The Expanse and Philosophy. Группа авторов

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The Expanse and Philosophy - Группа авторов


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to save people’s lives, only makes me love the books and the characters more.

      You are here, reading this book, because you love the books, the series, or both. And we too, the authors of the chapters you hold in your hands like Joe Miller holds Julie’s necklace, we love The Expanse. These chapters sing our love to you. They sail through this shared world, both books and TV series. We look at the challenges of flying our Epstein drive into space, explore the challenges of populating different worlds around Sol and out beyond the Ring Gate. Like Avasarala we interrogate our characters: Miller, Holden, Amos, Bobbie, Naomi, and, of course, Avasarala herself. I’ve seen online people wondering who would win a fight, Amos or Bobbie, but we’re interested in who’s more evil, Amos or Avasarala, and who might be good, Naomi or maybe Holden? We examine the costs of interstellar migration and wonder if it’s worth the cost or whether we even have a choice.

      Taki taki. Yam seng!

First Orbit FROM EARTH TO THE STARS

       Michael J. O’Neill

      The aesthetic techniques used in The Expanse are indicative of the infinite space that is an essential and ever‐present character in the show. Even the claustrophobic condition of the Belters on Ceres, Ganymede, and Eros points to the infinite space outside. The design of the show keeps infinite space always present.

      Of course, the aesthetics of the show are not an accident. Chiaroscuro was a technique developed in the seventeenth century. The many references to Don Quixote in The Expanse point to the same century. Season one, episode one is named “Dulcinea.” Dulcinea is the love interest that the delusional Don Quixote de la Mancha idolizes in the story. Season one, episode seven is named “Windmills”—the monsters that the delusional Don Quixote fights on horseback. Rocinante is the name of Don Quixote’s horse. And, if that were not enough, Holden’s mother gifts him a copy of the novel in season four. All of these references bring our attention to the idea that Holden may be a deluded hero on a quest in a universe he does not understand.

      However, they also link the show to a time when the human race first confronted the idea of infinite space—the seventeenth century.

      Artistic techniques, like technology, forms of language or music, are expressive of the mind of the age from which they arise. The use of chiaroscuro in the show is compelling visually and situates the viewer in two times—the twenty‐fourth century of The Expanse and seventeenth‐century Europe. The technique was born of a time when the idea of the infinite space of the universe was working its way into the human imagination. The Expanse plays with the idea of infinity and makes it a theme and element in the thoughts and actions of the characters. A quick detour to the seventeenth century will help us understand this theme of the show better.

      The first time the human race confronted the infinite spaces of the universe, it found itself at a loss to understand its place in that infinity. Galileo (1564–1642) had demonstrated the truth of the heliocentric model of the solar system. (Fun fact—Galileo also discovered one of the Belters’ future homes, Ganymede.) The idea that points of light in the night sky were stars, like our sun, which were moving through massive spaces and were far, far away was discussed in the salons of France and the academies of England. In 1687, Isaac Newton (1642–1727) published the first unified mathematical model of the motions of all bodies moving through space. All of the scientific world celebrated. Newton had done it—found the mathematical key to everything! It would be more than 200 years before relativity theory would throw the Newtonian model into question.

      What do you see when you look over The Expanse? Holden sees hope and the need to struggle for justice. Miller sees a quest to find the real Julie Mao. Avasarala sees nothing but the coming of an eventual existential threat to human life. Fred Johnson sees the possibility of redemption. The Mormons, the need for a journey to find God.

      Our place as rational creatures would seem to put us in a position of distinction in all of this infinity. But, “the end of things


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