The Martian Chronicles
by Ray Bradbury
Reviewed by Ted Gioia
Countless 16-year-old boys have certainly been disappointed
by this book over the years. The Martian Chronicles is not
The War of the Worlds and certainly not Star Wars. There
are no battles in outer space here. No alien abductions. No
slimy creatures with six tentacles and three eyes. Almost all
of the “action” takes place at the emotional and psychological
level—the drama inside the drama so to speak.
In fact, Mars is almost inconsequential in the tales that
comprise Ray Bradbury’s Chronicles. With a few minor
modifications, many of them could be set on Earth with little
loss in their overall impact. The author has credited
Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio (1919) as a source of
inspiration for this book, and one couldn’t blame readers
today for concluding that Ray Bradbury’s Mars is very much
like the American Midwest of the first half of the 20th
Century.
In “The Wilderness,” a 1952 story that
Bradbury added to the book in 1974—
he has tinkered with The Martian
Chronicles quite a bit over the years—
the plot unfolds in Independence,
Missouri, and focuses on a woman’s
nostalgic journey around her home
town as she prepares to leave on a
space flight to meet her future husband
on Mars. Much the same story could
be constructed about a couple during
the time of the Pilgrims or the California Gold Rush, or even
the Trojan War for that matter; and the details that “date” the
tale are Midwestern, not sci-fi, in nature. Bradbury grafts an
interplanetary angle on to his account, but it adds little to this
sweet, wistful miniature. “Usher II,” a tale about a book lover
devoted to Edgar Allan Poe who wants to get some revenge
against literary censors, is very much in the spirit of
Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, but the elements of the plot that
tie it to Mars are (once again) superficial at best.
I find it amusing that the author changed the dates on his
stories—advancing them forward by 30 years—for a revised
edition of his book. This Mars is no more “realistic” from a
scientific or technological perspective, whether the story is
set in 1997 or 2037 or 2525. Bradbury’s Mars reflects the
world he was dealing with in the 1940s when he wrote these
stories, and only becomes more incongruous the more we
push it out into the future. The “futuristic” technology adds
to the charm of these stories, rather than to their
verisimilitude.
Yet if I dismiss the “scientific” angles here, I only do so to put
greater emphasis on the more compelling aspects of Bradbury’
s book. Jorge Luis Borges wrote the introduction to the 1954
Spanish translation of this book, Cronicas Marcianas, and
called attention to the sense of “horror and loneliness” that
pervades the work. Instead of the fixation on technology that
Bradbury’s peers brought to their writing, this author is
interested in how technology isolates and haunts the people
who use it. There is truly a ghost in the machine here,
although perhaps not the one philosopher Gilbert Ryle's
intended when he first employed the phrase. Bradbury's skill
at conveying this type of "spooky loneliness" is unsurpassed
in the field of genre fiction, and only a handful of sci-fi books
(for example, Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris and Ursula K. Le Guin’s
The Left Hand of Darkness) come close to Bradbury’s work in
this regard.
His astronauts are more alienated than triumphant—all the
more striking given the heroic terms in which space explorers
are typically conceived in stories of this period. In “—And the
Moon Be Still as Bright” and “The Settlers” we encounter the
renegade Spender, who leaves the rest of the crew of the
Martian expeditionary force behind in disgust at their crass
disrespect for the new planet. He later returns to kill his
crewmates, one by one. And his Captain, who should be brutal
in retaliating, finds that he too shares this tragic sense of
being an intruder in a pristine world 50 million miles from
home.
Two of the most powerful stories in The Martian Chronicles
focus on mourning for dead family members, poignant tales
with little in common with typical pulp fiction fare. In the
story “The Martian,” we meet a couple who have relocated to
the Red Planet, but still lament the loss of their son who died
on Earth years ago. When a strange creature arrives at their
door and artfully imitates the dead youngster Tom, they find
themselves hopelessly attracted to the illusion and the solace
it brings. In another story, a settler isolated on Mars
constructs realistic automatons that play the part of his dead
family. Even when aliens or technology intervene, Bradbury
always searches out the human angle, running counter to
every expectation of the sci-fi genre.
Yes, action and warfare figure occasionally in the plot. But
Bradbury—in a strange quirk that recurs in his writing—
prefers to view them from very, very far away. Nuclear war
devastates the planet Earth in the story “The Off Season,” but
the author presents it from the perspective of a hot dog stand
operator on Mars, who is so distant from the events that he
can hardly comprehend their significance. Another similar
story looks at atomic annihilation from the standpoint of a
luggage retailer on Mars, who is similarly removed from the
heart of the action. At one point in The Martian Chronicles,
an epidemic wipes out most of the indigenous Martian
population, yet Bradbury deals with this in passing, tossing
off in a few paragraphs what, in the hands of other authors,
would serve as a pivotal moment in the narrative.
Unlike an Isaac Asimov, who could wrap his mind around
centuries and galaxies, Bradbury prefers to view his tragedies
on the intimate level of a person or family, or perhaps a
community. His main topic in The Martian Chronicles is
ostensibly two entire worlds coming to grips with each other,
but his sensibility constantly draws him to smaller scale
situations. This is his characteristic strength, and the reason
why our author achieved a level of respectability in highbrow
literary circles that no other genre writer of his generation
could match. As he demonstrates again and again in The
Martian Chronicles, Bradbury did not need to dazzle us with
science in order to make his mark as a storyteller. He could
have kept all the rockets back on the earth, and still earned a
stack of awards. Few sixteen-year-olds will appreciate the
subtleties of this book, but when they grow up, the more
perspicacious among them may find that The Martian
Chronicles is a winner even without the special effects.
by Ray Bradbury
Reviewed by Ted Gioia
Countless 16-year-old boys have certainly been disappointed
by this book over the years. The Martian Chronicles is not
The War of the Worlds and certainly not Star Wars. There
are no battles in outer space here. No alien abductions. No
slimy creatures with six tentacles and three eyes. Almost all
of the “action” takes place at the emotional and psychological
level—the drama inside the drama so to speak.
In fact, Mars is almost inconsequential in the tales that
comprise Ray Bradbury’s Chronicles. With a few minor
modifications, many of them could be set on Earth with little
loss in their overall impact. The author has credited
Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio (1919) as a source of
inspiration for this book, and one couldn’t blame readers
today for concluding that Ray Bradbury’s Mars is very much
like the American Midwest of the first half of the 20th
Century.
In “The Wilderness,” a 1952 story that
Bradbury added to the book in 1974—
he has tinkered with The Martian
Chronicles quite a bit over the years—
the plot unfolds in Independence,
Missouri, and focuses on a woman’s
nostalgic journey around her home
town as she prepares to leave on a
space flight to meet her future husband
on Mars. Much the same story could
be constructed about a couple during
the time of the Pilgrims or the California Gold Rush, or even
the Trojan War for that matter; and the details that “date” the
tale are Midwestern, not sci-fi, in nature. Bradbury grafts an
interplanetary angle on to his account, but it adds little to this
sweet, wistful miniature. “Usher II,” a tale about a book lover
devoted to Edgar Allan Poe who wants to get some revenge
against literary censors, is very much in the spirit of
Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, but the elements of the plot that
tie it to Mars are (once again) superficial at best.
I find it amusing that the author changed the dates on his
stories—advancing them forward by 30 years—for a revised
edition of his book. This Mars is no more “realistic” from a
scientific or technological perspective, whether the story is
set in 1997 or 2037 or 2525. Bradbury’s Mars reflects the
world he was dealing with in the 1940s when he wrote these
stories, and only becomes more incongruous the more we
push it out into the future. The “futuristic” technology adds
to the charm of these stories, rather than to their
verisimilitude.
Yet if I dismiss the “scientific” angles here, I only do so to put
greater emphasis on the more compelling aspects of Bradbury’
s book. Jorge Luis Borges wrote the introduction to the 1954
Spanish translation of this book, Cronicas Marcianas, and
called attention to the sense of “horror and loneliness” that
pervades the work. Instead of the fixation on technology that
Bradbury’s peers brought to their writing, this author is
interested in how technology isolates and haunts the people
who use it. There is truly a ghost in the machine here,
although perhaps not the one philosopher Gilbert Ryle's
intended when he first employed the phrase. Bradbury's skill
at conveying this type of "spooky loneliness" is unsurpassed
in the field of genre fiction, and only a handful of sci-fi books
(for example, Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris and Ursula K. Le Guin’s
The Left Hand of Darkness) come close to Bradbury’s work in
this regard.
His astronauts are more alienated than triumphant—all the
more striking given the heroic terms in which space explorers
are typically conceived in stories of this period. In “—And the
Moon Be Still as Bright” and “The Settlers” we encounter the
renegade Spender, who leaves the rest of the crew of the
Martian expeditionary force behind in disgust at their crass
disrespect for the new planet. He later returns to kill his
crewmates, one by one. And his Captain, who should be brutal
in retaliating, finds that he too shares this tragic sense of
being an intruder in a pristine world 50 million miles from
home.
Two of the most powerful stories in The Martian Chronicles
focus on mourning for dead family members, poignant tales
with little in common with typical pulp fiction fare. In the
story “The Martian,” we meet a couple who have relocated to
the Red Planet, but still lament the loss of their son who died
on Earth years ago. When a strange creature arrives at their
door and artfully imitates the dead youngster Tom, they find
themselves hopelessly attracted to the illusion and the solace
it brings. In another story, a settler isolated on Mars
constructs realistic automatons that play the part of his dead
family. Even when aliens or technology intervene, Bradbury
always searches out the human angle, running counter to
every expectation of the sci-fi genre.
Yes, action and warfare figure occasionally in the plot. But
Bradbury—in a strange quirk that recurs in his writing—
prefers to view them from very, very far away. Nuclear war
devastates the planet Earth in the story “The Off Season,” but
the author presents it from the perspective of a hot dog stand
operator on Mars, who is so distant from the events that he
can hardly comprehend their significance. Another similar
story looks at atomic annihilation from the standpoint of a
luggage retailer on Mars, who is similarly removed from the
heart of the action. At one point in The Martian Chronicles,
an epidemic wipes out most of the indigenous Martian
population, yet Bradbury deals with this in passing, tossing
off in a few paragraphs what, in the hands of other authors,
would serve as a pivotal moment in the narrative.
Unlike an Isaac Asimov, who could wrap his mind around
centuries and galaxies, Bradbury prefers to view his tragedies
on the intimate level of a person or family, or perhaps a
community. His main topic in The Martian Chronicles is
ostensibly two entire worlds coming to grips with each other,
but his sensibility constantly draws him to smaller scale
situations. This is his characteristic strength, and the reason
why our author achieved a level of respectability in highbrow
literary circles that no other genre writer of his generation
could match. As he demonstrates again and again in The
Martian Chronicles, Bradbury did not need to dazzle us with
science in order to make his mark as a storyteller. He could
have kept all the rockets back on the earth, and still earned a
stack of awards. Few sixteen-year-olds will appreciate the
subtleties of this book, but when they grow up, the more
perspicacious among them may find that The Martian
Chronicles is a winner even without the special effects.
| conceptual fiction |
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Conceptual Fiction:
A Reading List
(with links to reviews)
Home Page
Abbott, Edwin A.
Flatland
Adams, Douglas
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Allende, Isabel
The House of the Spirits
Amado, Jorge
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands
Amis, Martin
Time's Arrow
Apuleius
The Golden Ass
Asimov, Isaac
The Foundation Trilogy
Asimov, Isaac
I, Robot
Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Banks, Iain M.
The State of the Art
Ballard, J.G.
Crash
Ballard, J.G.
The Crystal World
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
Borges, Jorge Luis
Ficciones
Bradbury, Ray
Dandelion Wine
Bradbury, Ray
Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray
The Illustrated Man
Bradbury, Ray
The Martian Chronicles
Bradbury, Ray
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Card, Orson Scott
Ender's Game
Carpentier, Alejo
The Kingdom of This World
Carroll, Lewis
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Chabon, Michael
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Chiang, Ted
Stories of Your Life and Others
Clarke, Arthur C.
Childhood's End
Clarke, Arthur C.
A Fall of Moondust
Clarke, Arthur C.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Clarke, Susanna
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Crowley, John
Little, Big
Danielewski, Mark Z.
House of Leaves
Davies, Robertson
Fifth Business
Delany, Samuel R.
Babel-17
Delany, Samuel R.
Dhalgren
Delany, Samuel R.
The Einstein Intersection
Dick, Philip K.
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Dick, Philip K.
The Man in the High Castle
Dick, Philip K.
Ubik
Doctorow, Cory
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Esquivel, Laura
Like Water for Chocolate
Fuentes, Carlos
Aura
Gaiman, Neil
American Gods
Gaiman, Neil
Neverwhere
Gibson, William
Burning Chrome
Gibson, William
Neuromancer
Grass, Günter
The Tin Drum
Haldeman, Joe
The Forever War
Hall, Steven
The Raw Shark Texts
Harrison, M. John
Light
Heinlein, Robert
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Heinlein, Robert:
Stranger in a Strange Land
Heinlein, Robert
Time Enough for Love
Helprin, Mark
Winter's Tale
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Hoffman, Alice
Practical Magic
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Kundera, Milan
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Lathe of Heaven
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Left Hand of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
The Big Time
Leiber, Fritz
Conjure Wife
Leiber, Fritz
Swords & Deviltry
Leiber, Fritz
The Wanderer
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris
Lethem, Jonathan
The Fortress of Solitude
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Mann, Thomas
Doctor Faustus
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
Matheson, Richard
What Dreams May Come
McCarthy, Cormac
The Road
Miéville, China
Perdido Street Station
Miller, Jr., Walter M.
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Millhauser, Steven
Dangerous Laughter
Mitchell, David
Cloud Atlas
Morrison, Toni
Beloved
Murakami, Haruki
1Q84
Murakami, Haruki
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the
End of the World
Niffenegger, Audrey
The Time Traveler's Wife
Niven, Larry
Ringworld
Noon, Jeff
Vurt
Obreht, Téa
The Tiger's Wife
Okri, Ben
The Famished Road
Pohl, Frederik
Gateway
Pratchett, Terry
The Color of Magic
Pynchon, Thomas
Gravity's Rainbow
Rabelais, François
Gargantua and Pantagruel
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Red Mars
Rowling, J.K.
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone
Rushdie, Salman
Midnight's Children
Saramago, José
Blindness
Shelley, Mary
Frankenstein
Silverberg, Robert
Dying Inside
Silverberg, Robert
Nightwings
Simak, Clifford
City
Simak, Clifford
The Trouble with Tycho
Smith, Cordwainer
Norstrilia
Smith, Cordwainer
The Rediscovery of Man
Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash
Stross, Charles
Glasshouse
Sturgeon, Theodore
More Than Human
Sturgeon, Theodore
Some of Your Blood
Thomas, D.M.
The White Hotel
Tolkien, J.R.R.
The Hobbit
Updike, John
The Witches of Eastwick
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Mixed Men
Van Vogt, A.E.
Slan
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Voyage of the Space Beagle
Van Vogt, A.E.
The World of Null A
Verne, Jules
Around the Moon
Verne, Jules
From the Earth to the Moon
Verne, Jules:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Vonnegut, Kurt
Cat's Cradle
Vonnegut, Kurt
The Sirens of Titan
Vonnegut, Kurt
Slaughterhouse-Five
Wallace, David Foster
Infinite Jest
Wells, H.G.
The First Men in the Moon
Wells, H.G.
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Wells, H.G.
The Time Machine
Woolf, Virginia
Orlando
Zabor, Rafi
The Bear Comes Home
Zelazny, Roger
Lord of Light
Special Features
Notes on Conceptual Fiction
Ray Bradbury: A Tribute
The Year of Magical Reading
Remembering Fritz Leiber
Samuel Delany's 70th birthday
The Sci-Fi of Kurt Vonnegut
Curse You, Neil Armstrong!
Robert Heinlein at 100
A.E, van Vogt Tribute
Links to related sites
The New Canon
Great Books Guide
Postmodern Mystery
Ted Gioia's web site
SF Site
io9
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
Los Angeles Review of Books
Big Dumb Object
Jospeh Peschel
The Misread City
Reviews and Responses
SF Signal
True Science Fiction
Disclosure: Conceptual Fiction
and its sister sites may receive
review copies and promotional
materials from publishers,
authors, publicists or other
parties.
www.twitter.com/tedgioia
Conceptual Fiction:
A Reading List
(with links to reviews)
Home Page
Abbott, Edwin A.
Flatland
Adams, Douglas
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Allende, Isabel
The House of the Spirits
Amado, Jorge
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands
Amis, Martin
Time's Arrow
Apuleius
The Golden Ass
Asimov, Isaac
The Foundation Trilogy
Asimov, Isaac
I, Robot
Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Banks, Iain M.
The State of the Art
Ballard, J.G.
Crash
Ballard, J.G.
The Crystal World
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
Borges, Jorge Luis
Ficciones
Bradbury, Ray
Dandelion Wine
Bradbury, Ray
Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray
The Illustrated Man
Bradbury, Ray
The Martian Chronicles
Bradbury, Ray
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Card, Orson Scott
Ender's Game
Carpentier, Alejo
The Kingdom of This World
Carroll, Lewis
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Chabon, Michael
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Chiang, Ted
Stories of Your Life and Others
Clarke, Arthur C.
Childhood's End
Clarke, Arthur C.
A Fall of Moondust
Clarke, Arthur C.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Clarke, Susanna
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Crowley, John
Little, Big
Danielewski, Mark Z.
House of Leaves
Davies, Robertson
Fifth Business
Delany, Samuel R.
Babel-17
Delany, Samuel R.
Dhalgren
Delany, Samuel R.
The Einstein Intersection
Dick, Philip K.
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Dick, Philip K.
The Man in the High Castle
Dick, Philip K.
Ubik
Doctorow, Cory
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Esquivel, Laura
Like Water for Chocolate
Fuentes, Carlos
Aura
Gaiman, Neil
American Gods
Gaiman, Neil
Neverwhere
Gibson, William
Burning Chrome
Gibson, William
Neuromancer
Grass, Günter
The Tin Drum
Haldeman, Joe
The Forever War
Hall, Steven
The Raw Shark Texts
Harrison, M. John
Light
Heinlein, Robert
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Heinlein, Robert:
Stranger in a Strange Land
Heinlein, Robert
Time Enough for Love
Helprin, Mark
Winter's Tale
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Hoffman, Alice
Practical Magic
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Kundera, Milan
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Lathe of Heaven
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Left Hand of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
The Big Time
Leiber, Fritz
Conjure Wife
Leiber, Fritz
Swords & Deviltry
Leiber, Fritz
The Wanderer
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris
Lethem, Jonathan
The Fortress of Solitude
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Mann, Thomas
Doctor Faustus
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
Matheson, Richard
What Dreams May Come
McCarthy, Cormac
The Road
Miéville, China
Perdido Street Station
Miller, Jr., Walter M.
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Millhauser, Steven
Dangerous Laughter
Mitchell, David
Cloud Atlas
Morrison, Toni
Beloved
Murakami, Haruki
1Q84
Murakami, Haruki
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the
End of the World
Niffenegger, Audrey
The Time Traveler's Wife
Niven, Larry
Ringworld
Noon, Jeff
Vurt
Obreht, Téa
The Tiger's Wife
Okri, Ben
The Famished Road
Pohl, Frederik
Gateway
Pratchett, Terry
The Color of Magic
Pynchon, Thomas
Gravity's Rainbow
Rabelais, François
Gargantua and Pantagruel
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Red Mars
Rowling, J.K.
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone
Rushdie, Salman
Midnight's Children
Saramago, José
Blindness
Shelley, Mary
Frankenstein
Silverberg, Robert
Dying Inside
Silverberg, Robert
Nightwings
Simak, Clifford
City
Simak, Clifford
The Trouble with Tycho
Smith, Cordwainer
Norstrilia
Smith, Cordwainer
The Rediscovery of Man
Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash
Stross, Charles
Glasshouse
Sturgeon, Theodore
More Than Human
Sturgeon, Theodore
Some of Your Blood
Thomas, D.M.
The White Hotel
Tolkien, J.R.R.
The Hobbit
Updike, John
The Witches of Eastwick
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Mixed Men
Van Vogt, A.E.
Slan
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Voyage of the Space Beagle
Van Vogt, A.E.
The World of Null A
Verne, Jules
Around the Moon
Verne, Jules
From the Earth to the Moon
Verne, Jules:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Vonnegut, Kurt
Cat's Cradle
Vonnegut, Kurt
The Sirens of Titan
Vonnegut, Kurt
Slaughterhouse-Five
Wallace, David Foster
Infinite Jest
Wells, H.G.
The First Men in the Moon
Wells, H.G.
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Wells, H.G.
The Time Machine
Woolf, Virginia
Orlando
Zabor, Rafi
The Bear Comes Home
Zelazny, Roger
Lord of Light
Special Features
Notes on Conceptual Fiction
Ray Bradbury: A Tribute
The Year of Magical Reading
Remembering Fritz Leiber
Samuel Delany's 70th birthday
The Sci-Fi of Kurt Vonnegut
Curse You, Neil Armstrong!
Robert Heinlein at 100
A.E, van Vogt Tribute
Links to related sites
The New Canon
Great Books Guide
Postmodern Mystery
Ted Gioia's web site
SF Site
io9
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
Los Angeles Review of Books
Big Dumb Object
Jospeh Peschel
The Misread City
Reviews and Responses
SF Signal
True Science Fiction
Disclosure: Conceptual Fiction
and its sister sites may receive
review copies and promotional
materials from publishers,
authors, publicists or other
parties.