Message in a Space Bottle
Poem by George Miller
Illustrations by Bob Guy
The poem “Message in a Space Bottle” was written towards the end of the last millennium, a time of heightened concern about the threats to human survival thrown up by our advancing technology – global warming, ozone depletion, marine pollution, destruction of the rain forests, loss of biodiversity, genetic engineering, rapid consumption of irreplaceable resources, and so on. Our systems of governance seemed incapable of confronting these problems, let alone solving them.
The poem’s starting point was the transmission of photographs from the Mars space probes showing a bleak landscape of red dust and rock, combined with discoveries indicating the possibility that life once existed on the planet. Perhaps there, and on other planets, a full evolutionary life episode occurred, in all its miraculous multiplicity, and perhaps there too a super species emerged, capable recognising and comprehending its grandeur, but also capable of destroying it. The idea of the poem is then of the last will and testament of such an alien race found drifting in space – a message in a space bottle – describing how they were given a beautiful and abundant environment, marvelled at it, were sustained by it, controlled, exploited, abused and destroyed it, and with it the source of their own existence.
In the illustrations the artist does not attempt to imagine the unimaginable: what an alien people would really look like, assuming we could see them, only to be betrayed by his humanity into some variant of the Hollywood hominoid. Instead he embraces a wide range of historical and mythological iconography in order to create a genuine sense of other, or alternative beings. The work draws inspiration from the visionary Romanticism of Samuel Palmer and William Blake who were also struggling with their own consciences over the rise of new and brutal technologies. The technique of wood engraving was chosen partly through limitations of size – the book is based on A6 format – and partly in reference to those artists of a later period, though not our own, who, in an era before global media, chose the medium to express their personal vision. Eric Ravilious, Eric Gill and Edward Bawden are particular influences.
“LISTEN, we awoke on a fecund planet. We went forth from darkness in the fire of dawn, and from a high place beheld a great wonder of the vastness and mystery and beauty of things.”
Message in a Space Bottle, George Miller
An illustration from Message in a Space Bottle. Original size: 15.5cm x 8cm
A New Edition
Message in a Space Bottle is now out of print. A second printing is contemplated. Price subject to confirmation: paper bound £20, cloth with label £35, tooled quarter leather in box, £50. If you are interested in obtaining a copy this new edition, please enter your details below...