#rainer a

[oetscop]

been diggin my grave for quite some time, when im not diggin up the past

[druid-for-hire]

There's this sort of anthropomorphizing that inherently happens in language that really gets me sometimes. I'm still not over the terminology of "gravity assist," the technique where we launch satellites into the orbit of other planets so that we can build momentum via the astounding and literally astronomical strength of their gravitational forces, to "slingshot" them into the direction we need with a speed that we could never, ever, ever create ourselves. I mean, some of these slingshots easily get probes hurtling through space at tens of thousands of miles per hour. Wikipedia has a handy diagram of the Voyager 1 satellite doing such a thing.

"Gravity assist." "Slingshot." Of course, on a very basic and objective level, yes, we are taking advantage of forces generated by outside objects to specifically help in our goals. We're getting help from objects in the same way a river can power a mill. And of course we call it a "slingshot," because the motion is very similar (mentally at least; I can't be sure about the exact physics).

Plus, especially compared to the other sciences, the terminology for astrophysics is like, really straightforward. "Black hole?" Damn yeah it sure is. "Big bang?" It sure was. "Galactic cluster?" Buddy you're never gonna guess what this is. I think it's an effect of the fact that language is generally developed for life on earth and all the strange variances that happen on its surface, that applying it to something as alien and vast as space, general terms tend to suffice very well in a lot more places than, like... idk, botany.

But, like. "Gravity assist." I still can't get the notion out of my head that such language implies us receiving active help from our celestial neighbors. They come to our aid. We are working together. We are assisted. Jupiter and the other planets saw our little messengers coming from its pale blue molecular cousin, and we set up the physics just right, so that they could help us send them out to far stranger places than this, to tell us all about what they find out there.

We are assisted.

And there is no better way to illustrate my feelings on the matter than to just show you guys one of my favorite paintings, this 1973 NASA art by Rick Guidice to show the Pioneer probe doing this exact thing:

"... You, sent out beyond your recall, go to the limits of your longing. Embody me. ..."

Gravity assist.

[mournfulroses]

Rainer Maria Rilke, from The Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke; "You See, I Desire a Lot,"

[supfag]

RAINER DAWN

[saintsebastiensbf]

Rainer Maria Rilke, from Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God

[fuckyeahbroski]

RAINER DAWN | via TIKTOK

[toiich]

Rainer Maria Rilke, Letter to Mimi Romanelli

[metamorphesque]

Rainer Maria Rilke, "Letters to a Young Poet" (translated by M. D. Herter Norton)

[loveallthegays]

[boltlightning]

do allow me, will you? ➢ THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965)

[moonstoast]

@rbhvleo // roberto ferri // mothering by ainslie hogarth // rainer maria rilke // ? // planet of love by richard siken // a self portrait in letters by anne sexton // indian summer by ron hicks

[oetscop]

some unfinished rainerssss i doodled on petscops birthday. i think he gets overstimulated by his hair sometimes

[aestum]

(by degraaf.david)

[mournfulroses]

Rainer Maria Rilke, from a letter Lou von Salomé written c. January 1912

[supfag]

RAINER DAWN

[petaltexturedskies]

Long walks in the woods, going barefoot day and night, a lamp in the evening, a warm room, and the moon, whenever it suits her, and the stars when they are out, and otherwise just sitting and listening to the rain or to the storm as though it were God himself.

Rainer Maria Rilke, in a letter to Lou Salomé written c. December 1912