First off, I’d like to say that I really enjoyed reading these short stories. My favorite was probably “The Cold Equations.” I liked “Down and Out on Ellfive Prime” and “It’s Great to Be Back” equally. And, if we’re supposed to be including The Martian in this response, I liked that probably best of all.
“Cold Equations” was my favorite short story because I loved Godwin’s reflection on the uncaring, indifferent, truly cold nature of the laws that govern the universe. This is something I think about relatively often, and have begrudgingly come to accept, despite my hippy-dippy disposition. What’s more, I thought the story lived up to the full meaning of its name when Marilyn was killed. No deus ex machina to save her, despite her utter innocence. To be entirely truthful, though, I cried a little while reading this story, especially when Marilyn was saying her final goodbyes to Gerry. (Don’t tell my peers back in Brooklyn; it’ll ruin my rep.)
A theme I’ve noticed in all three of these short stories, which each focus on space colonization, is the negativity surrounding planet Earth. In “It’s Great to be Back” Earthlings are derogatorily called “groundhogs.” In “Ellfive Prime,” temporary colony workers will stage their own deaths to avoid being sent back to Earth. In “Cold Equations,” Earthlings are portrayed as blissfully ignorant of the way in which the Universe, though specifically the Frontier, actually functions. It seems that to each of these authors, though most applicably to Ing and Heinlein, Earth is a place that is undesirable; space colonies are much preferred. I can’t help but wonder why this is, especially when Earth usually has a positive connotation. Could this have been predictive on their part? Or, were they unhappy with some aspect of being “Earthside,” to use Ing’s term? Maybe they just imagined interplanetary colonization as superior to being terrestrial, despite the danger that accompanies making another world habitable? It is particularly noteworthy that the authors tend not to explain why living on Earth is worse than living elsewhere. In “It’s Great to Be Back,” it is clear that the MacRaes feel like they don’t belong on Earth, but what is different about living on the moon that makes it so? Heinlein isn’t explicit. And on another note, why is there such discrimination between lunatics and groundhogs?
These readings have certainly made me wonder what it would be like to live on another planet, and how doing so would shift my relationship to planet Earth. To be completely honest, I don’t think I could hack it. You know how you’re never supposed to panic when things go wrong? Yeah, I’d panic. If I were Mark Watney, I probably wouldn’t live past sol 10. Even with the surplus food supplies. And truthfully, I identify as an Earthling through and through. It’s the only known planet with primates! (Though if primates were discovered elsewhere in the universe, I’d probably try and become the Jane Goodall of space chimps.)
