read it several time way back when, but never got very far. |
Blackarrow
Member Posts: 3118
From: Belfast, United Kingdom
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 10-05-2014 01:45 PM
How much of the original book is included in the "Moonfire" illustrated "coffee-table" version? The dust-jacket says the original book is "excerpted" but does "Moonfire" allow a proper assessment of "A Fire on the Moon"? |
GoesTo11
Member Posts: 1309
From: Denver, CO
Registered: Jun 2004
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posted 10-05-2014 02:29 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Blackarrow:
Does "Moonfire" allow a proper assessment of "A Fire on the Moon"?
Not really. I've read the original book, and I own Moonfire, but I can't say specifically how much of Mailer's text was republished. Taschen's editors did a fine job of selecting the most artful and incisive portions of Mailer's narrative while mostly paring the tangential and self-indulgent.I've posted here before that Of a Fire on the Moon is a *challenging* read, freighted with Mailer's egotism and ideological baggage, as well as the stylistic excesses of what was then "New Journalism." I also believe it's worth the slog: Mailer was undeniably a compelling prose artist and a keen observer. His recounting of Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins' pre-launch press conference, and his impressions of the three men's personalities, are especially piercing. And you will not find a more powerful, evocative, and visceral eyewitness account of the launch of Apollo 11 anywhere else in print. |
canyon42
Member Posts: 238
From: Ohio
Registered: Mar 2006
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posted 10-05-2014 05:43 PM
Personally, I despised the book when I read it in my late teens, and found it no better a couple of decades later. If you want a pseudo-account of Apollo through the filter of someone ridiculously full of himself, have at it. I won't ever bother again... |
J.L
Member Posts: 674
From: Bloomington, Illinois, USA
Registered: May 2005
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posted 10-05-2014 11:50 PM
I read it around 1980... found it to be a pretty good read. |
GoesTo11
Member Posts: 1309
From: Denver, CO
Registered: Jun 2004
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posted 11-28-2014 09:40 PM
There's a recent re-release that I don't believe has been previously noted here. |
Tykeanaut
Member Posts: 2212
From: Worcestershire, England, UK.
Registered: Apr 2008
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posted 02-02-2015 05:11 AM
I've finally been able to pick this book up and start reading it. I'm on about page 100 and have to say I'm finding it a struggle due to the pretentious style. |
Fra Mauro
Member Posts: 1586
From: Bethpage, N.Y.
Registered: Jul 2002
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posted 02-02-2015 01:09 PM
It's a heavy book — a novelist writing history. |
Tykeanaut
Member Posts: 2212
From: Worcestershire, England, UK.
Registered: Apr 2008
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posted 02-03-2015 09:34 AM
Yep, I give up. Too much "waffle". |
David C
Member Posts: 1014
From: Lausanne
Registered: Apr 2012
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posted 02-03-2015 11:27 AM
Don't blame you. |
Tykeanaut
Member Posts: 2212
From: Worcestershire, England, UK.
Registered: Apr 2008
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posted 02-22-2015 07:31 AM
Against my better judgement I picked it up again and sort of speed-read through it, picking out the interesting bits.Towards the end (page 367) I was interested to see this quote: There were even ladies wearing red-white-and-blue Ed White scarves (autographed by every astronaut) which were sold by astronauts' wives to make money for the 'Ed White Memorial Fund.' I wonder if any of those scarves still exist anywhere? |
Larry McGlynn
Member Posts: 1255
From: Boston, MA
Registered: Jul 2003
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posted 02-22-2015 10:09 AM
Yes, I have one in the collection. I picked it up from a Heritage after auction sale. |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42981
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 02-22-2015 11:46 AM
There were reportedly 200 of the scarves produced, and as Larry said, they still pop up for sale from time to time. Here is an example (ex Jack Lousma):  |
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