Wernher von Braun Quote

[Tim Strzechowski]

History, irony, and theme.

The use of this quotation by Wernher von Braun has a historical significance
first and foremost, I would imagine, via the subject matter of the novel
because his major contribution to rocket science was the "discovery" of
pitch and roll (i.e., making a rocket turn, after launch, and to utilize the
earth's gravitational pull to help its positioning).  Of course, the fact
that he was a former Nazi whose expertise was later used by NASA (remember
that this quotation was given just prior to the 1969 moon launch) adds to
the irony of the quotation.

The notion that there is no "extinction" but only "transformation" within
nature will be developed throughout the novel in a variety of ways, since
many of the characters and incidents have echos later in the narrative (for
example, the "theater" of war and the Apollo theater, the Adenoid, etc.).
Furthermore, I think the term "extinction" is used in classical conditioning
to describe a stimulus that no longer receives its conditioned response, and
this concept will become important throughout the novel as well.

http://www.creationsafaris.com/wgcs_4vonbraun.htm

http://sun.science.wayne.edu/~wpoff/cor/mem/condxtin.html




> Any thoughts on why, of all the billions of possible quotes, this one
should
> open GR? Steve Maas
>