Literary The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

[sun surfer]

This is the MR Literary Club selection for June 2016. Whether you've already read it or would like to, feel free to start or join in the conversation at any time, and guests are always welcome!

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So, what are your thoughts on it?

[Wearever]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

This is the MR Literary Club selection for June 2016. Whether you've already read it or would like to, feel free to start or join in the conversation at any time, and guests are always welcome!


So, what are your thoughts on it?


(links and image forthcoming)

I read this book a few years ago, I remember the preconceived notions of the time, were challenged in this book. The arrogance, innocents, and ignorance of the first humans on Mars, and those who came after them.

[fantasyfan]

When Bradbury first wrote this book, he assigned a specific year for each story beginning with 1999. In 1950 this didn't particularly bother him. But the "future" all too soon arrived. Thus, in 1997 he updated all the stories by 31 years. Some editions now give both event dates.

The reason for the dates is to give a sense of sequence (Bradbury desctribed TMC as a "half-cousin" to a novel). It also emphasizes how certain themes, attitudes, and problematic social and personal characteristics endure.

The problem of the future becoming the past has occurred with other writers. I read Clifford Simak's Ring Around the Sun when it was published in 1953. It was set in 1975. It still works well as a novel. TMC also transcends the problems of literally being "dated". I wonder, though if Bradbury should have avoided using specific years.

[Wearever]

I must have read the 1950's version, I'll have to read the 1997 updated version as well. It must be a challenge for writers to gauge when to use specific years in the future, ( running to a payphone in 2016 ) only 20 years earlier and you would have a chance of finding one intact. It's true that technology changes faster, than problematic personal & social attitudes do. They seem to never go completely away.

[arjaybe]

As I recall, Bradbury's Mars had canals, too.

[Greg Anos]

You have to take science fiction for what it is, an extrapolation of a time to a possible future.

TMC was a cry for human emotion in the world of 1950's science fiction.

The best way to enjoy it is not to nitpick the projections, but take them as an alternate universe. Read each one as a slice-of-life vignette, looking at some aspect of the humanity, in conflict with its own technological creations.

And enjoy the artistry of the words and images created by them. . .

[fantasyfan]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

You have to take science fiction for what it is, an extrapolation of a time to a possible future.

TMC was a cry for human emotion in the world of 1950's science fiction.

The best way to enjoy it is not to nitpick the projections, but take them as an alternate universe. Read each one as a slice-of-life vignette, looking at some aspect of the humanity, in conflict with its own technological creations.

And enjoy the artistry of the words and images created by them. . .

Excellent points! I would add that the nature of the world so created has its own imaginative power. Venus, for instance, is certainly not the watery, jungle world that so many SF writers of the fifties thought it was but that does not diminish the vision these writers created.

[Wearever]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

You have to take science fiction for what it is, an extrapolation of a time to a possible future.

TMC was a cry for human emotion in the world of 1950's science fiction.

The best way to enjoy it is not to nitpick the projections, but take them as an alternate universe. Read each one as a slice-of-life vignette, looking at some aspect of the humanity, in conflict with its own technological creations.

And enjoy the artistry of the words and images created by them. . .

Well said !

I do think that some mystification on future technology is wise. We don't have to know all the facts, just that it worked well in the books setting.

[fantasyfan]

I did read this decades ago and I am finding once again some of the great beauty in tales like "Ylla" which is filled with a dream-like loveliness. But there is a horror in "The Third Expedition" originally titled "Mars Is Heaven".

I personally tend to see TTE as a critical response to a particular view of life (but I am sure there are many other ways of interpreting it).

Is the story a means of turning "The American Dream" (or one version of it) into a nightmare? Here we see the small town society with loving parents and friends living in a community filled with love. We see too the deep-seated need of the soldiers for this bonding. It is strong enough to make them abandon the protective discipline and welcome the vulnerability of love. And so they are destroyed.

The vision is tainted. And perhaps so is the ideal.

I wonder if Bradbury also had in mind the Pastoral idealism of some science fiction writers--Jack Finney and Clifford D. Simak in particular come to mind. Simak's best work certainly is far more than a tired attempt to go back to a gentle Utopia and perhaps Bradbury didn't have him specifically in mind, but TTE certainly deconstructs that sort of vision.

[crich70]

As I recall Mr. Bradbury wanted to write a book not unlike Winesburg Ohio but wasn't sure how to go about it. Then he wrote the Mars stories and found to his surprise that he had enough to make a book. He didn't like the 1980's movie adaptation of his book as I understand it. Of course now days the special effects could no doubt be a lot more impressive but it was just the start of computers being used in movies back then. They are supposed to be making a new version I understand.

[AnotherCat]

When this was selected I jumped it to the top of my "to read" list". I am now half way through it, slowly as am fitting it in among other things, so, at this stage, I will just comment on initial reading impressions rather than messages that I think may be buried in it.

I don't read much science fiction, although I do generally enjoy it. Has really just been one or two, spread over many years, from each of the likes of Clarke, Asimov (but more of his such as Robot and Foundation series), Heinlein, Herbert, etc. as well as the older classics from Verne, Wells, Stevenson, etc. Also I never read short stories as they often strike me as being frivolous and reminding me of the terrible days of glorified school essays (I enjoy good novellas though) so to approach a book which is basically a collection of short stories within a quite tenuous frame and a genre I don't often read was not attractive. For Bradbury I had read only Fahrenheit 451 years ago and recall that while I liked it, that was not enough to prioritise his other books for my reading over those from other authors.

But I am glad I started 'Chronicles and am enjoying it - I am reading the 1997 version.

For the first "short stories" which are (in my view) hardly related at all, I thought the book was going to be a mission to read but as I got further into it they became retrospectively framed. And my aversion to short stories was overcome, I think because they represent a (fictional) history and history is just one big story made up of many collections of both closely and loosely related short stories, and I can read history no problem at all.

For science fiction I have never let lack of technical accuracy get in the way of enjoying it (despite physics being one of my university majors) so the fact that we now know there is no advanced life on Mars does not detract and, as another Mars example, the likes of The War of the Worlds is for me an enjoyable read.

The same applies to the date thing, I would not have had any qualms reading the original version with the now past time-line, just as I have no problem reading 2001: A Space Odyssey. Perhaps I am easy on this because there is important philosophical and theoretical pondering in physics over what time is actually, and the conflicts regarding that between classical, relativistic and quantum physics. In the end, if nothing else, I find it interesting to see how those in the past foresaw the future we are now in panning out insofar as it could provide a frame for their story.

There is quite a lot of figurative prose in the stories (FantasyFan has mentioned "Ylla", for example) and I like the way that where that is cryptic it is not ambiguous (cryptic prose that is ambiguous I regard, for myself, as a serious turn off and even a fault e.g. such as in Mrs. Dalloway ). I think the narration is well done for the loose storyline, I am not sure why at this stage but perhaps because of the way that it changes its focus from time to time?

[fantasyfan]

Thanks for those insights, Another Cat!

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

The best way to enjoy it is not to nitpick the projections, but take them as an alternate universe. Read each one as a slice-of-life vignette, looking at some aspect of the humanity, in conflict with its own technological creations.

And enjoy the artistry of the words and images created by them. . .

Originally Posted by fantasyfan

Excellent points! I would add that the nature of the world so created has its own imaginative power. Venus, for instance, is certainly not the watery, jungle world that so many SF writers of the fifties thought it was but that does not diminish the vision these writers created.

Originally Posted by AnotherCat

For the first "short stories" which are (in my view) hardly related at all, I thought the book was going to be a mission to read but as I got further into it they became retrospectively framed. And my aversion to short stories was overcome, I think because they represent a (fictional) history and history is just one big story made up of many collections of both closely and loosely related short stories, and I can read history no problem at all.

Thank you everyone for your insights! I highlighted the ones above that I found particularly helpful.

Science fiction is outside my usual genres for reading (that's a good thing to explore something new!). Does anyone have a good definition of what science fiction is?

I am about 60% through and enjoying the book so far. I especially like the "artistry" of the prose which makes it pleasurable to read. I have been trying to read more short stories lately since it's another genre I don't read much of, and I like how these are loosely framed in vignettes to create a bigger picture. I have never read Winesburg, Ohio to understand how it was an influence. It's been on my TBR awhile.... Can anyone explain that please?

I thought it was interesting that in the UK the book was titled Silver Locusts with slightly different content according to wikipedia. That title seems to me more aggressive than The Martian Chronicles. Also some editions removed "Usher II" and added "The Fire Balloons" in its place. My edition has both. I liked "The Fire Balloons" and the introduction of religion into the framework. I haven't gotten to "Usher II" yet.

[Greg Anos]

There is no good definition of science fiction. It's been a parlor game among science fiction readers for over 70 years. . .

My personal definition is a story about a possible future, base upon known reality, at a point in time. For example, a story written in 1955 would be based on the real world of 1955 projected into some possible future. <Shrug>. Feel free to make your own definition.

The Martian Chronicles was written (and sold) as a string of individual vignette length short stories. It was later put together as a book. Some stories were left out, depending on the editorial choice.

Usher II is one of the gems of the book! I envy your first reading of it.

If you like "artistic" Science Fiction short stories, I can recommend the works of Theodore Sturgeon and Cordwainer Smith (Paul Linebarger).

[Pajamaman]

I was disappointed that a book about Mars only contained two (arguably) three stories about real Martians. I felt the material about real Martians (as opposed to colonists) contained the most imagination, which is what I was hoping for.