Reach for the Sky beta
Dec. 21st, 2003 10:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
birguslatroI've recently finished reading Sagittarius Rising, a book by Cecil Lewis about his time as a pilot in World War 1. It's a good read, and not only for his detailed and sometimes beautiful descriptions of early flying, but also for his attempts at making sense of humankind from the then new perspective of many miles up in the air.
Written in the 30s, it's a book of its times. There's this very Tolkienish bit, for instance...
"This curious and intricate agglomeration of little pink boxes is a city. It looks rather like an open sore in the green flesh of the earth; but not, after all, such a very large one. Left for a few hundred years it will heal up and the world be none the worse. In contrast, how satisfying and permanent are the shapes of the woods and the pattern of the tilled and fallow fields. These are the first and last things, and will persist in the face of all conquest or defeat while any men endure. That minute cluster of weathered roofs set in the fold of the valley is a village. It looks right, as if it had grown there; it cannot be far wrong. ... Man-made order and precision, square, circle or straight line, is an offense among this greater harmony, where nothing seems planned, yet all falls home just so. In truth it cannot last, this mechanical geometrical civilisation of ours, for the simple and final reason that it does not look right."
And here, shades of H. G. Wells...
"If we cannot collectively rise above our narrow nationalism, the vast credits of wealth, wisdom and art produced by Western civilisation will be wiped out. If we really want peace and security, we must pool our resources, disarm, and set up an international air police force, federally controlled. That force must be as incorruptible, free from bias and self-interest, and devoted to law and order as our civil police are today. There is no other way."
An "international air police force" is all that can save us? All very The Shape of Thinks to Come" and a nice reminder that it wasn't just Wells who was thinking along such lines.
Now though, we can't seem to dream up any such quick fixes, and political progress, such as there is, is achieved by a slow, hard, messy slog. Sad the great dreams all seem to be dead, (neo-con ones excepted), but the pragmatic approach is probably more workable.
Written in the 30s, it's a book of its times. There's this very Tolkienish bit, for instance...
"This curious and intricate agglomeration of little pink boxes is a city. It looks rather like an open sore in the green flesh of the earth; but not, after all, such a very large one. Left for a few hundred years it will heal up and the world be none the worse. In contrast, how satisfying and permanent are the shapes of the woods and the pattern of the tilled and fallow fields. These are the first and last things, and will persist in the face of all conquest or defeat while any men endure. That minute cluster of weathered roofs set in the fold of the valley is a village. It looks right, as if it had grown there; it cannot be far wrong. ... Man-made order and precision, square, circle or straight line, is an offense among this greater harmony, where nothing seems planned, yet all falls home just so. In truth it cannot last, this mechanical geometrical civilisation of ours, for the simple and final reason that it does not look right."
And here, shades of H. G. Wells...
"If we cannot collectively rise above our narrow nationalism, the vast credits of wealth, wisdom and art produced by Western civilisation will be wiped out. If we really want peace and security, we must pool our resources, disarm, and set up an international air police force, federally controlled. That force must be as incorruptible, free from bias and self-interest, and devoted to law and order as our civil police are today. There is no other way."
An "international air police force" is all that can save us? All very The Shape of Thinks to Come" and a nice reminder that it wasn't just Wells who was thinking along such lines.
Now though, we can't seem to dream up any such quick fixes, and political progress, such as there is, is achieved by a slow, hard, messy slog. Sad the great dreams all seem to be dead, (neo-con ones excepted), but the pragmatic approach is probably more workable.
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(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-21 04:59 pm (UTC)Have you read 'First Light' by Geoffrey Wellum? Wellum joined the RAF just as World War 2 was breaking out and was a fighter pilot during the Battle of Britain.
It's quite heartbreaking just how many of his friends died, and it really brings home to you what these people had to cope with at the time. God knows how they did it.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-22 02:31 am (UTC)The risks of being a fighter pilot in WW1 sounded very similar to those in WW2. The life expectancy of a pilot in WW1 was apparently three weeks... Lewis somehow lasted for months and months.
I think you'd like the book. He was there at the start of The Somme, saw the first time tanks were used and was a test pilot for a while as well. And his best writing is about his flying. As I said, some of it's quite beautiful.