Virtual reality headset at King Street Station in 2016 and dream recording headset in Until the End of the World in 1991.

Virtual reality headset at King Street Station in 2016 and dream recording headset in Until the End of the World in 1991.

Virtual reality headset at King Street Station in 2016 and dream recording headset in Until the End of the World in 1991.

The bible of my childhood was the World Book Encyclopedia, 1976 edition. I read almost every entry in its 22 volumes. I was informed about the horrible things that happened in the past and all the wonderful things that would happen in the future. I returned again and again to the encyclopedia’s space section, which was vivid and convincing. Accompanying its words were images of commercial rockets, moon bases, and space suburbs drawn by the great Donald E. Davis. What I saw and read was exactly how I thought I would spend much of my adulthood: walking on the moon, breaking in space, doing it on Marsโ€ฆ

Charles Mudede—who writes about film, books, music, and his life in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and the UK for The Stranger—was born near a steel plant in Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe. He has no memory...