All Entries in the "Sagan Family" Category
Sagan book club follow up
Well, due to a problem with the email software, an old email from the Sagan Appreciation Society that contained a plug for last December’s SHSNY Book Club for Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan’s Acquiring Genomes was sent out just a few days ago; since the next book club meeting in the series, devoted to Michael Specter’s Denialism, is coming up this Thursday (after that it’s John Brockman’s This Will Change Everything on March 18 and Rebecca Goldstein’s 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction on April 27), it reminded me that I’ve been meaning to post a brief follow up to my original post. As it turned out, nobody showed up specifically for the Carl Sagan connection, and as it happened, the discussion didn’t wind up being about how the book ties into Carl’s work in any detail, mostly centering on the differences between Lynn Margulis’s theories of evolution and the more orthodox neo-Darwinist approach. However, Sagan fans are welcome at book club meetings (SHSNY can be contacted for specific questions), and I’d be happy to meet up at other events as well.
Popularity: 51% [?]
Nick’s Memories
Nick Sagan wrote an outstanding post yesterday – if you haven’t read it, you ought to. From Carl’s dictaphone habits to his distate for Beavis & Butthead and the movie Aliens, Nick lets us in on a little secret; his father was, it’s true, a human being.
Sagan was so clearly a hero to countless people across the globe, and for those of us who can’t help but do a bit of worshiping, Nick’s portrait helps ground that awe without diminishing our hero’s stature. Here’s a choice picture and excerpt:
He had a knack for pinball, knowing just how hard to bump a machine without tilting it. We’d go to arcades together and he’d win bonus games like mad. Videogames were never his thing, though he could appreciate the better ones. I remember the day I showed him Computer Baseball, a strategy game for the Apple IIe. You could pit some of the greatest teams in MLB history against each other. We played Babe Ruth’s 1927 Yankees against Jackie Robinson’s 1955 Dodgers for about an hour, and then he turned to me and said, “Never show this to me again. I like it too much, and I don’t want to lose time. Link.
Popularity: 24% [?]
10 orbits on…
We’ve been 10 times around the sun without him.
Have you ever noticed that there are just some people who seemed to be especially “changed” by Carl Sagan? Those who go so “ga-ga” over him, that even ten years after his death, they still blog, gush, and talk nearly incessantly about him? And these are often the people least likely to otherwise worship, idolize, or even get excited about a professional athlete, celebrity, rock star, authority or politician.
I’m one of those people. My life-trajectory was tugged and defined by the gravity of Carl Sagan. He gave all of us reasons to cherish the pale blue dot and “all that ever was or is or ever will be.” He personified the Cosmos – literally.
He was a gifted scientist, communicator, dad, and human being. He moved millions and millions to see.
But what’s more incredible than how many he did move, is how many have somehow missed the message. Because make no mistake – and he would be the first to admit it – this is about the message not the man. As endearing as he was, this is not a cult of personality, but of the Cosmos.
Carl Sagan articulated poetic and accessible accounts of reality that were so beautiful and simple that once you understood what he was saying, you would never see the world the same way again. Everything was meaningful and awesome. So ask yourself if you understand what he was saying. Do you have any idea what you are missing? Please, take some time to get to know what Carl Sagan was telling us. So many smart, thoughtful, and loving people can’t be wrong. I invite you to join the club.
I often wonder how much better our world be if he were still here to offer his insights and guidance. But he is gone. And the rest of us who did hear him can only forge ahead, doing what we can to open people’s eyes.
Rich Blundell
Omniscopic
Popularity: 12% [?]
From Ann.
Celebrating Sagan thanks Ann Druyan who wrote to share her appreciation for our memories-made-public.
She also included a link to the China Youth Daily, a Chinese national paper. The article is called, ‘Carl Sagan’s Legacy.’
On behalf of the readers, Ann, we thank you for cultivating the flame.
Popularity: 10% [?]
