Guess who was re-reading "The Atrocity Exhibition"

Evidently if NASA want to stay in the space-program business then they'll have to engage in some serious lobbying and appealing to the public, what with this talk of increased budgets but outsourcing the earth-to-orbit part of the job (let's see if Russian or Chinese companies tender the most competitive bid).

Now if I were consulted, I'd advise them to work on the concept of

A group of withdrawn catatonic patients were exposed to a montage of films of space-shuttle explosions. Results included improved psychomotor activity and social responsiveness. A majority found the images erotic, reporting violent traumatic fantasies, with spontaneous orgasm in 2%. Morphing software was used to create the optimum shuttle casualty; this image consisted of 40% Christa McAuliffe from the Challenger shuttle, 35% Kalpana Chawla from the Columbia shuttle and 25% Ed White from Apollo 1. Suggestions for increasing the traumatic nature of space exploration are appended.

Sorry, that wasn't me, that was Zombie J. G. Ballard. He keeps sneaking into the Riddled office somehow and drinking my akvavit from the freezer, in the understandable belief that it's actually embalming fluid. As I was about to say,

With its connotations of sterility and affectless neutrality, the technology of space flight lends itself to the fetishised eroticism that drives a depersonalised, post-human economy. A group of moderately-demented Alzheimers Syndrome patients (occipital / parietal form, with visual agnosia) were shown photographs of various rocket engines and asked to identify them. None were able to do so correctly. The rockets were most frequently described as women wearing flaring crinolines or farthingale dresses, with the fuel pumps, gimbals and pipes seen as the arms and breasts of the upper body, frequently unclothed. This interpretation was as common among female patients as among males. The Saturn F1 engine was chosen as the most appealing photograph. An artist's synthesis of these descriptions was distributed as pornography through a false website. Surveillance of customers who downloaded the synthesis showed improved social function, including greater work productivity and more frequent sexual activity with domestic partner or car.

Well it doesn't look as if I'm going to be able to say anything today. If anyone wants me I'll be by the freezer.

Oh look, Phoebe Gloeckner (illustrator of the RE/Search edition of Atrocity Exhibition) has a website.