Woman in the Moon (1929 silent) Fritz Lang and his wife Thea von Harbou framed this trip to the moon within the paranoia of high finance and espionage. Helius and eccentric Professor Mannfeldt have devised a rocket that should be able to reach and return from the dark side of the moon. Their designs and plans are stolen by “a man who calls himself Walter Turner,” agent for five oligarchs who control the gold standard. “The moon’s riches of gold, should they exist,” one says, “ought to be placed in the hands of businessmen and not into those of visionaries and idealists.” Only if Helius agrees to work for these powerbrokers will he be allowed to make the attempt. Despite the melodramatic love triangle that took over the plot, Uffa Studios delivered on believable special effects. Rocket Scientist Hermann Oberth served as an advisor on this film that was later banned by the Nazis because of its close resemblance to their secret V-2 Rocket research.
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The Chinese now occupy the dark side of the moon,
Clawing off sand dunes and shorelines
From the vulnerable crust, perhaps to aid
Houyi search for his immortal wife Chang’e.
That crust begins to blister calligrams
From heat and radiation, as if to mirror
A courtesan swooning from solar flares
Etched into disfigured cliffs.
Basted dust in the bowls of valleys,
And singed lips of craters whisper on the erhu
How the archer Houyi shot down
Nine of the suns of the Jade Emperor.
The elixir Houyi stole, his wife engulfed;
The dark side burned off its chill
Momentarily, before returning
To the indifferent freeze of space.
Hemorrhaging fissures , Chang’e, banished
From Heaven, gleams, Goddess of the Moon,
Disrupting satellite communications
With her mortal husband’s arrowed amours.
[Disposable Poem April 10, 2019]
Dr. Mike
SPACESHIP 