Cosmodolphins

Book excerpt: Applying thinking on gender and the environment to research on science and technology, this work explores postcolonical relationships with the wild using the USA and Russia as examples. The authors analyze contemporary categorizations of human self versus wild other through three 20th-century icons which illustrate ambivalent ideas about self and other - spaceships, horoscopes and dolphins. They interview astrologers, wilderness guides, dolphin trainers and academic staff of space agencies from Russia and the US, and look at representations of the space race in film and science fiction in both cultures as well as in New Age and other texts on dolphins, astrology and space travel. We see how a particular icon of the wild - the dolphin - is elevated to mythological status, and how a secularized society looks for spiritual fulfilment in the beyond - astrology - and in its own technological advances - space travel.