TITLE--Question and Answer (?)
by Denise Levertov and Sharon Olds
Page 2
Levertov: [Answering someone who is questioning Levertov's assertion that Dickinson's solitude was "by choice"] Yes, I really do. I think it's clear in her biography and in her letters."Olds: [Answering question about why "Shuttle" was dedicated to Christa McAuliffe] When I heard about protests against memorials addressed only to her, without mentioning the other people who were there, I thought about that. I think this poem came to me in her name because her math was--I wouldn't say no better than mine, but she was not a scientist. I identified with that private citizen aspect of her. Is that what you meant? And what were you thinking--that it would be better to salute all of them, not just one--what was your thought behind that question? I think that my poem focused on Christa McAuliffe because of that identification with her as someone who went up not knowing how to get back, went up for the trip, went up to teach, as a teacher. If I write a poem about someone who has fallen in a war, whose picture I happen to see, it by no means is meant to imply that that loss is any worse than another one.
Levertov: I think that what Sharon just said, the phrase she used, "someone fallen in a war," is a good one for the way that I see this whole question of Christa McAuliffe and poems which--there are other poems that have been written about her already. Just as most of the people who fall in most wars don't really understand what the war is about--they think it's about one thing, but really it's about another thing--they are victims of terrible ignorance and oppression. So Christa McAuliffe, chosen from among other applicants after a lot of screening, for being someone who certainly-- I happen to know someone who lives in New Hampshire and who knew a lot about the screening process that people went through. You may be sure that Christa McAuliffe had never participated in any anti-war or anti-nuclear actions.
Christa McAuliffe was a victim of her own ignorance. Christa McAuliffe didn't seem to be aware that the space program, from the beginning, was under the aegis of the military. Christa McAuliffe, like a lot of other people, including other astronauts, I suppose, but certainly civilian people, did not know that warheads were what those things are really designed to carry and that the whole thing is part of the conspiracy to destroy the earth. There is a lot of sentimentality about this loss and this sentimentality has been imposed on children. They've been encouraged to emote over the loss of a teacher at the very time when funds have been taken away from education. So it's a very, very loaded situation and I have nothing against poor Christa McAuliffe, nor certainly against her family who must suffer their bereavement like anyone else suffers a bereavement, but I think one cannot intelligently think about Christa McAuliffe without realizing that she was indeed a victim in a war.
Levertov: [answering some comment or question--space as frontier?] There are frontiers right on this earth, right now. Frontiers of the conquest of hunger, of the conquest of racism, of the conquest of injustice, of the ending of war, which are the frontiers that we should be putting our time and money and energies into. As I said, although it has been called civilian, it has been from the beginning under the aegis of the military, that program.
Levertov: [answering question about how Christa McAuliffe is the victim of a war] She's a victim of a war because the space program is part of a war of militarism and rampant technological development that has become totally divorced from ethics, a war in which we're all victims, to some extent. The very fact that this kind of expertise, evergy, and money is being put into this program at a time when all these earth problems go unsolved and whatever little money is given to them is taken away from them, I think is obscene.
