No Requiem for the Space Age: The Apollo Moon Landings and American Culture

289 Pages·2014·2.36 MB·English

by  Matthew D. Tribbe

No Requiem for the Space Age

Matthew D. Tribbe
No Requiem for the Space Age
The Apollo Moon Landings and American Culture
1
1
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Material quoted from Norman Mailer letters
Copyright © 1969, 1970, 1971 by Norman Mailer,
used by permission of The Wylie Agency LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tribbe, Matthew D.
No requiem for the space age : the Apollo moon landings and
American culture / Matthew D. Tribbe.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-931352-5 (hardback)
1. Project Apollo (U.S.)—Public opinion—History—20th century.
2. Astronautics—Social aspects—United States—History—20th century.
3. Space flight to the moon—United States—History—20th century.
4. Popular culture—United States. I. Title.
TL789.8.U6A5828 2014
629.45'40973—dc23 2013047627
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For VEG, her zoo, and the memory of Blue
I’m lost, but I’m making record time.
—Apocryphal Test Pilot
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Significant Apollo Missions xi
Introduction 3
Part One: On Talking about Apollo
1 “The Message of the Spirit of Apollo” 27
C ommonplace Reactions
2 On the Nihilism of WASPs 46
Norman Mailer in NASA-Land
Part Two: On Mastering the Universe
3 Apollo and the “Human Condition” 67
4 The Thunder of Apollo 95
A Benevolent Endeavor in a Century of Brutality
Part Three: On Rationalism and Neo-Romanticism
5 Turning a Miracle into a Bummer 127
Squareland, Potland, and the Psychedelic Moon
viii Contents
6 “God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot” 157
Moon Voyaging in the Neo-Romantic 1970s
Conclusion 218
In the Wake of Apollo
Notes 229
Bibliography 257
Index 269
Acknowledgments
I owe the following people and institutions a great deal of thanks for their roles
in this book’s completion:
Vicki and her ever-growing circus of animals, for the patience that allowed
me the time to research and write, and the impatience that thankfully forced
me to occasionally stop researching and writing.
My family, for a lifetime of support and encouragement and general “right
raising” that ensured I would be able to eventually do something like write a
book.
David Oshinsky, whose enthusiasm for and advocacy of my work as well as
my career has been indescribably critical at moments when both have seemed
pointless. Likewise, Mark Lawrence, who took an interest in my work from the
beginning and has been encouraging ever since. Bruce Hunt challenged me to
think more deeply about Apollo’s place in the history of science and technol-
ogy as well as to sharpen my arguments, while Jeffrey Meikle contributed val-
uable ideas on the counterculture and the space program’s relationship to the
broader culture of the 1960s and 1970s.
The Department of History at the University of Texas at Austin was very
generous with its funding during the research phase of this book, as well as for
a couple of critical years as I worked on the manuscript. At the University of
Houston and the University of Connecticut, my colleagues cheered me on
and offered helpful publication advice.
A Guggenheim Fellowship from the National Air and Space Museum
allowed for a summer of research in the Washington, DC, area. At the museum,
Roger Launius, Margaret Weitekamp, Martin Collins, Paul Ceruzzi, David
DeVorkin, Allan Needell, and Mike Neufeld were all supportive, and offered
suggestions that helped me begin to shape my ideas at the early stage of