I'm a long time lurker, and have just gotten around to reregistering - but I thought you might be interested in this article that appeared in Paste magazine. The Martian Chronicles has always been one of my favorite books, and I was excited to see a new review of it

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from Paste - issue 23:

here's a link to the article

"Dusted Off: Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles
[Spectra: Grand Master Editions]

Red Planet, dead planet: A trip down memory lane: Fifty-six years after publication, Ray Bradbury’s seminal science-fiction work retains its topical immediacy and barbed social critique

Let me get the glib part out of the way: Ray Bradbury’s best-known work, The Martian Chronicles, takes place in a strange no-man’s land where there aren’t enough Martians to suit a teenage boy, and too many Martians for a grown man.

Of course, this slippery dichotomy is essential to Bradbury’s vision. The enemies in The Martian Chronicles aren’t Martians. They’re imperialism, McCarthyism, Puritanism, Philistinism, capitalism, censorship, segregation and the atomic bomb. But mostly, the enemy is a false and corrupt nostalgia for an America that never was. In Bradbury’s world, sentimentality kills. The book was first published in 1950, and its immediacy must have been the key to its popularity. Maybe it still is.

The Martian Chronicles is a set of linked short stories dealing with Earth’s colonization of Mars. It’s set in the ruins of a once-magnificent Martian civilization. When Bradbury stays within his own parameters the stories have an appealing obliquity. But sometimes he submits to the temptation to pad things. The Poe-influenced story “Usher II,” for example, is of some interest as a precursor to Fahrenheit 451, but it doesn’t really belong on Bradbury’s Mars.

But perhaps Poe isn’t the real inspiration here. Bradbury has more in common with the Twain of “The Mysterious Stranger,” “Extract from Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven” and “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.” Like those works, The Martian Chronicles can be read as a series of sharp, misanthropic jokes. Most of Bradbury’s human characters are made up of equal parts willful stupidity and gnawing loneliness. Consider: A dork opens up a hot dog stand in the shrieking nothingness of the Martian wilderness. Some jerk would rather be the last man on the planet (really) than make out with a fat lady. A drooling old cracker tries to stop black people from going to Mars, where they might catch a break.

Beauty is alien here, and pointedly rare. The best stories are eloquent miniatures of waste and emptiness, nearly as compact and devastating as Shelley’s great poem “Ozymandias.” Boys play in “black leaves” that “fly through the air, brittle, thin as tissue cut from midnight sky.” It’s the skin of dead Martians, wiped out by the arrival of the colonists. A Martian skull rolls into view “like a snowball.” The boys play xylophone tunes on the “peppermint-stick bones.”

What a beautiful evocation of the cruelty and naïveté of boyhood. For both Twain and Bradbury, America is a nation of boys."

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Just thought I would share this. Take care.


Art

This message has been edited. Last edited by: betaraybill,

97% Nonsense!

quote:

Originally posted by betaraybill:
I'm a long time lurker, and have just gotten around to reregistering - but I thought you might be interested in this article that appeared in Paste magazine.

Just thought I would share this. Take care.

Thanks for sharing. I'm a Paste subscriber but hadn't noticed the article yet (I'm a little behind on my reading).

quote:

Originally posted by betaraybill:
The Poe-influenced story “Usher II,” for example, is of some interest as a precursor to Fahrenheit 451, but it doesn’t really belong on Bradbury’s Mars.

It is a little out-of-place, isn't it? But I loved the story, so no complaints here. I think RB said that his editor originally wanted him to leave it out, but he fought for its inclusion, and won. Afterwards, he said his editor was probably right.

" Usher II...doesn’t really belong on Bradbury’s Mars."
Stuff and nonsense! That story belongs particularly on "Bradbury's Mars" in divers ways that it could never belong on anyone else's Mars. Has this poltroon ever read anything else by Mr. Bradbury? Despite his name-dropping Twain and Shelly, I don't think he's much of a reader if he can make such pronouncements as the above.

'Usher II' has been in and out of MC many times over the years - or at least in and out of The Silver Locusts, which was the original British title for the book. I think the same is true of 'The Fire Balloons'.

I think some of that Paste article makes sense, although the reviewer is probably mistaken in attributing his reading of the book to Bradbury's intent in writing it (isn't this what they call "the intentional fallacy"?)

I disagree with Nard’s statement above; it's not 97% nonsense, it's 98% nonsense.

Everyone has a right to an opinion. My reaction to MC is definitely different than that expressed by the author of this article.

To begin with, Ray has specifically, consistently and repeatedly stated unequivocably that MC is not a science fiction work, it is a work of fantasy. It may seem like a fine point, but it is important in evaluating the work.

To say that the enemies are capitalism, censorship, etc., seems fair enough if you see them as extensions or interpretations of his metaphors and symbols; but to then move into the idea that "the enemy is a false and corrupt nostalgia for an America that never was" is a personal judgement and not really accurate. The kinds of values Bradbury writes about are values that are and were very much alive. One who is excessively cynical will not "get" Bradbury. But I disagree with the idea that Bradbury's writing is untrue. There is a difference between being sentimental and being a sentimentalist. Bradbury does not cross that line. I think his writing is true to the human condition.

Whether or not Poe's "Usher II" belongs in MC is a matter of taste. As Doug Spaulding and Philnic point out, some editors agreed with that assessment. I think the story is great and that, thematically, it fits in. But I agree that this could be argued.

"Art" minimizes and trivializes the stories in his paragraph starting, "But perhaps . . .". The stories are moving and powerful and evoke images and emotions that ring true to many, many readers. The fact that he doesn't think the stories are significant doesn't make them insignificant.

Martian Chronicles is an amazing work of literature. It is in a genre that is often trivialized, yet the language is amazingly poetic and evocative, the emotions in the stories are powerful and real for many readers, and the social commentary on environmentalis, racism, capitalism, and humanity carry the stories into a significance that belies the simplicity of the stories. The writing in this book got him branded as "the poet of science fiction".

The reading of F451 and MC literally and powerfully changed my life. I can say that for few other books. That seems to be enough for me.

Mr. Dark,
Very well said!
I find myself wondering at the motive (apart from self-aggrandizement) for his writing that article at all.

I must say, it's good to have you back on the board, sir.

quote:

...apart from self-aggrandizement...

You said aggrandizement.

It should be mentioned that the author of that review is Jack Pendarvis.

What Mr. Pendarvis misunderstands is that the chapter "The Third Expedition" (a.k.a. "Mars Is Heaven") isn't about "a false and corrupt nostalgia for an America that never was." The scenes in which the astornauts find themselves are drawn from their own memories. Any idea that these are supposed to be taken as "false and corrupt" would be negated if Mr. Pendarvis would familiarzie himself with RB's Green Town stories, inspired by Bradbury's own childhood in Waukegan. The Green Town stories are about mystery, youth, age, life, death, tradition, love, fear, and wonder.

"...if Mr. Pendarvis would familiarzie himself with RB's Green Town stories..."

"Has this poltroon ever read anything else by Mr. Bradbury?..."

Q.E.D.

Excellent point, Walloon! Great observation.