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Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home From The Moon (2009)

by Buzz Aldrin(Favorite Author)

3.46 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0307463451 (ISBN13: 9780307463456)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Crown Archetype

review 1: As I sat in my tree stand 50 feet off of the ground at night to be able to view first light in the morning, I experienced magnificent desolation. I looked up at the full magnificence of the moon, and said to myself, “I swear I can see Neil Armstrong’s face in the glowing white magnificence of the lunar surface.” This is shortly after Mr. Armstrong passed. I flocked to Mr. Aldrin’s book at first because he was someone who I looked up to and if I wanted to be like anybody, I wanted to be like him. Buzz seemed to be the whole man. It looked, smelled, and tasted like I could do it, maybe I could be like him. But what really solidified the reality that he was a real human, and what made me even more understanding of him is that he was quite frank about his problems. Mr... more. Aldrin used problems in his life to learn. He learned through self-destruction, through booze and depression and whatever one would like to call it, just like I learn. Buzz, had done so many things…graduated from West Point, earned an Astronautics degree from MIT, landed on Earth’s satellite, the moon. If he could experience hardship after all of that good and still keep going that meant to me that even the heartiest and brightest people can and do falter sometimes. To me, Buzz was a myth, some stoic figure that couldn’t be touched, yet in his book that’s almost all that’s talked about. It’s the ability, even though he may be very near human perfection, to admit and have verifiable proof that he wasn’t, and to be frank about it. That is what defines Buzz as a leader in my mind. He was defiant, Marion Moon and his grandfather had trouble with this issue as well, but Buzz still went on to USMA (108). This is why Buzz is so tough and resilient, he’s been through hardship. The Aldrin Cycler is a novel idea and one my mind, and would bounce back and forth between the image of the space station in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. That and the fact that Buzz’s futile attempts at getting more support and awareness for his ideas and space exploration in the 70’s through congress shows there are still people today that are in the dark about space. Although, private space flight today seems to be taking off with the DragonX capsule. What I would really like to know is what Buzz thinks of the spirituality of space, i.e. The Institute for Noetic Sciences. If the communication experiments were real, maybe it would be easier to communicate through prayer in space, with no atmosphere to get in the way? If it’s easier for RF frequencies to travel in space because there is no interference, then what about prayer, if two people were consciously trying to communicate with each other. That might be a more efficient way of communicating with another planet like ours. Whatever the case may be for human space exploration, we will have to travel far larger expanses than our own solar system to find people. If Earth is just a backwater planet, I think were doomed exploration wise, with what we have on the public table right now. Finally, throughout “Magnificent Desolation” one can tell that Buzz is the quintessential military ladies man. He gets in fights, argues and bounces from girl to girl frequently. But in the end he found Lois. I don’t have any mental pictures of the other women in Buzz’s life before, but I’d like to think that Lois is very compatible, because she looks just like him, in female form. Lois is a goddess. They fit. I think the lesson that Buzz ultimately has to say is that you don’t have to do it the military way, necessarily. One can go private and beat the curve, but it takes discipline, a discipline that only the military, in America can provide.
review 2: I had a lot of emotions while listening to Buzz's book on CD. I enjoyed hearing his perspective of the Apollo 11 mission. Everyone assumes that being the second man to set foot on the moon would be the source of some frustration and while Buzz suffered frustration, when he returned to earth, he actually wished he could have gone on a later mission to the moon, because the later missions stayed longer and did more for science. Buzz recognized his problem with depression and sought help. In the era he did this, it caused a problem in his air force career. Another problem he had was drinking, but he didn't seek help for it until later in his life. Some of the triggers for his depression came from the fact that his career peaked so early in his life. I imagine that is the case for many astronauts. We don't send many of them to space, when they are about to retire. This book is worth experiencing, but it is frustrating to some degree. You witness a guy who wants to make a big difference in the space program try and try and as he finds frustration at every turn, you wonder if he will be OK. Maybe many of us identify with his story, to some degree. Audio book listeners are treated to a Q&A with the author. Listening to his answers, one realizes that he benefited from the editor, in the text of his book! less

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