Tuesday, 28 June 2016 04:32 pm
Book Review: The Martian Chronicles
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deckardcanineMy past exposure to Ray Bradbury consisted of the 1966 film of Fahrenheit 451, which I saw in high school; and the short story "Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed," which I read in sixth grade.* The latter did not impress young me as a thriller: So what if the immigrants to Mars gradually change beyond recognition, as long as they're healthy? It turns out that Bradbury envisioned even the native Martians as dark and golden-eyed -- assuming they weren't actually supposed to have descended from humans. Given some of the other weirdness in this book, I can't rule that out.
I probably shouldn't have chosen another novel that reads like a collection of short stories so soon after the last. I'm not even sure that Bradbury, writing thru the late '40s, entirely meant for the bunch to go together in one continuity, with some "chronicles" barely fitting with the rest. The first several chapters document human expeditions to Mars that fail horribly due to unpreparedness for the native brand of telepathy. On the fourth try...oh, how anticlimactic: Hardly any Martians remain due to little resistance to Earth germs. But while colonization becomes much easier, the drama still gets intense if not creepy at times.
I won't mock Bradbury for starting the chronicles in 1999, progressing to 2005, and then jumping to 2026 (tho at this point, I wouldn't specify sci-fi dates unless they came long after I could expect to live). That said, it is very dated. Just making the Martians so humanoid is something we can't take seriously anymore. More than that, in the wake of Hiroshima, he projects people coming to Mars for safety -- but once the war on Earth becomes visible all the way from Mars, nearly everyone packs up and goes home! That mindset may have made sense to the Greatest Generation, but after the Vietnam War, it sounds stark mad. Not that many residents after the first pioneers show much in the way of intelligence.
Indeed, a lot of characters (few of whom appear in more than one chapter), both human and Martian, behave in ways I have trouble understanding even now, not least by under- or overreaction. In some cases, I have to wonder whether Bradbury actually wanted us to believe that a given pattern could occur. The U.S. becomes so fascistic that nobody is allowed to indulge in fantasy -- in the privacy of one's own home -- on Mars! And the race relations of 2001 look more like those of 1901.
TMC still packs an emotional punch. It's just gotten a tad embarrassing. There are only so many modernly relevant messages that one can find with a bit of contemplation.
*ADDENDUM: In college, I read his short story "The Veldt," which succeeds at horror but not at credibility. I used to think it was by Philip K. Dick.
Wishing for a more feminine focus, I've picked up The Slow Regard of Silent Things, a sort of spinoff to The Kingkiller Chronicle. I won't forget about Auri anymore.
I probably shouldn't have chosen another novel that reads like a collection of short stories so soon after the last. I'm not even sure that Bradbury, writing thru the late '40s, entirely meant for the bunch to go together in one continuity, with some "chronicles" barely fitting with the rest. The first several chapters document human expeditions to Mars that fail horribly due to unpreparedness for the native brand of telepathy. On the fourth try...oh, how anticlimactic: Hardly any Martians remain due to little resistance to Earth germs. But while colonization becomes much easier, the drama still gets intense if not creepy at times.
I won't mock Bradbury for starting the chronicles in 1999, progressing to 2005, and then jumping to 2026 (tho at this point, I wouldn't specify sci-fi dates unless they came long after I could expect to live). That said, it is very dated. Just making the Martians so humanoid is something we can't take seriously anymore. More than that, in the wake of Hiroshima, he projects people coming to Mars for safety -- but once the war on Earth becomes visible all the way from Mars, nearly everyone packs up and goes home! That mindset may have made sense to the Greatest Generation, but after the Vietnam War, it sounds stark mad. Not that many residents after the first pioneers show much in the way of intelligence.
Indeed, a lot of characters (few of whom appear in more than one chapter), both human and Martian, behave in ways I have trouble understanding even now, not least by under- or overreaction. In some cases, I have to wonder whether Bradbury actually wanted us to believe that a given pattern could occur. The U.S. becomes so fascistic that nobody is allowed to indulge in fantasy -- in the privacy of one's own home -- on Mars! And the race relations of 2001 look more like those of 1901.
TMC still packs an emotional punch. It's just gotten a tad embarrassing. There are only so many modernly relevant messages that one can find with a bit of contemplation.
*ADDENDUM: In college, I read his short story "The Veldt," which succeeds at horror but not at credibility. I used to think it was by Philip K. Dick.
Wishing for a more feminine focus, I've picked up The Slow Regard of Silent Things, a sort of spinoff to The Kingkiller Chronicle. I won't forget about Auri anymore.