I was listening to I’ll Take You There, by the Staple Singers, and I had a vision of kids floating in zero gravity, laughing and bouncing around. It’s such an easy and hopeful groove, but as with so much good music, it emerges from a cultural context that is in no way easy or hopeful. That juxtaposition seemed a good fit for this book.
Excerpt:
“Several minutes later, as the main engines shut off and the girls realized they were weightless, a soft funky bass line and a gospel female voice invited them to a place where nobody was crying, and nobody was worried. The music oozed comfort and good vibes. The sisters looked at each other as they floated and bobbed in their straps.”
— from Food: Generation Mars, Book Four
Image: The crew of STS-45 is already training for its March 1992 mission, including stints on the KC-135 zero-gravity-simulating aircraft. Shown with an inflatable globe are, clockwise from the top, C. Michael Foale, mission specialist; Dirk Frimout, payload specialist; Brian Duffy, pilot; Charles R. (Rick) Chappell, backup payload specialist; Charles F. Bolden, mission commander; Byron K. Lichtenberg, payload specialist; and Kathryn D. Sullivan, payload commander.
NASA/JSC
Public domain