At least, they called him, 'suave'..
Jan. 8th, 2015 08:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
correctiveshoes621I finally caved and ordered this: http://www.amazon.com/Carl-Sagan-Life-Keay-Davidson/dp/1620455919
I've avoided it for a long time, now - wanting to keep Carl Sagan some perfect being..but I can't stand it, anymore..I have to read it.
Some notes about Carl, from the book:
As a teenager, he shocked the patrons of a fancy restaurant by blurting out,
"I tell you, Jesus Christ was an extraterrestrial!"
As Davidson makes clear, the rise that seemed effortless was in fact driven by a ferocious work ethic and a ruthless competitive streak.
After he had snubbed invitations to the Reagan White House three times, Sagan's advocacy of a manned Mars mission was enough to make Reagan balk at the idea.
Davidson has some very acute observations on Sagan's behavior and personality. The picture that he paints is not a pretty one. Sagan's first marriage, to noted biologist Lynn Margulis, suffered from his neediness and blinkered obsession with his career—she referred to it as "a torture chamber shared with children."
He was estranged for long periods from three of his five children. His first two wives were not the only people to feel the icy edge of his arrogance. Even when he made his third and happiest partnership, with Annie Druyan, it came at a cost: When he met her, she was the fiancée of his good friend Timothy Ferris.
Sagan was a man-child whose well-burnished ego and imperious style made him insufferable at times. The Apple Corporation once asked for his permission to use his name as a code-name for one of its lines of computers. He refused, and Apple internal memos began to use the code-name BHA (reputed to stand for Butt Head Astronomer). He sued for libel, and the case was swiftly thrown out of court. This difficult man was hidden to the millions who saw only the suave and compelling TV performer.
He was put up for membership of the National Academy of Sciences, but the nomination was shot down because of distaste for his efforts at popularization. This parochial and mean-spirited action is a large black mark in the history of that august body.
When he researched animal intelligence, he once had to fend off sexual advances from the dolphin that played TV’s "Flipper."
He claimed to have had many of his most creative thoughts while high; Davidson provides excerpts from Sagan's "pot diaries."
He was a highly visible feminist who never lifted a finger around the house and paid scant attention to the needs of first-wife Margulis, whose career would one day rival his own. He could be fiercely loyal to his friends and students, but he fell out with his best friend over a slight to the friend's son, and his stubborn pride would not allow for a reconciliation, not even on his deathbed.
Was Carl Sagan a hero? He was too deeply flawed as a person, and occasionally as a scientist, to be truly heroic. However, Sagan never lost his sense of childlike wonder in the universe, and he captured the interest of millions of people for whom science was a closed book. All those of us who pursue our intellectual interests with public money are indebted to him for inspiring and educating so many of the people who actually pay the bills.
FLIPPER! Also, this:
I've avoided it for a long time, now - wanting to keep Carl Sagan some perfect being..but I can't stand it, anymore..I have to read it.
Some notes about Carl, from the book:
As a teenager, he shocked the patrons of a fancy restaurant by blurting out,
"I tell you, Jesus Christ was an extraterrestrial!"
As Davidson makes clear, the rise that seemed effortless was in fact driven by a ferocious work ethic and a ruthless competitive streak.
After he had snubbed invitations to the Reagan White House three times, Sagan's advocacy of a manned Mars mission was enough to make Reagan balk at the idea.
Davidson has some very acute observations on Sagan's behavior and personality. The picture that he paints is not a pretty one. Sagan's first marriage, to noted biologist Lynn Margulis, suffered from his neediness and blinkered obsession with his career—she referred to it as "a torture chamber shared with children."
He was estranged for long periods from three of his five children. His first two wives were not the only people to feel the icy edge of his arrogance. Even when he made his third and happiest partnership, with Annie Druyan, it came at a cost: When he met her, she was the fiancée of his good friend Timothy Ferris.
Sagan was a man-child whose well-burnished ego and imperious style made him insufferable at times. The Apple Corporation once asked for his permission to use his name as a code-name for one of its lines of computers. He refused, and Apple internal memos began to use the code-name BHA (reputed to stand for Butt Head Astronomer). He sued for libel, and the case was swiftly thrown out of court. This difficult man was hidden to the millions who saw only the suave and compelling TV performer.
He was put up for membership of the National Academy of Sciences, but the nomination was shot down because of distaste for his efforts at popularization. This parochial and mean-spirited action is a large black mark in the history of that august body.
When he researched animal intelligence, he once had to fend off sexual advances from the dolphin that played TV’s "Flipper."
He claimed to have had many of his most creative thoughts while high; Davidson provides excerpts from Sagan's "pot diaries."
He was a highly visible feminist who never lifted a finger around the house and paid scant attention to the needs of first-wife Margulis, whose career would one day rival his own. He could be fiercely loyal to his friends and students, but he fell out with his best friend over a slight to the friend's son, and his stubborn pride would not allow for a reconciliation, not even on his deathbed.
Was Carl Sagan a hero? He was too deeply flawed as a person, and occasionally as a scientist, to be truly heroic. However, Sagan never lost his sense of childlike wonder in the universe, and he captured the interest of millions of people for whom science was a closed book. All those of us who pursue our intellectual interests with public money are indebted to him for inspiring and educating so many of the people who actually pay the bills.
FLIPPER! Also, this:
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no subject
Date: 2015-01-09 03:08 am (UTC)would've loved to have gotten baked with him tho
no subject
Date: 2015-01-09 12:39 pm (UTC)"Can you imagine..Can you imagine, Noblet?" - Principal Blackman
And, yeah - there was an anon (of course) posting on DL about So-and-so's sister was a nurse, and Carl had to have a physical for insurance, and he was *pissed* and allegedly tried (and failed)with the, "Don't you know who I am?" diva thing....Of course, said anon poster just dropped this and left - when pressed for details, they disappeared..so.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-09 03:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-09 12:53 pm (UTC)And he's so breathtakingly fake and dorky on, Cosmos - it' hypnotic; I adore it - the Mister Rogers of Science - and on the Royal Institute Chrismas Lecture series.
Protein Dance - all I got to say.
It's intriguing, thinking of the Public Carl vs. Private Carl - reek, reek, reek, reek!
But, God help me - love me a Scorpio. Esp a dog.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-09 03:33 pm (UTC)no I know what you mean, haha
no subject
Date: 2015-01-09 04:25 am (UTC)http://society6.com/product/silver-sagan-b7z_t-shirt#11=49&4=75
no subject
Date: 2015-01-09 12:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-09 05:28 pm (UTC)You know, I wouldn't have let Apple use my name, either.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-10 01:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-10 10:58 pm (UTC)♥
no subject
Date: 2015-01-11 12:46 am (UTC)