Space

This is a fictional account of America’s foray into space, from the mid 1940s when German scientists were secretly smuggled into the country, to the landings on the moon in the 1960s, to the late 1970s when an un-manned landing on Mars was accomplished, preceding what looked like a decline of interest in space. Quite interesting to read.

Going hand in hand with the pursuit of space (in a race against the Soviets), is the story of a brilliant man born Martin Scorcella. He is always reading the nation’s mood and thinking of ways to capitalize on this financially. For doing something he shouldn’t have he was kicked out of college. He goes to California where under the name of Dr Strabismus he establishes the Universal Space Associates, peddling stories about the arrival in the country of ‘little green men’ from space and their plans to take over the government. Then he moves on to a fake university that sold degrees by mail order. (It appears in California, anything goes.) Finally he ends up establishing a religious movement which even goes to the extent of opposing science and geology.

One of the most interesting characters is Stanley Mott, in his two worlds of science and religion. While the scientist believed in the Big Bang and evolution, his minister father believed in creation by God and his job was to try and reconcile the two. His conclusion was that religion’s purpose was to instill in man the ethics to keep him from going astray. He regarded biblical accounts as poetic rather than being factual, so that the 7 “days” required to create the world (in the book of Genesis) should be taken to mean periods of millions of years. He even had to come to terms with the reality of his son being gay, realizing he still had to show him love, and defending him against religious fanatics quoting from the same book of Leviticus chapter 20 as they did, recalling other instances (not just man lying with a man) that were supposed to be punished with death, like adultery and cursing your parents.

March 27, 2015. Review initially written in 2009. Novel first published in 1983, this Ballantine Books edition having ISBN 0-449-20379-4.