Samantha Harvey thinks I am stupid and xenophobic

review - Created: 2026-04-09

…a look men get watching sports, football, say, in support of a team that affirms them by winning and then straight away negates them, because the glory belongs to the team, not the man sitting on the sofa who will never, now, be on a team like that

I really did not like this book. I disliked this book so much that I left it on a train.

Orbital follows six astronauts aboard the International Space Station as they complete sixteen orbits of Earth in a single day. Harvey uses this circular and repetitive structure to meditate on humanity, our smallness, our sameness, the pale blue dot of it all. This is contrasted with the pettiness of man-made borders: Russian astronauts forbidden from sharing bathrooms with the Americans. The end product is a secular hymn: far enough away, our conflicts and divisions are irrelevant. It worries me that this is presented as profound. Yes, thank you, people from other countries are humans too, I understand.

He’s never sure if man’s lust for space is curiosity or ingratitude