Thinking More About That Blood Moon…
Last Monday, I posted on how the recent blood moon (full lunar eclipse) had sparked reflections on the significance of the moon in Fantasy. If you haven’t done so yet, you can read the post here:
The Blood Moon—& The Moon In Fantasy
Since then, I’ve been thinking more about the blood moon event itself—and how glad I am that I was able to watch the full eclipse and just how wonderful it was to see the full, reddish moon in the night sky. Those of you who visit here regularly or follow me on Twitter have probably picked up that I’m pretty keen on astronomy, and one of the reasons for my enduring interest is the extent to which consideration of the universe inspires a sense of wonder.
Something of that feeling creeps into my poem Starman (and yes, the title “is” a tribute to the Bowie song)
“…You can’t count ’em, the stars
—you’d go crazy if you even tried—
though I do sometimes
when there’s nothing better to do . . .
count until my mind’s cold
as the vacuum outside
this tinfoil they call a hull—
and wonder.
Yeah, there’s a lot of time
for that, the wonder …”
But I also got to reflecting that a sense of wonder, but also possibility—“what if”—is a big part of what makes SFF tick. In fact I said just that only last year, in a post titled “Why I Write Epic Fantasy”:
“All SFF allows the author to explore ‘what if’ and ‘wonder’ and to speculate on the how and why of other worlds…”
But I also feel the wellspring for that is the sheer wonder and delight, but also sometimes the terror, that exists all around us in the real world—and universe: wonders such as the blood moon.