By John
Newlin
Generation Space: A Love Story
Stillwater
Press, 2017
Anna Leahy
and Doug Dechow have written a superbly crafted dual chronicle of their love
affairs with space exploration and each other.
Generation Space: A Love Story is
as good a history of the space program as any to be found.
Anna is an English Professor at Chapman
University. Her collections of poetry
include Aperture and Constituents of Matter, winner of the
Wick Poetry Prize. Doug, a librarian at Chapman University, is the co-author of SQUEAK: A Quick Trip to Objectland,
Intertwingled: The Work and Influence
of Ted Nelson, and The Craft of
Librarian Instruction. They have
written the Lofty Ambitions blog
together since 2010.
JN:
When I began reading the book, I thought, this is going to be
overwhelmingly technical, a slog through mind-boggling scientific and
mechanical terminology and detail. One
of your great accomplishments is that you produced a book ABOUT a highly
technical subject without overpowering your reader with scientific
minutiae. How did you do that?
Anna and Doug:
That’s terrific to hear because we wanted to strike a balance in which we
acknowledge that a complex machine like the space shuttle is a collection of
interrelated scientific and engineering facts without the reader being
distracted from the story by jargon. We thought about this book as a story—our
story and the story of the Space Age. And we thought about people—characters—as
an important way for this story to come alive for readers.
In Generation Space, we talk about why particular
shuttle launches were scrubbed, for instance, and try to convey how caught up
we were in learning about mechanical parts like a GUPC or a thermostat because
they were an integral part of our story of seeing—and not seeing—launches. We
want readers to feel a sense of learning NASA lingo right along with us and to
understand how quickly some of the basic jargon became natural to us as we
immersed ourselves in the newsroom culture at Kennedy Space Center. We kept in
mind, too, that there are a lot of space nerds out there who already know RTLS
means return to launch site and we
hope they are reminded that, at some point, they had learned to talk and think
in such terms, that they carry this terminology in their minds. Of course, we
didn’t talk about all of the 2.5 million parts in the shuttle configuration
sitting on the launch pad, but we wanted to give a sense of how intricate the
shuttle was because that had everything to do with how amazing it was to see
one actually rise from the ground into orbit.
JN:
Collaboration in writing a book or poem has to be tricky. Would the two of you comment on the process
as well as some of the challenges you faced (and overcame) in writing Generation Space?
Anna and Doug:
It is tricky for any two writers to collaborate, and we don’t recommend
anyone begin with a big project. For us, collaborating as writers was very much
wrapped up in being a couple romantically as well, so that probably doubles the
risks as well as the benefits. We joke that we haven’t figured out how to share
the task of doing laundry—we each do our own—and that may be because we don’t
care much about laundry. When the stakes are low, why increase the risk of
discord?
That said,
we started with a small writing project and a big reward years before we tackled
Generation Space together. On a lark,
we sent an abstract to a call for conference papers about World War II. It was
accepted, so we drew from our dates at aviation museums to write about the
theory and practice of how museums display WWII aircraft. Figuring out how to
write together allowed us to travel to Amsterdam. And then, we spun that
writing into a book chapter and an article in Curator. That early validation made us think we were onto
something.
JN:
It struck me as I read Generation
Space that both of you were able to maintain your own voice while at the
same time crafting a piece without a jarring difference of style while shifting
from one point of view to the other. Are
your writing styles naturally similar?
Was this something of a happy accident, or was it a conscious effort on
your parts to create this stylistic consistency?
Anna and Doug: In
a way, this issue of voice has been thorny for us. We had developed what we
call a together voice—the one we’re using now in this interview—for Lofty Ambitions blog. When we
started that project in 2010, we would have weekly date nights at a local
watering hole and write our posts together sentence by sentence. In the
process, we got to know each other’s voices and negotiating ways to represent
both of us authentically. Figuring out who “we” are meant more than just
writing together. And with that ongoing reference point of the other, we each honed
own individual voices too and understood that we each notice and value
sometimes very different things.
An early
partial draft of Generation Space was
in our together voice. We liked it, but readers didn’t trust it. No one
believes we can agree on a single way to look at something. Ultimately, we
admitted that we needed the two perspectives, we remembered things differently,
and we find meaning in different ways. So, the lack of a jarring difference
probably stems from years of writing together and, as couples do, hashing
through topics over time so that we became more similar generally. Over time, we
end up agreeing a lot but definitely maintain our distinct opinions and turns
of phrase, too.
JN:
At one point Doug says, “…and I wouldn’t be sure about Anna without
these last few years together” (260),
and Anna says, “I’d reshaped myself, and Doug and I had become closer
than ever before” (229). This is an
extremely personal question, but can you compare briefly the difference in your
relationship before and after your immersion into the exploration and
experience of the shuttle launches and landings? I guess I’m thinking about how two very
independent people with somewhat parallel but very different careers can forge
a lasting and loving relationship with each other. What’s your secret?
Anna and Doug:
In 2008, we moved to California. That Thanksgiving, we drove into the
desert to see a space shuttle land. The following Thanksgiving, we eloped. In
our minds, these events are all of a piece. We’d fallen in love twenty years before
we married, and there are all sorts of ways it’s difficult to grow into adults
as a couple. Moving to California was a conscious choice to start a new stage
together. Looking out at the tarmac at Edwards Air Force Base to see the shuttle
moments after it had been up in space gave us a sense of being situated between
the past and the future.
In the
book, we open with the line, “Ours has never been a conventional love story.”
Even before we knew we wanted to be academics or had much sense of career
paths, we discovered early on that we both enjoyed research, travel, and
writing. Over the years, these interests—the next trip or move, the next
question or blog post—have underpinned our relationship. As a writer or as a
couple, you never master it once and for all. The next place or the next writing
project presents different challenges and different opportunities. In order to stick
with it, a person has to get a kick out of the process itself. And each
experience reshapes you a bit. Our secret may be that we’ve been willing to
reshape ourselves.
JN:
Have the two of you developed any ongoing relationships with any of the
astronauts you met on your journey?
Anna and Doug:
The first time we met astronauts together was an unexpected accident
that we recount in the book. We mostly talked with astronauts in our role as
journalists. We talked with a few astronauts—Charlie Duke and Mike Barratt, for
instance—more than once, and we’ve talked with Garrett Reisman informally as
well as in our official roles. Over the last several years, we’ve found
astronauts to be amazingly engaging, intelligent, quirky folks. In other words,
they are just the sort of people we’d like to hang out with. But we run in
different circles, and astronauts are relatively rare among us. Only twelve men
walked on the Moon, and fewer than 550 people have been to space.
JN:
Doug, have you heard anything in response to the application you sent in
to NASA?
Doug:
As I expected, I was not among those applicants brought to Houston for
in-person interviews last fall. I knew when I applied that, if I made the final
cut, I would have to be the oldest astronaut candidate ever selected. Don’t get
me wrong, that would have been amazing.
The new
class of astronauts should be announced very soon. I won’t be among them. The
average age for an astronaut candidate is thirty-four. I talk about the magic astronaut
age and timing in Generation Space. I
actively pursued becoming an astronaut early on, then missed the most obvious
window. What a different life I’d have lived if I’d been able to clear my ears
during a physical when I was eighteen. But I can’t imagine a better mission for
my life than the one I’m on right now—and I wouldn’t have met Anna. I’ll be
cheering the new group on—on to Mars.
JN:
Do the two of you plan to collaborate on another book?
Anna and Doug:
Long before we started writing Generation
Space, we had talked about writing a book about particularly intriguing
aircraft. Last fall, we were fellows at the American Library in Paris so we
could get back to that project. As we answer these questions, we are getting
ready to head back to France for more research in the amazing history of French
aviation and for the International Paris Air Show. We’re not sure how this research
will pan out—isn’t that why any couple sticks with it? Isn’t love a long-term
research project in which we create something that didn’t exist in the world
before?
JN:
So
true! We look forward to learning of
your new adventures.
***
MORE INFORMATION:
About the
book: http://www.stillhousepress.org/generation-space
Lofty
Ambitions blog: https://loftyambitions.wordpress.com/
INTERVIEWER BIO
John Newlin’s work has been published in Short Story America, Independent School Magazine, South85 Journal, and Night Owl Journal. He is the Review Editor for South85.
