Wide-Eyed

My students were so cute today.  They are all aerospace engineering majors, and my course is all about films/stories/art on aviation and space-travel themes.  I was showing them a series of film clips related to the idea of "the technological sublime", i.e. the feeling of exhilaration mixed with fear that one has when in the presence of powerful and mysterious machines (rockets, atom bombs, etc.) The first clip was from Apocalypse Now - the scene where the helicopters are equipped with speakers that play Wagner to terrorize the Vietnamese.  My 11am class, who are always rowdy, started singing along with Die Walkure, which, while amusing, was not the response I was looking for.  I followed that up with a scene from October Sky, which is based on a true story about American high school kids who start building rockets in the early days of the space race.  The scene occurs near the beginning of the film, when people are watching the night sky to see Sputnik flying overhead.  Most of the characters are muttering about how the Russians are watching them with spy cameras and the bombs are sure to follow, but the main character stands apart, awestruck and visibly inspired.  Watching my students watch the clip was a most endearing sight.  My usually giddy students fell silent, obviously identifying with the young would-be engineer, entranced by the sublime machine.