To quote a beloved sketch comedy, “And now for something completely different.”
I review books on my author blog, so it may seem weird to toss a documentary film into the mix. But here we are, it makes perfect sense. Why? Because my love for reading and writing was born from a love of astronomy. And that love was born from the Voyager missions and the iconic prose of Carl Sagan.
If you would like to experience a perfect marriage of science and poetry, read Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan. This book was written as a rumination on the stunning images received from the Voyager missions. Sagan had a unique ability to inflict an existential crisis through words. And for those of us who prefer to live on the edge of the abyss, those words filled us with an awe that never abated.
Launched in 1977, the Voyager spacecraft gave us the first up-close images of the outer gas planets before sailing beyond. In 2012, Voyager 1 became the first man-made object to leave the heliosphere (the bubble that defines our solar system) and enter interstellar space. As of this post, the craft has traveled nearly 15 billion miles and continues at a pace of 38,000 mph. It also carries that famous golden record, should any intelligent lifeforms discover the craft in the next billion years.
There are so many fascinating tidbits that I would love to share with you, but then I would negate this entire post. PBS released a documentary on the Voyager missions back in 2017, aptly titled The Farthest (Voyager in Space). And being a fan of everything Voyager, I am a little embarrassed to discover this cinematic gem six years later. In my own meager defense, those six years were heavily focused on my writing career.
Ironically, I actually referenced Voyager in my debut novel Transient. In discussing the implications of immortality at the end of the novel, one character uses Voyager to hammer home a point. It remains one of my favorite passages and I won’t spoil it for anyone who has yet to read the book (which is now free to download, by the way).
Watching The Farthest felt a lot like closure, in that I completed the loop, so to speak. I have spent the last decade nose-deep in my own stories, where I ventured across the universe, the multiverse, and everywhere in between. This film reminded me why I love the things I love. It’s why the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field remains the most captivating image I have ever seen. It’s why I follow news on the James Webb Space Telescope with a fandom glee. And, it’s why I continue to gaze up at the sky and wonder where Voyager is at that very moment.
Voyager will outlast humanity. And one day it might be discovered, only to say, “We were here.” In a world with little hope, I can think of no greater poetry.
