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Space Policy 28 (2012) 306–307

Contents lists available

Space Policy

journal homepage: www.elsevier .com/locate/spacepol

Book review

Imagining Outer Space: European Astroculture in the TwentiethCentury, Alexander C.T. Geppert (Ed.), Palgrave Macmillan,London, 2012 (393 pp., £70.00, ISBN: 9780230231726)

Working from the observation that ‘outer space has a historytoo’ (p. 3), three core questions drive the content of this interesting,cross-disciplinary work (p. 6):

1. How did the idea of outer space, spaceflight and especiallyexploration, develop in the 20th century as a central elementof the Western European project and particularly that of Euro-pean modernity?

2. How was outer space represented and communicated, imaged,popularised and perceived in a variety of media?

3. In what ways have these conceptions of the cosmos and extra-terrestrial life been affected by the continual exploration ofouter space, and vice versa: ‘fictionalizing science, scientizingfiction’ (p. 13)?

The editor of this volume directs the Emmy Nöther ResearchGroup ‘The Future in the Stars: European Astroculture and Extrater-restrial Life in the Twentieth Century’, at the Friedrich-Meinicke-Institut, Free University of Berlin. His book aims to expand contem-porary understandings of ‘outer space’ such that ‘astroculture’becomes a new field of modern European historiography.

‘Astroculture’ is explained as being concerned with the ‘culturalsignificance and societal repercussions of outer space and spaceexploration’ (p. 8) and is seen as a culture-related counterpart tosuch notions as ‘astrophysics’ and ‘astropolitics’. It highlights theirony of a geographic understanding of outer space becominga continuation of imperial expansion and colonial dominationwhile simultaneously offering a source of utopian thinking.

The (potentially) stimulating cross-fertilisation of technology,space and culture is here pursued through a ‘transdisciplinary’perspective. The book’s publicity blurb argues that it examines‘sites and situations where utopian images and futuristic technolo-gies contributed to the omnipresence of fantasmatic thought.Bringing together state-of-the-art work in this emerging field ofhistorical research, this volume breaks new ground in the historici-zation of the Space Age.’

A recurrent philosophical theme is what the editor refers to asthe (Western) ‘European paradox’: a ‘comprehensive space enthu-siasm’, despite a decades-long abstinence [sic] from manual space-flight (p. 9). The editor goes on to claim two further ‘objectives’ forthe book, although they may be better considered as themes:

1. ‘Changing conceptions of outer space and extraterrestrial civili-zations must be read as historical expressions of earthly ideas ofthe spatialized beyond and past expectations of planetaryfutures’ (pp. 14–15).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.spacepol.2012.09.013

2. How did changing images of outer space and the entire cosmosimpinge on religion?

With one eye to the above, all prospective contributors to thisvolume were asked to address three questions:

1. Was there a specifically (West) European perspective on outerspace, especially in the period 1945–75, and how is the ‘Euro-pean paradox’ (above) to be explained?

2. How has the complex relationship between ‘science’ and‘fiction’ evolved: complementary rather than antithetical?

3. How can we explain the ‘close connection’ between outer spaceand visions of the future?

The volume is thus based both on a number of assumptions andon a set of relatively open questions that the 16 contributingauthors have attempted to address in a variety of ways. Contribu-tions are arranged in thematic and largely chronological order,such that the main body of the book comprises five parts eachwith three chapters.

Part I, ‘Narrating Outer Space’, begins with an overview byformer NASA chief historian Steven J. Dick on the role of imagina-tion in the conception of outer space. This is followed by literaryscholar Claudia Schmölders’ review of the Tunguska event – theJune 1908 meteor strike in Siberia – and its subsequent literary,scientific, metaphysical and pictorial impacts. This event, neverfully explained, she claims, and causing no deaths or buildingdestruction, transformed Tunguska into something of a touristattraction, with all that implies for truth seeking. Schmölders takesthe reader through her four analytical dimensions without drawingstrong conclusions on the actual cause of this significant event. InChapter 4 Thomas Brandstetter explores images of, and debatesabout ‘crystalline aliens’ – inorganic life forms on other planets –

in 20th century science and fiction.Part II, ‘Projecting Outer Space’, begins with Rainer Eisfeld’s

assessment of changing human projections on Mars since themid-19th century. He recognises four conceptions of the planet:‘Arcadian’, ‘Advanced’, ‘Frontier’ and ‘Cold War’. In Chapter 6 histo-rian Michael J. Neufeld sets out to analyse the largely unsuccessful1960s East German print and film campaign against the US-basedGerman rocket German, Wernher von Braun. This campaign, ledby the popular East German author of non-fiction spy books, JuliusMader, focused on von Braun’s involvement with the Nazi regime,the SS and its concentration camps. Not least, of course, was hisleadership of the development of one of Hitler’s most importantterror weapons, the V-2 ballistic missile. Neufeld takes us throughthe reasons why the East German campaign was ultimately a dampsquib.

Part III Visualizing Outer Space, concentrates on West Europeanconceptions of outer space in different media contexts. In Chapter 8

Book review / Space Policy 28 (2012) 306–307 307

Bernd Mütter evaluates coverage of space issues in West Germannewspapers and science television programmes in the 30 yearsbetween 1957 and 1987. This is followed by a study of Franco-Belgian comic strips with space themes, by Guillaume de Syon.Finally in this section, art historian Henry Keazor undertakes a crit-ical evaluation of the popular British television series Space: 1999.Sold to more than 100 countries, Keazor argues that this innovativeseries appeared at the wrong time. Squeezed between the originalStar Trek (1966–69) and Star Wars (1977), ‘two milestones of thegenre’, the programme’s 1973–5 productionwas dogged and domi-nated by the energy crisis, and was poorly compared to Arthur C.Clarke’s 2001. The author also argues that, conceived and developedby Gerry and Sylvia Anderson (of Thunderbirds fame) during 1972–73, it evolved at a turning point in 20th century postwar economicdevelopment, sandwiched between a period of optimism, cheapenergy and modernisation and one that appeared subsequently tostumble from one crisis to another. This inevitably influenced thecontent and even philosophy of the sci-fi series.

Part IV, ‘Encountering Outer Space’, focuses on ‘terrestrialcontacts with extraterrestrial civilisations’. In the section’s firstessay, Debbora Battaglia brings together an evaluation of a USNational Research Council project on alien life forms with an inter-pretation of Werner Herzog’s 2005 docu-fantasy film The Wild BlueYonder and the neo-creationist origin myth of Raëlism, ‘a contem-porary UFO religion’. In Chapter 12 Pierre Lagrange revisits theway in which sociologists represented and attributed the appear-ance of ‘flying saucers’ after 1947 within a Cold War context. Akey question Lagrange addresses is ‘how can scholars use ColdWar or science fiction explanations in their critical research,when these theories are part of the picture they should describeor explain?’ (pp. 224–6). The chapter traces the source of the flyingsaucer discourse to an event in June 1947, and eventually concludesthat ‘The argument that the flying saucers were a Cold War andscience fiction phenomenon is not the solution to the historicalconundrum, but rather one of the results of a collective debateset in 1947’ (p. 241).

Next, James Miller assesses postwar reported UFO sightings inQuarouble, a small village in northern France, and follows thesubsequent activities and media career of Marius Dewilde, a primeobserver and claimed extraterrestrial contact.

Part V, ‘Inscribing Outer Space’, begins with an essay by GonzloMunévar on the impossibility of exploring the depths of theuniverse by infinitely self-reproducing probes, and the conse-quences that such technology might have on the search for extra-terrestrial life. Chapter 15 offers an analysis of the famous NASA

Pioneer plaque and its interstellar message, by William R.Macauley.

The final essay in this part, by art historian Tristan Weddigan,addresses the calibration target that British artist Damien Hirstcreated for ESA’s Mars lander Beagle 2 in 2002. That contemporarypopular music and art by successful young British performers wereassociated with this Mars mission through the public relationstalent of its principal investigator, Colin Pillinger, contributesconsiderably to Weddigen’s argument that ‘the conflation ofscience, fiction, politics, economy, pop culture and globalizedmass media makes the rediscovery of Mars in the 1990s a post-modern event .. In 2003 Martians were imagined as lateconsumers of mainstream Britpop.’ (pp. 304, 306). The chapterconcludes that such self-conscious space art shows space explora-tion being transformed into space exploitation, emphasizing howhuman commoditization is expanding well beyond our own planet.

In his Epilogue Chapter 17, Philip Pocock provides bothcommentary and analysis on the history of space art from theperspective of a practising artist.

Overall, then, this is awell illustrated and referenced, reasonablywell integrated yet eclectic collection of essays. It manages to beentertaining, instructive and irritating by turns: irritating for thisformulaic reviewer (albeit stimulatory for further debate) not leastbecause several of the chapters fail to reach an obvious conclusion.

Criticisms? The usual carping about edited collections of essays,such as this being uneven in quality and lacking integration is tosome extent rendered redundant if only because of the wide-ranging and stimulating nature of the contributions, coupled withwell established guidelines provided for the authors. Personally,though, I feel that the editor outrages the English language justa little too often. And that there is no explicit final concluding/sum-marising chapter is perhaps understandable, if nonetheless to beregretted.

Many readers will be stimulated, perhaps even uplifted bydipping into this volume. Others may be annoyed, and some evenbaffled. Either way, this is clearly an important contribution tothe literature and a stimulus to ongoing and future debates andendeavours in the intertwining realms of culture, space andtechnology.

Derek HallSeabank Associates, Scotland, UK

E-mail address: derekhall.seabank@virgin.net

Available online 16 October 2012