Richard Holmes, Falling Upwards
Hello there! I’ve been on a bit of an unannounced blog break, as I was off visiting family and friends in the US (my first time back in 5 years) and didn’t have time to do anything else. I did manage to fit in some reading: a book subtitled “How We Took to the Air” seemed particularly appropriate for the airplane, and would also count for the Transportation category in the Nonfiction Reader Challenge. And I’m so glad I took it along!
I loved Holmes’s The Age of Wonder, about science and scientists in the Romantic era. This book could be seen as an extended footnote to that one, focusing as it does on the romantic era of ballooning. Though it’s been superseded in our minds by the far more powerful and controllable technology of airplanes and space travel, Holmes reminds us that the dream of flying began with the simple balloon.
He also impresses us with the understanding that what today is a relatively safe novelty experience was at the time of its invention an awe-inspiring revelation, as well as often hazardous. Human beings were no longer bound by gravity! This gave rise to some exaggerated claims — that ballooning would spread peace and democracy everywhere by erasing the arbitrary boundaries between nations, for example. This, of course, did not prove to be the case.
Balloons did play a role in history, as they were used for wartime reconnaissance in the Civil War and for communication during the siege of Paris in the Franco-Prussian War. But their most important effect might have been on our imaginations, the expansion they wrought in our view of the world and our place in it. Holmes includes a wealth of literary examples, from Poe to Dickens to Verne and into our own times (though he regrettably omits one I think deserved consideration: the balloon that carries the Wizard in L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.) Ballooning evokes a daring journey that takes one into a strange land, dangerous and magical, possibly difficult or impossible to return from, and that is ripe material for storytelling.
Indeed, rising up into the air inspired an incredible degree of foolhardy recklessness in some aeronauts, who seemed to think overcoming gravity meant that they were now invulnerable to any other limitation, and were prone to wishful assurance that the wind they wanted at any particular moment would blow in the right direction! The stories of some of their disastrous journeys are painful to read, and could stand as a metaphorical warning for the ego-inflation of our industrialized Western culture. We, too, have taken off in a direction we now find hard to control, and seem to be headed for a crash landing.
However, those aeronauts who managed to stay a bit more sensible may inspire us with their bravery in the cause of science — meteorology and an understanding of the earth’s atmosphere began with them. The revolutionary discovery that gases could be weighed and some were lighter than air also meant a new direction in chemistry. To venture into the unknown, not recklessly but with careful, observant minds that remain open to discovery, is what allows us to rise into new realms through knowledge. Thus, we might expand our human capacities in a rightful way.
But the book ends with a particularly sad story about a doomed polar expedition, another case of scientific hubris, which put an end to romantic dreams of heroic exploration by balloon. The age of heavier-than-air flight was soon to begin. Still, the balloon, silent and wind-borne, tugs on our heartstrings in a way noisy airplanes and rockets can’t. I’ve never been up in one, but now, as long as there is strong assurance I’ll be able to come down again, I’m quite tempted to give it a try, ascending into unknown realms …
Richard Holmes, Falling Upwards: How We Took to the Air (Pantheon, 2013)
Read for the Nonfiction Reader Challenge — Transportation category
I love Richard Holmes’s writing but I’ve not read this – onto the wishlist it goes, sounds marvellous!!
Some may not like how much of himself Holmes puts into his work, but I enjoy it. This book seems to have arisen from a life-long passion for balloons, which one might see reflected in his buoyant style and wide-ranging interests.
When I first saw your title, I thought it was going to be about Richard Rohr’s book, “Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life.” A very different book than one about balloons! But likely interesting as well. 🙂 I’m curious about your visit back to the US; I hope all went well.
I’ve read Rohr’s book as well! Yes, a very different topic, and yet I found Holmes’s ballooning history had much to do with venturing into spiritual realms .. the perils as well as the glories.
My visit was just wonderful, so many people to see and confirm those heart connections. It’s just better to do it in person, though I appreciate online and written communication very much.
Interesting topic! I haven’t read much about air travel but as a someone who enjoys reading about Arctic exploration, I am familiar with that doomed polar expedition you note. I don’t think I will ever be keen to ride in a hot air balloon, even if I picked this book up, haha.
This sounds fascinating. I enjoyed learning that Benjamin Franklin was present for the famous balloon flight in Paris. I think I would enjoy Holmes’ earlier book, too.
If you have not read The Age of Wonder, it’s absolutely marvelous.