Happy New Year *^_^*

NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) was compared to a playboy in the passage “Managing the Shuttle Fixes” of The New York Time’s Editorial Desk on August 19, 2005. This article commented on a minority report of NASA shuttle fixes that was just issued by seven members of an official review panel. Here are three examples taken from this newspaper opinion article:

(1)    [NASA has not settled the foam shedding problem of the space shuttle since the Columbia disaster two and a half years ago] “The underlying problems suggest the need to retire the shuttles quickly, both to end this needless flirtation with catastrophe and to free up funds for more exciting space ventures.”

(2)    [After a minority report accused NASA of failing to set high standards and hold people accountable for meeting them] “Most troubling of all was the bald assertion in the minority report that NASA’s much vaunted engineering force had lost its appetite for careful and rigorous analysis.”

(3)    [After the editor mentions that not a single technical question was asked or answered in one technical review meeting] “It can only be disheartening that such lackadaisical behavior is still entrenched after all the exhortations for NASA to reach new heights of vigilance.”

     As shown above, the indication of flirting in (1), the expression of vaunting and the loss of appetite in (2), and the state of being entrenched in (3) all enrich the metaphor. Consider the table below:

Mappings for the NASA IS PLAYBOY metaphor

     Obviously, the source domain has more derogative connotations than the target domain, which in some aspects reveals the editor’s negative attitude towards NASA. More specifically, I would discuss the key inferences transferred from the source domain to the target domain.

a.       (Source Domain: Playboy) His noble origin implies his almost unshakable family background.

(Target Domain: NASA) Its governmental support endows it an unparalleled official favor.

      As example (3) demonstrates, despite its laziness, NASA is entrenched by something, probably the government. It would have made a huge difference if the word entrench had been replaced by words like support or backup. Besides the meaning of “supporting” conveyed by the latter, the former indicates a royal background where trenches are usually seen. Moreover, since the family of the playboy is also portrayed as a dark organization which supports its playboy, the unsaid attack upon the government could be found out by careful readers.

b.      (Source Domain: Playboy) He enjoys himself by womanizing with unceasing passion but responsibility.

(Target Domain: NASA) It continues the mismanagement of the shuttle fix arbitrarily.

      Example (1) has the entailment of flirtation, which conveys the underlying meanings that NASA, like the playboy, does not take due responsibility when tackling the shuttle fix problem. If words like mismanagement or misconduct had been used instead, the disagreeable aspect of NASA would have never been depicted. The editor renders NASA’s irresponsibility by stating “arbitrary launching dates had led engineers to choose quick solutions for technical problems, not necessarily the best solutions”. Another sentence might be more compelling: “If a problem looked too hard to solve, the engineers and managers had a tendency to define it away.” Additionally, the modifier needless infers that it was necessary for NASA to abandon its shuttle fix program to “free up funds for more exciting space ventures” rather than squander money like a playboy. However, the continuity of misconduct is just what the editor intended to say. Although the cutting corners to unrealistic launching schedules was “precisely the kind of management failure that brought us the Challenger disaster of 1986 and the Columbia accident in 2003”, “it will probably bring us another shuttle catastrophe in years to come” if left uncorrected. Taken into account the negative image of playboy, the readers might possibly influenced by the editor to believe that NASA enjoys itself by continuous misconduct. Nothing could arouse more agitation than an irresponsible agency which refuses to change.

c.       (Source Domain: Playboy) He is foolish in solving problems which he deems expert in.

(Target Domain: NASA) It is inefficient in what it believes has made great progress in.

      The beginning of the opinion article satirized the shuttle fixes as “the process by which NASA determined that it was safe to start flying the shuttles again – only to discover that really wasn’t”. Although the new NASA administrator, Michael Griffin, contented that “the agency had made great strides in improving the shuttle”, NASA still reels from “unexpected foam shedding on the first test flight since the Columbia disaster” 2.5 years ago. Nothing can be more shameful than “the bald assertion in the minority report that NASA’s much vaunted engineering force had lost its appetite for careful and rigorous analysis”. Its due cause should be lack of morale, or as stated in the opinion article, “lackadaisical behavior” as a playboy. For instance, “one technical review meeting degenerated into a series of status report, with not a single technical question asked or answered”. The entailment here successfully generates an ironic effect which would never be accomplished by using literal language.

d.      (Source Domain: Playboy) Common people who oppose to playboys are labeled by playboys as “misguided rabble-rousers”.

(Target Domain: NASA) Those who issued the “scathing indictment” are the minority in the review panel.

      As for this minority, the editor wrote, “this is not a marginal group that can be dismissed as a bunch of misguided rabble-rousers. All seven appointed by NASA because of their presumed expertise and objectivity.” The editor’s support for the minority can be easily detected. Generally, playboys are collectively attacked by the public, so the editor might try to create an atmosphere that NASA is criticized by the public.

      In conclusion, the analysis of the metaphor NASA IS PLAYBOY reveals that the editor skillfully adopts inferences to convey his/her negative attitude towards NASA in dealing with the shuttle fix.