#227 | This Short Novel Will Change the Way You Look At the ‘World’
Quick SUMMARY:
Douglas Vigliotti takes you on a journey through Samantha Harvey's 2023 novel "Orbital," a thought-provoking piece of literary fiction and a love letter to Earth. Discover how Harvey's meditative prose beautifully captures the essence of human achievement and our cosmic connection, all from the unique vantage point of space. Vigliotti also shares key quotes from the book, emphasizing the major themes of creation, unity, time, perception, triviality, and overall the nature of life.
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Topics Covered in The Episode:
Introduction to "Orbital" (00:09) - Douglas introduces the podcast and the book "Orbital" by Samantha Harvey.
Douglas's New Book Announcement (01:23) - He shares information about his book, "Aristotle for Novelists," and a related resource.
Author Background (02:30) - Discussion of Samantha Harvey's background and her literary achievements.
Themes of "Orbital" (03:43) - Exploration of the book's themes, particularly reflections on life and human achievement.
Feeling Small in Space (05:16) - Douglas emphasizes the meditative experience of reading about astronauts observing Earth.
Quotes on Life's Triviality (06:33) - He shares a profound quote from the book about life's significance and insignificance.
Love Letter to Earth (07:56) - Douglas reflects on how the novel changed his perspective on Earth and life.
Power of Storytelling (09:13) - He discusses the importance of storytelling in conveying complex ideas and emotions.
Strength in Brevity (09:53) - Commentary on the book's short length as a strength, enhancing its impact.
Comparison to "2001: A Space Odyssey" (10:23) - Douglas draws parallels between the book and the iconic film regarding artistic representation of space.
Experience and Connection (11:50) - Insights on the importance of shared experiences among astronauts and their families.
Final Powerful Excerpt (12:57)- Douglas reads a significant quote about Michael Collins and the nature of existence.
Closing Remarks (14:27) - He encourages listeners to subscribe and connect for more information about the podcast and his work.
READ THE TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome back to Books for Men, a podcast to inspire more men to read and bring together men who do. So. Today I have a book that I am excited to share with you. It is a short work of literary fiction that came out in 2023, and by short I mean under 200 pages. So somewhere around 190 or something like that. It is titled “Orbital” by Samantha Harvey. So before I get into anything about the book, some of my favorite takeaways and quotes and all that good stuff, I did want to quickly remind you about my new book, which is available everywhere now, and it is titled “Aristotle for Novelists: 14 Timeless Principles on the Art of Story”. If you'd like to find out more information about that, you can visit AristotleforNovelists.com also on that website if you are a storyteller yourself, or maybe you're trying to tell a story or like to, there is a nifty little resource that I created to go along with the book. That is a ten-question assessment to help you determine if you have a working story based on Aristotelian principles, and you can download that on the website AristotleforNovelists.com.
01:23 - The link for that will be in the show notes. All right. So now let's turn to today's book and author. Who is Samantha Harvey? She is an English author of five novels. I believe her debut was in 2009. So she's been at it for 14 years, probably longer than that. But from a publisher standpoint, honestly, I don't know too much about her, but I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed the novel that I am sharing with you today. And it's funny, it actually came to me on recommendation from somebody who I had an extensive conversation with about art and literature and movies. And he messaged me sort of out of the blue and said, you got to check this out. I think you would really like it. And man, did he hit the nail on the head. So I am very excited, as I've already mentioned, to share this book with you today. It was actually a Booker Prize winner of that year, which is a top literary prize for those who don't know, and it is given to the best.
02:30 - I'm using air quotes because we all know that that is a very subjective term. But the best book published in the United Kingdom or in Ireland. So I don't want to waste too much time getting to what the book is actually about because it's really interesting. And to me, this novel is all about the setting and the setup. And if I'm being totally honest, it's probably one of the best usages that I've ever read of both of those things setting and set up. And it sort of has to be because it's barely a story. It's a slice of life, certainly, which most people would consider literary fiction in general. But there's almost no plot associated with this book, which sort of makes me enjoying it even more ironic, because I love good plotting, even in literary fiction. But the thing I love even more than good plotting is when something comes along and disrupts the current way that I look at the world, whether that's in a micro sense with literature or in the broader sense of the term, like literally the world, which this book sort of did.
03:43 - So basically, six astronauts are circling around the planet in the International Space Station, all from obviously different countries, or some of them are duplicates, but you get the point. And they are basically just reflecting on the nature of life. What makes it so interesting for those who don't pick this up initially because I didn't pick it up initially. I don't have a very base-level understanding of space and space travel, and all of that stuff is that the International Space Station orbits the Earth 16 times in 24 hours. That's 90 minutes in orbit. This alone was enough to sort of blow my mind, especially when it's done in a literary sense on the page as it's being described to you. It becomes very visceral and quite meditative, I would say. But everything is done in the novel to be additive to that. And those major themes of putting time in perspective and making you feel really, really small. Sure, there are other things that it emphasizes and things that I love, like unity and connectivity and human achievement, but all with the idea of you being such a small, insignificant element to this much greater thing that is happening around you, inside of you, unknowingly everywhere.
05:16 - And I know I'm being a little bit cryptic, but it's how the book makes you feel. You really reflect a lot on life. It's not even that great at character development, but this even in itself makes you feel a bit smaller, at least to me. Some might disagree, but I felt very small while reading this novel. And even there's this big juxtaposition in the novel as they rotate around the Earth. There's a typhoon, which is normally obviously this large thing that is approaching an island. I can't remember which one in the South Pacific, and they watch it iteratively get closer and closer and closer. And of course, as they see this from above, it makes us feel so much smaller. The ending ties this together really nicely. I won't get into that because I don't want to spoil it for you, but just to tie a bow on that. Among the many great quotes in excerpts I pulled from this novel, many will be featured on the newsletter at the end of the month, but I wanted to read you a passage that really ties together that smallness concept really well, she writes.
06:33 – “Our lives here are inexpressible trivial and momentous at once, it seems he's about to wake up and say, both repetitive and unprecedented, we matter greatly and not at all to reach some pinnacle of human achievement, only to discover that your achievements are next to nothing and that to understand this is the greatest achievement of any life, which itself is nothing, and also much more than everything.” So I should just let you meditate on that for a moment. But instead, I'm going to jump into some of the larger takeaways, which, like always, I've already started to share with you. But the first thing is that I really believe this novel to be a love letter to Earth, and I'm happy that it puts a spotlight on this. If for nothing else, at least for selfish reasons, it completely shifted my mind on how I look at the world and the things that I think about when I think about the bigger picture and the miracle that is life and our earth. And if I'm being totally honest, it also shines a really large spotlight on the power of story.
07:56 - I know for many, science and space is a marveling thing, but for a large segment of people, when you are encountering Environments, ideas, cultures, things you don't know about. The ability to package those in a story is really, really powerful. It made me think of something that relates to this. But is not this at all? I once heard Daniel Kahneman, the iconic Nobel Prize-winning social scientist. Psychologist I don't know, researcher I don't know I don't know what his special title is, but he's very well regarded in the world of decision making and human behavior and cognitive science. And he said, and of course, I'm paraphrasing him because I don't have the exact quote in front of me. But in short words, basically, if you want to convince humans of anything, then you have to do it with a story because they just don't respond to data and numbers. And it reminded me a lot of how this book made me feel in relation to our earth and humanity, and it really just helped put things in perspective.
09:13 - Also, the second thing that I wanted to just mention to you quickly was that I know I alluded to this earlier in that the book is short for this book particularly. I think that that is a real strength, mostly because in the absence of a plot, it could get very tiring and you never get tired at all in this book. So to me, whether it started out at this length, was edited down to this length, or any of it, the fact that it is this length is a super strength for this book, at least for me. I'll also comment quickly on her prose, which I've already mentioned to be meditative, and it's quite lyrical, which is something that is not always in my wheelhouse, but I really enjoyed it. And if that's your thing, then I think you're really going to love it. The last thing that I wanted to share with you is that I found it really interesting that “2001: A Space Odyssey”, the Stanley Kubrick movie, which among many things, is another great representation of space in an artistic sense, and pretty much both of them are plotless to a degree.
10:23 - This book, a lot more so than that movie, but I've sort of concluded that, at least in an artistic standpoint, there must be something to this floaty nothingness in both a plot sense and an aesthetic sense to a true depiction of space. It's even hard for the mind to truly conceive. And how do you articulate and show that? And I pulled a great quote from the book that sort of hits on this. Harvey writes, “Nell wants sometimes to ask Sean how it is he could be an astronaut and believe in God. A creationist God, that is. But she knows what his answer would be. He'd ask how it is she can be an astronaut and not believe in God. They draw a blank.” Or there's this one that's a tad bit longer where she writes, “At first on their missions, they each miss their families. Sometimes so much that it seems to scrape out their insides. Now, out of necessity, they've come to see that their family is this one here. These others who know the things they know and see the things they see, with whom they need no words of explanation. When they get back, how will they even begin to say what happened to them, who and what they were?”
11:58 - So without going into much detail to end this here, it's just an illumination for me of so many things one the unbelievable nature of what is happening, and to that last passage really calls to light the importance of experience and the irreplaceable ability of experience, at least for me. And, you know, I just can't help myself. I was going to end this episode without sharing this quote, but I kind of want it to live on the podcast forever, so I will do it. It is probably the most powerful excerpt that I pulled from the book. All of these, plus more will be in the newsletter, but I will end with this one about Michael Collins, who, of course, was the third astronaut on the moon landing team with Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong. And not only is it really meditative, but I think it pairs well with the other quotes that I have just shared with you.
12:57 - And she writes, “In the photograph Collins took there's the lunar module carrying Armstrong and Aldrin just behind them, the moon, and some 250,000 miles beyond that Earth, a blue half sphere hanging in all blackness and bearing mankind. Michael Collins is the only human being not in that photograph. It is said, and this has always been a source of great enchantment. Every single other person currently in existence to mankind's knowledge is contained in that image. Only one is missing. He who made the image.” All right, I promise I am done now. Thank you so much for listening to this first episode of 2025. I hope that you enjoyed it. And if you did, I want to remind you to please remember to click subscribe on whatever podcast platform you're listening to this on, or if you have it in you, please take two seconds to rate this podcast. Either one of those goes a long way and helps more people find the show, and in return, inspires more men to read. Also, if you'd like to find out more information on my new book, “Aristotle for Novelists: 14 Timeless Principles on the Art of Story”, visit AristotleforNovelists.com.
14:27 - The link for that will also be in the show notes. If you want to connect with me, there are two ways to do so, either by visiting my website DouglasVigliotti.com, or link up with me on Instagram @DouglasVigliotti. It's the only social media that I have. And finally, if you want more information on this podcast, including how to sign up for that monthly newsletter, the one that I referenced a couple of times in this episode that features key quotes and excerpts and episode summaries and all that good stuff from all the episodes. Then all you have to do is head over to the website BooksforMen.org.
