Spaceships and Beautiful Women
As I’ve written previously, the cover art of pulp science fiction magazines had two prevelant themes: spaceships and beautiful women. Both appealed on a primal level to young teen boys, and together they created a seductive vision of a promised future. Most boys my age looked forward to graduation and their first car; I was waiting patiently for a ride to Alpha Centauri piloted by women in lingerie. Hey, it got me through high school.
So, as glorious and awe-inspiring as NASA’s Astronomy Pictures of the Day have been, with sweeping high-res images of distant galaxies and massive supernova remnants, I’ve always felt they were missing… a certain something.
So you can imagine my delight at the image above, posted this week, of astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson peering out from the Cupola window bay of the International Space Station. Science is at last catching up to the promise of generations of early SF, with beautiful women gazing down at the Earth with (oh please, God) wistful dreams of conquest.
Stay tuned for news on flying cars and jet packs.
Well, that’s just about perfect.
A couple hundred deceased, uncelebrated SF artists of the pulp era are high-fiving one another in the afterlife.
That’s a desktop background right there.
Thanks.
There is, I admit, something deeply gratifying about that photograph. Although probably it’s not that SAME gratification for me as it is for you, Mr. O’Neill.
No need to thank me, Mr. Hocking — just doin’ my job.
Viva la difference, Cooney.
Love the picture… but so I hear it, there is absolutely no sex allowed in space, at least where the U.S. is concerned 🙁 It’s just too bad… but that picture is a SF dream.