They say that going to space changes you. Often, what’s being referenced is a shift in mindset, a renewed sense of perspective that comes from seeing our world from above, a phenomenon that’s been called the overview effect.
But it seems unlikely that rocketing off into the atmosphere, experiencing powerful g-force acceleration followed by a sudden weightlessness, then exposure to increased radiation and the utterly exotic environment of low-Earth orbit, doesn’t affect the human body in some way.
When my older sister phoned to break the news, I fell apart. Our mother was 86; I knew she would die one day, but it was the cause that changed everything.
My sister’s voice cracked as she said: ‘She killed herself.’
My reaction was visceral, triggering a sharp stab of pain in my stomach that crippled me and lingers on even now. I fell to the floor, crying: ‘It hurts!’
And it did — it actually physically hurt. Weirdly, the
Bob Thompson starb 1966 an einer Überdosis Heroin, wenige Wochen vor seinem neunundzwanzigsten Geburtstag. Im Laufe der vergangenen acht Jahre hatte er mehr als tausend Bilder gemalt, im Durchschnitt alle drei Tage eines. Gott weiß, was ihn getrieben hat, aber ich würde mir gerne vorstellen, dass es ein B-Minus auf seiner Collegearbeit über Piero della Francesca war. Das Papier selbst, das derzeit in der Galerie Michael Rosenfeld ausgestellt ist, ist nichts Besonderes. Ganze Absätze sind weitschweifigen Zitaten gewidmet, und das
