Jacob's Font of Perspicacity

Falcon Heavy boosters landing after helping to launch Starman Over the past year or so, I have gradually become what could be accurately described as a SpaceX fan. Not only that, I have discovered that Elon Musk’s rocketry company possesses a surprisingly extensive fandom. SpaceX has an active subreddit with hundreds of thousands of members, and its orbital launches can draw millions of viewers on YouTube . So, what is it that has given a private spaceflight corporation the sort of following typically reserved for TV shows and sports teams? I can't fully answer this question in the broad, societal sense, but I can analyze what makes SpaceX so inspiring to me personally. First, it's useful to understand why I find space exploration in general so interesting and important. One factor is that establishing a human presence outside of Earth is vital to our species' long-term survival. Relying on a single fragile planet to house all of humanity is a risky choice in a w...

This post is part of a series which I hope to write in the relatively near future, documenting pieces of entertainment media which I currently view as significant influences on the way I view what makes a story good. Beyond simply serving as writing practice, the purpose of these is largely so that in future years I can look back and laugh at the things I thought were so important when I was in high school (or be shocked by my prognosticative powers, I suppose, though that seems less likely). I'm putting the series here for the moment because it fits in fairly well with some of the media blog posts I did for Mr. Starace and doing so reduces the number of places I'll need to look to find my past writings in the future. Anyway, on to A Song of Ice and Fire (which [just in case someone else is reading this] is the low-magic fantasy epic by George R. R. Martin which was adapted into the HBO show Game of Thrones. ) The primary reason why A Song of Ice and Fire (which I will hence...