It's here! After a four-week wait, my Kindle Oasis has arrived. Unlike my Voyages, which were immediately comfortable and seemed like part of my arm, I am still getting used to the Oasis, it's one thicker side, it's square shape, but it's a relief to be able to get back to my galleys. As much s I love my Mac Book Pro and my iPhone, I don't like reading on them unless I have to (hence last month's diversion to library books instead). But now, back to where we left off in early December, when my Voyage ended its journey.
Comet Madness: How the 1920 Return of Halley's Comet (Almost) Destroyed Civilization by Richard J. Goodrich. This is not just a book about the most famous comet ever, although it is. This is not just a book that traces the development of scientific investigations into Halley's Comet, although it does. This is, at its base, a book about how media plays into, exacerbates, or just plain fabricates stories that play on the frail human psyche, and that play on them for a profit. Because if you think fake news and lies being presented as facts that "everyone knows" is a recent phenomenon, you're wrong (although richly displayed the last 6 years on our political stage). When Halley's Comet made its return trip into our part of the galaxy in 1910, the media twisted what scientists said about the event to sell more newspapers, and in the process, destroyed lives around the world. Mr. Goodrich traces how the return of the comet moved from an event of interest only to astronomers to a front-page story with headlines that screamed about the imminent destruction of the planet. He details how even respectable newspapers published stories lifting what the astronomers were saying out of context, or, in some cases, attributing complete lies to them. This may seem like an uninteresting historical anecdote, but these screaming lies caused panic around the globe. Mr. Goodrich quotes extensively what the scientists were saying versus what the newspapers reported, and documents instances where people, convinced that the end of the world was coming in May 1910, sold everything they owned to enjoy their last few days in luxury. But worse then that, he provides details on people who were driven so distraught at the published news articles that the world was ending that they killed themselves rather than face being poisoned by gases from the comet or immolated when it crashed into the earth. The destruction of a scientist's name and career by these newspaper lies is less horrific in comparison, but no less sad. So this is not just a book about Halley's Comet, but the restoration of the reputation of Camille Flammarion, the serious and famous French astronomer whose words were twisted and shredded in the name of profit. Mr. Goodrich makes no analogy to the times we live in, but astute readers will not fail to see the many similarities between how the newspapers lied in 1910 and how media outlets in the 2020s have been blatantly doing the same. This is an excellent read all round, for science and astronomy buffs particularly, but sociologists, anthropologists, and indeed anyone interested in media and its influence on culture will find it fascinating. (Net Galley)
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