10 – The Legendary and Mystical John Boone
The very first chapter of Part 6 is very interesting. We start out with the assassination of John Boone. His death is told from the point of view of groups of people in different locations.
“The day John Boone was assassinated we were up on east Elysium and it was morning….” (384)
“We were down in Hellas Lakefront and the sky went dark…” (384)
“We were in Senzeni Na where he worked a lot, and it was night….” (384)
“We were on Olympus Mons and the whole sky went black.” (386)
I really enjoyed this way of telling how he was killed. We get so many points of view and how his death affected people in different locations. Though the description of his death is legendary no doubt. From picture frames with pictures of him being broken and struck by lightning, to walktubes being blown away, and crops being frozen solid.
I find it interesting that usually these sections of italicized words have something to do with science/math but out of the death of John we get stories of American folklore, Paul Bunyan. Of course what else would John Boone be if not legendary being the First Man on Mars and all.
Also, Maya is the leader of MarsFirst but I find it odd that she is leader but does not get a vote in the happenings of the group. I do not quite understand the power dynamics of the group or if this was purposefully done to make a point/statement.