Child stargazers, and mammas who raise them right

Author and USA Today HEA columnist Veronica Scott recently started a thread in a sci-fi romance Facebook group on what books first got folks interested in the genre. Having done blog tours for all of my SFR titles, I have probably answered that question a dozen times, and possibly in as many ways. It can be tricky gazing back, oh, 40 years, and retrieving data with any kind of accuracy.

The seed for me was definitely L'Engle's A WRINKLE IN TIME, my favorite book as an elementary schooler (a dozen reads, no lie). This book only had the hints of a romance, but with less than a decade under my belt, that was plenty for me. I read it around the same time as the release of the original STAR WARS film, which, as it did for so many, made a huge impact on me.

I also credit the first adult sci-fi novel I read, a Star Wars world book, which came out around the same time: SPLINTER OF THE MIND'S EYE, by Alan Dean Foster. MIND'S EYE featured a touch of romance between Luke and Leia, which clearly was a head-scratcher for me later, when RETURN OF THE JEDI was released. I've most likely discussed this book on this blog before, and certainly have on others, but one thing I don't think I ever mentioned was how the book came to my attention.

As I was responding to Veronica's thread, some old memories came back to me. When I was in fifth grade, I had a male friend. While I don't remember a lot of stuff from that time, I know that we must have been good friends, because I do remember going to his home for a playdate. (Back then we weren't quite so official about things. I think it was probably more like, "I go right by your house on my walk home from school so let's hang out.")

The other reason I know we were good friends is because I brought one of the stories I had written to school, so he could read it. Perhaps up to this point there's nothing too surprising here. But in this era of extreme misogynistic behavior in sci-fi communities (which, if unfamiliar to you, you can read about here and here, if you have the stomach for it) as well as in hookup culture, my memory of what happened next really got me thinking: He told me he thought my story was good (if memory serves, he actually said something like "you have a talent for this"), and he told me that if I liked sci-fi and STAR WARS, he thought I'd really like MIND'S EYE. (And I did—I read it three times.)

The memory of this strikingly respectful, emotionally intelligent, and inclusive response from a fifth-grade boy momentarily stunned me. And my sudden sense that I had experienced something rare was immediately reinforced by another author, who replied to my comment, saying that in her youth a male classmate had become physically violent with her when she took an interest in a book about dinosaurs, because those weren't for girls.

I myself had experienced bullying in this same time period—another boy in my class had very angrily told me one day out of the blue that I was ugly. Nearly 40 years later, I still remember the look on his face when he said it, the fear the verbal attack inspired, and how I had internalized his criticism, part of me continuing to believe it for many years. (Unfortunately it approximately corresponded with the time my well-meaning mother had managed to give me the single worst haircut of my life,)

After these memories resurfaced, I became intensely curious about what had happened to my friend, and I did what we all do from time-to-time in this day and age—I looked for him on Facebook. It didn't take long to find him, because he doesn't look a whole lot different from how he did then. Also he was friends with a couple of other alumni from my high school. When we were children he had a strong interest in music and drums in particular, and I saw from his photos that he'd continue to pursue those interests.

I probably don't need to point out how fraught this sort of thing can be. People become curious about old connections for many reasons, and the reasons we most often hear about involve marital dissatisfaction. Not only that, you don't need me to tell you that we're living in a very hot political climate, and plenty of this comes out in Facebook. So my dilemma was, do I risk contacting this guy—who might be nothing like he was as a child, who might in some way be offended by me, or who might reasonably think I'm crazy—to say thanks for being a good friend all those years ago?

Two things decided me. I have a daughter in fifth grade, and therefore this kind of behavior by a fifth-grade boy is doubly not taken for granted (does that grammar even work? not sure, but you get my drift). And second, my husband—a very kind and sensitive male in his own right—encouraged me. That settled it: My motives were pure, good deeds should be rewarded, and my husband had sanity-checked me.

Over the weekend I messaged my friend, deciding that was less invasive than friending. I know from personal experience that many people fail to notice FB Messenger notifications (um, guilty), and some people just don't use Messenger at all. That meant he might never see the message, but it also meant that if he was uncomfortable answering, he could ignore it without me thinking much of it.

To cut to the chase, I did indeed hear back from him. It was not at all awkward, and he remembered our friendship as fondly as I had. The kind and respectful boy grew into a kind and respectful man, and it's been fun to catch up on each other's lives. I imagine these nostalgic moments will be coming to me faster as I get older and those formative moments and meaningful exchanges become easier to recognize. There appears to be a strong connection between such revelations and my daughter's stages of development, which is perhaps not surprising.

I told my daughter this story. I told her I know boys can seem rowdy, strange, and sometimes awful (which made her laugh), but that I hoped she'd be lucky enough to have a friend like mine. I fear for her in the current climate of backlash against feminism. She's always been taught that she's smart enough and strong enough to do whatever she wants in life, but she's old enough now that she's beginning to see not everyone feels that way, and that for many girls and women, it's a hard and even perilous road.

Though it's not a child's film, I sat down with her and my stepdaughter, who is seven, and watched HIDDEN FIGURES. I had to give them a little history and cultural lesson first, and I was called upon to explain some science that is admittedly over my head, but my girls LOVED the movie. I was so proud to see their dawning understanding of what an accomplishment it was for these women to do what they did. The adversity they faced and the obstacles they had to overcome. (My girls had somewhat of a foundation, as we'd also recently watched THE EAGLE HUNTRESS, and the eldest is reading GOODNIGHT STORIES FOR REBEL GIRLS.)

I was also grateful to the film's creators (and I presume, the author of the book before that), for showing us men who, though they might have struggled at first to accept and understand women behaving in such nontraditional ways, recognized their value not just as women, but as human beings and full members of society, and provided the support they needed to do that awe-inspiring work.

Three cheers for boys whose mammas (and daddies) raised them right! Tell me about one you know in the comments . . .


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IF ONLY OUR TECH COULD BE USED FOR GOOD

Here at the beginning of the “winter” television season, as SF favorites THE EXPANSE and COLONY are coming back for another few episodes, I had thought to whine a bit about how nearly impossible it has become to do what I once so enjoyed: review SF shows on television.

With the creative blossoming of SyFy Channel and more than a few innovative programs to talk about (anybody following INCORPORATED?), I could once have had a lot of fun parsing the latest in SF TV. But even professional television critics are finding it impossible to keep up nowadays, between the split seasons of the broadcast networks (fall, winter and summer), an infinite number of cable networks and an uncounted number of offerings from streaming services like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon. There are only so many hours in a day, people! And I do occasionally get up from my couch and write a word or two. Or sleep.

 

Computer, order 4 sheets of transparent aluminum.

 

 

Sorry,that is not available. Would you like to stream PIMP MY RIDE instead?

But as I was concluding that I couldn’t keep up—and so couldn’t be considered a reliable guide to what was “good” on TV—several otherwise trivial news articles merged into one big, fat clue that what was happening on my flat screen was just a sign of something much more insidious. 

The articles were featured in a single recent issue of THE WEEK, a nonpartisan magazine combining news from a variety of sources from around the nation and the world. They were in different sections of the magazine, and seemingly addressed different topics. But as I read, an underlying theme began to emerge. See if you can pick it out.

--In San Diego, a newscaster read a story on the air about a little girl who used her family’s Amazon Echo to order herself a dollhouse, simply by saying, “Alexa, order me a dollhouse.” Echoes in many of the houses of those watching the broadcast promptly ordered dollhouses.

--French cosmetics company L’Oreal has introduced a “smart” hairbrush to the market (for the low, low price of $200 U.S.). The computerized gadget is capable of analyzing not only your brushing technique, but also ambient temperature, humidity and wind conditions, presumably for those whose bathrooms lack, uh, walls or a roof. Of course, once the brilliant thing has detected the flaws in your hair due to your brushing, it can also recommend the appropriate L’Oreal product to fix them.

--That moment of triumph you experience when you finally reach a real, live human at the other end of your customer service call may be short lived when you realize the company you’re dealing with has analyzed your social media presence and chosen a particular representative to “serve” you based on your special characteristics. Think that means you’ll get better service? Oh, honey . . .

If only all this time, money, energy and technological advancement could be used for good.

I just saw HIDDEN FIGURES, the film story of Katherine G. Johnson and her female African-American compatriots at NASA in the early days of the U.S. space program. Like Laurie (see her excellent post here) I was thrilled and inspired by this unknown piece of history, blown away by how these women helped send Alan Shepherd and John Glenn into space with nothing more than a pencil and a slide rule.

What they had—along with their very impressive brains—was a common goal, set by the president and supported by the nation. There was a sense of urgency, despite very real social divisions. 

In those days, we faced a threat from the Russians, who were beating us in the space race. Today, we face global warming, fisheries decline, extinction of species, the threat of pandemic. And on top of all that, now China and Europe are beating us in the space race. Where is our sense of urgency? Where are our common goals?

I can tell you. We’re too busy developing $200 smart hairbrushes that no one needs. And wasting our huge computing power monitoring the personal habits of our citizens so we can sell them the next thing. And imagining, not a new and better world, but so many television shows that no one could possibly watch them all.

Cheers, Donna

Enlightened Words and Hidden Figures

I've always admired Martin Luther King, Jr. for his eloquence, his profound crafting of words, but most of all, for the courage of his message. He's long been a personal hero of mine.

I think a good chunk of the world population could probably name the author of the "I Have a Dream..." speech, and many may even know more of the words of that powerful oration by heart:

"...that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

Amen to that.

Rev. King wrote the speech in 1963 and it's probably his most famous. But the body of this man's work went far beyond this, and many of his masterfully-articulated thoughts have outlived him, ringing down through the decades as undeniable truths long after his death.

"Darkness can not drive out darkness;

Only light can do that.

Hate can not drive out hate;

Only love can do that."

"The time is always right to do what is right."

"Love is the only force capable

of transforming an enemy into a friend."

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

                    -Letter written in Birmingham City Jail

"Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects

revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love."

                   - From his Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech

"We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality,

tied in a single garment of destiny.

Whatever affects one directly,

affects all indirectly."

 

                   -Letter written in Birminghan City Jail

As we honor the memory and spirit of the man today, the E-X3 technical lab in Chicago has taken it a step further. They will be showing a hologram of MLK Jr. delivering his iconic I Have a Dream speech today. (Wow. Wish I could be there!)

So, yes, Martin Luther King, Jr. has always been a hero of mine.

But now I have three more heroes. Three almost forgotten heroes from the same era, who only now, after more than fifty years, are finally coming into the light and getting the respect and the credit they have so long deserved.

On Friday, I went to see Hidden Figures, the new motion picture about the unheralded African-American women behind NASA's space program. It may be no exaggeration to say that the space program might not exist without them because it could very easily have died a very sudden and fiery death had they not been there as part of NASA's team. Even if they were a part of the NASA team that was shuffled off to the basement of a rundown building at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia and subjected to unconscionable acts of segregation and discrimination. They were present, but not accounted for.

What they did mattered. What they did was remarkable. And their story was so exceptional, it left me wondering, "Why have I never heard about these amazing people before?"

Let's go back to the very beginning. How did these women come to work at NASA in the first place? In 1942, the US became involved in WWII and with a severe shortage of available "man"-power, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802 prohibiting discrimination by defense contractors. Later, he signed an order to hire more African-American workers. Shortly after that, the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics--NACA, which would evolve into NASA--began hiring college-educated black women with skills in math and chemistry.

It took a war to open the door of opportunity.

Katherine Goble Johnson was a human computer. Literally. Her work predated the first IBM machine ever installed at NASA. They relied on her to check and validate extremely complex mathematical calculations. Her calculations for "First American in Space" Alan Shepard's flight were crucial to the success of his flight. Later, they relied on Katherine to invent math that didn't even exist to apply to John Glenn's Freedom 7 flight--the first orbit and re-entry of an American manned spacecraft. As the movie portrays, it's true that John Glenn insisted she verify the numbers the newly installed IBM computer produced. Yet, her involvement was never brought to light in The Right Stuff, a movie about the evolution of the Mercury space program, with John Glenn as a central figure.

 





Katherine went on to do calculations for Apollo 11--the first mission to reach the Moon--and even did the math for many of the contingency procedures that brought Jim Lovell's Apollo 13 crew safely back to Earth after an explosion aboard their command module. (She was also never mentioned in the very famous Apollo 13 movie about that mission.)

She continued to work with NASA during the space shuttle missions, retiring in 1986. Yet she never received national acclaim for her work during her career.

Hidden figures, indeed.

So how did this amazing story finally get told? You can thank a writer for that. In 2010, author Margot Lee Shetterly visited her father at Christmas. He had worked with many of these women and started a conversation with his daughter about the so-called "human computers"--many of whom she knew from her childhood. Ms. Shetterly decided to write their story, and spent the next three years researching records and archives with the help of Mary Gainer, a NASA historian, and her staff.

In 2014, soon after Harper Collins agreed to publish the book entitled Hidden Figures: The Untold Story of the African American Women Who Helped the United States Win the Space Race, producer Donna Gigliotti (Shakespeare in Love) heard about it and decided to do a movie based on the events, recruiting musician Pharrell Williams (who was raised in Hampton) to co-produce and write the score.

Suddenly, the world began to take notice.

When Katherine and her co-workers' story began to surface, she finally received an award worthy of her work and dedication--a Presidential Medal of Freedom--in November 2015, some 54 years after her remarkable contribution to our nation's fledgling space program and nearly 30 years after her retirement from a long and productive career.

In May 2016, NASA opened the $30 million Katherine G. Johnson Computation Research Facility at Langley. Perhaps better late than never. At least she was alive to see the honors bestowed upon her. Katherine G. Johnson is 98 years old.

But she wasn't working alone. Her fellow female African American co-workers, Dorothy Johnson Vaughan (mathematical engineer and Fortran programming expert) and Mary Jackson (the first woman to become an aerospace engineer) had equally remarkable--and until now equally obscure--careers. Unfortunately, they did not live to enjoy the long-overdue recognition.

I'm so glad I saw their incredible story. And I'm so glad they chose to release it just prior to the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial holiday. That probably wasn't a coincidence. And it's the reason this blog is more of a reflection than a review, though I do highly recommend Hidden Figures for all the reasons above, and because I think it's important to understand the inequities these women dealt with--and overcame--on a daily basis.

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a visionary, an outstanding writer and speaker, and the leader of a profound movement for peaceful change within our country. He gained respect for his famous words of inspiration and vision at a time of great turmoil in our nation's history--the same era these women were struggling to be heard, recognized and accepted for their capabilities and their vast contributions to our country--their hidden figures.

Have a great MLK Jr. Day.