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

the MUSIC OF MeMOrY aND FOrGettING:
GLOBaL eChOeS OF SpUtNIK II
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keeping with dogs’ powerful role as mediators of realms in various mythic and
legendary settings, Winterson’s historical Laika helps the mythic hero negotiate
his unbearable burden even as he saves her from the solitude of outer space. 38
additional evidence of Laika’s continued resonance is found in the
astonishing number of Web sites devoted to the dog. these range from a
“rainbow bridge” memorial that places Laika in the sentimentalized cosmology
of grieving pet owners, to sites concerned primarily with space history, stamp
collecting, or vending space dog memorabilia. 39 a rescue organization for
homeless animals in Moscow chose Laika for its Web site logo because, “she
represents for us the plight of homeless animals everywhere—abandoned or
exploited, but rarely treated with the respect and compassion which all living
creatures deserve.” 40
and then there is akino arai’s song “Sputnik,” which appeared on her
Raining Platinum album in 2000. In a manner perhaps beftting a famous anime
singer, the real, the imaginary, and the fabricated are interwoven in this song
of lost (human?) love. the lyrics refer to “the Laika dog on Sputnik II,” but
then confate the historical Laika with “Kloka,” a space dog fabricated by the
Spanish artist Joan Fontcuberta for an installation called “Sputnik: the Odyssey
of Soyuz 2.” First exhibited in Madrid in 1997, “the Odyssey of Soyuz 2”
used manipulated digital photos to present an elaborate, completely fabricated
history of a fctional cosmonaut who allegedly vanished (along with his canine
companion) in 1968. 41
a song of human longing that invokes a fctitious dog to commemorate a
real one might be the ultimate tribute to a global celebrity whose entire history
is built on irony. For not only is Laika the dog a more meaningful fgure—at
least in the popular imagination—than the many human forces associated with
her voyage, but, even more paradoxically, it seems that by perishing in space, she
has become eternal. Laika endures as a symbol of futuristic adventure, sacrifce,
and experimentation, as a foil for human anxieties about abused animals and
pet dogs, and as a timeless echo of a unique historical moment. But in today’s
popular culture, the particulars of that moment seem to have been far easier to
metabolize than the reality of sending “man’s best friend” on a one way trip to
38. On dogs as negotiators of human identities and boundaries, see Mchugh, Dog, pp. 47-48.
39. “Memorial to Laika,” http://www.novareinna.com/bridge/laika.html (accessed January 25, 2008);
ted Strong, “Laika the russian Space Dog!,” http://tedstrong.com/laika-trsd.shtml (accessed
January 25, 2008); Sven Grahn, “Sputnik-2, More News from Distant history,” http://www.
svengrahn.pp.se/histind/Sputnik2/sputnik2more.html, accessed January 25, 2008; Sven Grahn,
“Sputnik-2, Was it really Built in a Month?,” http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/histind/Sputnik2/
Sputnik2.htm (accessed January 25, 2008); Melissa Snowden, “russian Space Dogs,” http://
www.silverdalen.se/stamps/dogs/library/library_space_dogs_russian.htm (accessed January 25, 2008).
40. “Moscow animals,” http://www.moscowanimals.org/index.html (accessed January 25, 2008).
41. Catherine auer,“Ground Control to Comrade Ivan,” The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists vol. 58,
no. 2 (2002): 10-12.