"Venus and the Ark" Question 1

I just have a few small points on which I disagree with Group C about this poem by Anne Sexton. I think Ashutosh and Nellie claimed that Earth did not seem to care at all about Venus. I read this part of the poem a little bit differently… The poem mentioned that a lot of attention was given to the discovery of “Venus is Green”, even though it was only 15 minutes. Sexton seemed to be trying to convey the message that in this future, people’s attention spans were so short that spending 15 minutes on a story is monumental. It also sounded like interrupting the weather forecast was a big deal. And because of the country celebrating due to the news, rival nations were jealous. This may be alluding to the space race, moon landing, etc. in history. Every nation was against each other, trying to one-up the other and prove that they were the most advanced and powerful by investing tons of money into the space program. And it seems in this poem that it has risen until the nations began a war to see who’s the most powerful, subsequently destroying the Earth. So, in a way, the discovery of “green” on Venus was the catalyst that destroyed the Earth, although it is likely that the destruction of Earth was going to happen eventually.