Orbital and How We Understand Earth and Our Place Within It
- Ben Taylor
- Mar 4
- 5 min read
The following is and excerpt from our Orbital Study Companion, available on the resources
page of our website.
“Is it necessarily the case that the further you get from something the more perspective you have on it? It’s probably a childish thought, but he has an idea that if you could get far away enough from the earth you’d be able to finally understand it.”
Throughout the novel, Harvey includes many descriptions of the earth, both in its place in the universe and in its entirety as our home. Borderless land masses and islands rapidly pass under the space station during its orbit, as Harvey coolly describes the earth from such a distance that the daily existence of human beings and their squabbles, “democracies and dictatorships”, seem trivial. As a calming light falls upon one side of a continent, in another part of the globe a typhoon builds. At once, the earth is both peaceful and frighteningly ferocious in its raw power. By describing our earth from such a vantage point, Harvey is able to have her reader consider the enormity of the planet, but also its fragility. As the members of the station gaze in wonder and contemplation from afar, we as readers are moved to view the world from the same perspective and attempt to comprehend our place in a world that can be both so immense, but also quietly peaceful.
The simple structure of the novel, sixteen orbits of the earth in twenty four hours, allows Harvey to explore the limitless depths of human experience and contemplation. In a novel full of contradictions, so much, but also so little actually happens! In the brief period of twenty four hours, a set of astronauts and cosmonauts observe the planet from their craft, go about their daily routines and consider their lives and the lives of those they love back on earth. They contemplate the design of the universe, its beginnings and phases over millennia, whilst also discussing the joys of sweets and the comfort of being with another. As readers planted on terra firma, Harvey provides us with the perspective of this select group of people through which we can begin to contemplate our place in the galaxy. We can consider ourselves fortunate to experience a life that can be described as miraculous, as we consider our home to be an orb viewed by a group of people in space, “earth’s fabulous and improbable backyard”. Through this lens, life itself is something to be cherished and marvelled at. However, Harvey also leads her reader to consider their minuscule place on a planet where entire hemispheres are plunged into darkness only to then be seen “once again luminous and human-less” from afar. It is important to remember that Harvey’s musings about earth are interspersed with the thoughts and interpretations of people from around the globe (the six characters aboard the space station). It can be seen as both a chaotic and incomprehensible premise, and also a “piddling speck at the centre of nothing.” Whatever the universe and our earth may actually be, it is the human attempt to orientate ourselves and understand the complexity of a limitless expanse that sits at the centre of Harvey’s novel.
“Maybe it’s hard to shift from thinking your planet is safe at the centre of it all to knowing in fact it’s a planet of normalish size and normalish mass rotating about an average star in a solar system of average everything in a galaxy of innumerably many and that the whole thing is going to explode or collapse.” p29
As the novel progresses, Harvey includes allusions to climate change and other human interventions that are impacting the earth’s workings. It is yet another dichotomy in that humans are depicted as powerless against the indifferent forces of the natural world, yet also responsible for worsening that frequency and severity of such forces. It would be reasonable to suggest that Harvey speaks of the miraculous beauty of our planet in an attempt to lead readers to appreciate the world they live in and do their utmost to preserve its beauty. Again, by working with such a unique perspective, Harvey can depict the world as a beautiful, temperate home for us to appreciate, whilst also reminding readers of the immense power of weather systems that can wreak havoc upon inhabitants of the earth. Through the thoughts and conversations of the astronauts and cosmonauts, readers can question their own understanding of themselves as a being that is able to carry out their existence amongst so many miracles that play out every second around them. Harvey invites her reader to view the world as a place of chaos and violent natural reactions, however she also describes it as “a place of circular systems: growth and decomposition, rainfall and evaporation, alive with the cycling of air currents that shunt the weather around the continents.” At once, the world is a place where events are incredible, but also inevitable. Just as Chie’s mother is captured in a simple photograph on the day of massive consequence (the moon landing), a typhoon forms that is terribly destructive to one region of the earth, but completely unfelt by the rest of it. It is through the “godly” view of the station’s crew that Harvey leads us to question all of this. The improbability of life must also be viewed with the inevitability of catastrophic (the typhoon), tragic (the death of a loved one) and greatly coincidental (Chie’s grandfather staying home from work on the day of the bombing) events that occur every second.
There is no one true perspective through which Harvey’s novel makes any more sense than another. Rather, her intention is to seemingly question how we perceive ourselves and our lives on the planet that we live upon. Tellingly, Harvey uses analogies of a calendar and a human life span to try and make sense of creation. The “teenage rebellion” and “childhood royalty” of our lives are used to help us come to terms with the nearly incomprehensible timeline of existence. However, it is not as simple as merely writing our lives as human beings off as completely inconsequential. The memories, including very specific elements of the lives of the crew, act as a grounding force through which readers can take solace in. Further, the way that the earth feels “endlessly connected” leads us to consider our place as important and a part of something bigger than ourselves. Humans may be flawed and chaotic in their behaviour, but their existence is still a major part of the story of the earth that they inhabit.
We have lots more to say about this text! If you’d like for Ben to speak to your students or to your teaching team, please contact hello@englishlab.com.au
Please also look around our website for further resources and services that can help your Year Twelve teachers and students get the best out of themselves. Our study guide (of which this post is an excerpt from) is available by clicking on the ‘Resources’ tab at the top of this page.
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