'Who or whatever is busy there especially chose this meandering gorge.' From Sending Kosmos, ID Lamprecht, 1980. Daan Retief Publishers, 1980. (Translated from the original Afrikaans)
Traveling beyond the speed of light in a rocket that took off from a secret location in Gamkaskloof, Professor Verhoef and Hansie Strydom start remembering events from the future. They somehow know that the star they are heading towards is called the Verhoef Sun and one of it’s planets Strydom.
'Who or whatever is busy there especially chose this meandering gorge.' From Sending Kosmos, ID Lamprecht, 1980. Daan Retief Publishers, 1980. (Translated from the original Afrikaans)
Traveling beyond the speed of light in a rocket that took off from a secret location in Gamkaskloof, Professor Verhoef and Hansie Strydom start remembering events from the future. They somehow know that the star they are heading towards is called the Verhoef Sun and one of it’s planets Strydom.
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‘…“No,” the professor murmurs disdainfully. “No, I believe it comes in peace. No, the lines are too harmonious to be designed by devils.”
…Then the automatic outer door closes quickly behind him. While groups of men in the glass dome stares out anxiously into the ice night where the flying saucer with an unearthly glow sits dead still on the runway, and dr. Eva Stellaris also stands without motion in front if the foot thick window, the lonely figure of professor Mertyn moved closer to the cosmic visitor.’
Photograph inspired by ‘Swart ster oor die Karoo’ (Black star over the Karoo) by Jan Rabie, 1957. Translated from the original Afrikaans. The characters encounter a constant tension between the expectation of fear and violence and peaceful curiosity towards their visitors.
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'"Ten . . . Nine . . . Eight . . . Seven . . . Six . . . Five . . . Four . . . Three . . . Two . . . One . . . Zero!"
The constant punch of thunder shakes the whole area. All eyes are focussed on the heavens or monitors that show images of the heavens. Inside them VR3 shrinks on top of an intense column of fire, first moving slowly, then faster, then unbelievably fast until it microscopically swims into the blue sea of heaven.'
'If man ventures out into space, he needs to be prepared to realise quite a few other things. That he was not the first intelligent being to do so and that he was not even the first child of Terra to leave his mother planet in this way. He'll learn to be humble. And further: That Terra is not the only planet in the heavens. That he can forget his allegiance to Terra. That he himself might change out in space, that he will never totally be and think the same as his fellow humans on Terra.'
From chapter 1 and chapter 11, Die Groen Planeet (The Green Planet), Jan Rabie, First edition, 1961. Translated from the original Afrikaans by Nic Grobler.
Photograph inspired by Die Groen Planeet, Jan Rabie, 1961.