Close reading oct 1

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/evanosnos/2011/09/a-heavenly-palace-moment.html

The author really focuses on relating China's launch of its new space station to the cold war feelings of the space race.  He really is able to do this with imagery.  Using things such as "expecting Cronkite to narrate the events" and "the Sputnik Moment" bring back images of the cold war to people.  Though I obviously wasn't alive during the cold war, the era, from what I've learned about it, is really brought up when I read passages like this.  The images of rocket ships, nuclear missiles, and massive armies brought up whenever references to the cold war are made.  The author also makes a comment that the launching of the station is like an international heavy weight showdown, bringing images of they Rocky movies to mind, but instead of Rocky huge spaceships.

The author has a very sarcastic tone toward the end of the article and this as result of his use of details.  He states that "But a key step to getting that space station will be docking with an unmanned spacecraft in November.". And follows it with the fact that China just dealt with a subway crash this last week, claiming that it dashed there hopes for great leaps of technology.  This is a very sarcastic comment and a very ironic situation for China, the fact that they are looking to master the limits of technology in space but can't even drive subway train.  He tops his sarcasm off by including a quote by a Chinese citizen that "subway drivers have solved the issue of unmanned docking".  


The author throughout the article stresses the fact that he is really unsure of whether this is actually of any importance to anyone, whether it really is reminiscent of the cold war.  This is revealed in his contrasting diction choices.  He uses words like "adrenaline shot, Cold War ring, showdown" to describe the feelings of this moment as a really large step for China and a very dangerous thing for the US.  He then makes it clear that this after all might not be a big deal at all.  He uses words like "cynicism, ambiguous" to describe the emotions of the Chinese people and there opinion of all of this.