First Man
“One thing you ought to know about me is that I can never resist a challenge—I always take them up and when I do I invariably win.” Adam Rochford might be her father's business partner, but that didn't entitle him to rule Micky's life. She had no intention of falling in with her parents' plans, and Adam's arrogant interference was the final straw. Then, just when she was sure that he thought of her as an irritating child, she realised that she wanted him to see her as a woman.
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- I haven't read much Camus but I absolutely loved his semi-autobiographical story about his childhood growing up in Algeria he wrote just before he died in a car accident: https://www.amazon.com/First-Man-Vintage-International-ebook...
The story stuck with me for a long time and I was told it was much more accessible than many of his earlier books that were more philosophical.
It's a great story if you were ever the intelligent rebellious independent type growing up.
- I'm not familiar with what you're referring to, but it's been a while since I read Yeager's first autobiography. I do remember one bit clearly, though.
In the book he tells a story about reconnoitering a dry lake near Edwards in a twin-seat plane with Neil Armstrong. In his story, Armstrong wants to do a touch-and-go landing to test lake's suitability for landing, and Yeager tries to talk him out of it because of concerns about mud. They land and they get stuck. This is all part of a larger, kind of spiteful and jealous narrative of the NACA guys not being as skillful behind the stick as the Air Force pilots even though they may have been better engineers, etc. etc.
Armstrong's version of the story (recounted only briefly in First Man - incredible book btw) makes it sound more like Neil Armstrong was the victim of a practical joke wherein Yeager encouraged him to land even though he knew full well they'd get stuck. It's actually a funnier story, but it doesn't play in with the whole narrative of the NACA pilots being obtuse geeks and so on.
That's pretty much all Armstrong was quoted as saying about Yeager that I'm aware of. Yeager's not universally loved by his fellow test pilots, however. http://www.kalimera.org/nf104/stories/stories_16.html
- It is a play, yes.
> I didn't mean all themes had to be in one work.
Oh, in that case...I can recommend so much. It'd take way too long.
Here are a few, off the top of my head:
The First Man by Albert Camus (novel)
The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde (short story)
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett (play)
If you want something challenging, try Cervantes' Don Quixote.
- I just recommended someone on HN a book by Camus. The First Man.
I read your other comment about your having a troubled childhood. I can relate.
When I was 14 I started reading everything Camus ever published. I became very withdrawn. My family became very concerned. I wrote important phrases by Camus and stuck them on my wall. Pretty soon my entire wall had Camus phrases. My dad's psychologist (and my family) recommended I should 'explore' other types of literature. It was a very tough time. Except for me, I viewed my depression as crippling.
Yes, I was a very logical child, as yourself, but, as Camus suggests, viewing life as absurd leads to a very morose nihilism. I skipped school and was about to fail secondary school. I didn't care. I didn't excel at school, I excelled at philosophy, but that didn't really matter in secondary.
Every single book I read by Camus influenced me and was a stab to the heart. He sometimes wrote on the troubling matter of adults not willing to understand adolescents, and I felt very much misunderstood. Plus, I was also torn between two cultures; one rooted in tradition and another which was very progressive.
The Myth of Sisyphus has references which might help to know or understand before jumping into it. The Stranger is definitely more accessible and, for obvious reasons, it is his most widely read book. But the protagonist in that book is a bit of a character study. I think at one point I related to him, but stopped saying so, because a lot of people interpret Meursault as a sociopath. I don't think I was a sociopath, but was deeply confused about the world in which I lived and distanced/detached myself from everything to understand my world better. It's hard to explain, especially here.
The First Man was the first book that ever made me cry. I never really knew my mother, and this book is about a boy named Jacques, and his relationship with his mother. It is also about a boy's reservations about living in poverty, and living with a poor family (and everything that entails), which I got to experience very early in my life. But it is also a metaphor for cultures colliding: Spanish (which also happens to be my grandparents' culture) and a more 'modern' one, French (in my case, English-speaking North American). Of course, it has Algerian references, as well.
I highly recommend Camus. For those who've never read him, I would recommend these, in this order:
A Happy Death
The Stranger
The First Man
Exile and the Kingdom
Resistance, Rebellion, and Death
I would place The First Man first, but it is a very different book from everything else Camus has written (except his diaries, I guess). My favourite Camus book is definitely The First Man.
- Strictly speaking, Aldrin punched the lunatic because he wouldn't stop harassing him in the street, even though multiple people tried to intervene. I can't imagine Aldrin cared too much about the guy's conspiracy theories.
Perhaps in contrast, First Man (the book) relates that Armstrong hid in a college bathroom when some autograph seekers came by the college where he taught.
- I can recommend some books about the era that are very good reading.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Man-Moon-Astronaut/dp/0312199... written by Eugene Cernan (the last man on the moon)
http://www.amazon.com/Flight-My-Life-Mission-Control/dp/0452... written by and about mission control
http://www.amazon.com/First-Man-Life-Neil-Armstrong/dp/B001O... about Armstrong but representative of many astronauts (and the only book Armstrong cooperated with)
http://www.amazon.com/Two-Sides-Moon-Story-Space/dp/03123086... about the US and Soviet perspectives written as a collaboration between an astronaut and cosmonaut
Current era:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393339912 This one is also a good read which roughly summarises our current knowledge about having people live for over a year in space (how long it would take to get to Mars). (Spoiler: not much)
