Remembering the Space Age. - Black Vault Radio Network (BVRN)

236 reMeMBerING the SpaCe aGe
to Sputnik or Gagarin’s fight. 100 In order to remember, we have to create our
memories. and we create them out of the myths and symbols of our culture.
Cultural myths should not be seen merely as distorted memories. It is
precisely these “distortions,” cultural adaptations and appropriations of symbols,
that give cultures their individuality, their unique character, and distinct
perspective. Just as one’s personal memories reveal more about one’s current
identity than about one’s past, historical myths provide a valuable insight into
the culture that produces them. at the intersection of space history and cultural
history, the semiotics of Space age remembrance ties together individual
memory and collective myth, the materiality of objects and the pliability of
symbols, the authenticity of fantasy and the deceptive nature of truth.
there can be no “true” memory, as any act of recollection reconstitutes
our memories. as diferent cultures remember the Space age, it keeps changing,
revealing new symbolic meanings and providing an inexhaustible source of
study for historians. By shifting the focus from debunking myths to examining
their origins and their constructive role in culture, we can understand memory
as a dynamic cultural force, not a static snapshot of the past.
100. Donald J. raleigh, tran. and ed., Russia’s Sputnik Generation: Soviet Baby Boomers Talk about Their
Lives (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University press, 2006).