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The Martian Chronicles

This is my third and yet another great Bradbury experience. It's written in the form of short stories, chronicling the history of man landing on, exploring, developing cities on, leaving, and returning to... Mars.

I wish I were creative enough to imagine the kinds of things a mind like Bradbury's did. He creates a very clear picture for his audience, and the progression of his story makes perfect sense.

I'm glad I'm reading all of the books I have from him at the same time, because his stories are all so connected to each other. He makes references in the MC to the burning of all literature that does not contain realism, which goes along with Fahrenheit 451's story. He also tells the story here of the black people all migrating to Mars, and in The Illustrated Man, he has a story of how they react to a white man landing in their civilization there. I like how the books all work together as a whole.

I also enjoyed how he addressed current (1950s) social problems by writing about them as the past in a futuristic story. It gives a certain perspective that makes people actually think about things in a different way: actually thinking about the future impact of their actions. Conjecture of the place of science, reason, faith, and literature in the future is a really strong and interesting part of this book for me. If it were online I'd get some great quotes and post them.

Very interesting and enjoyable read. You know, for a long time, I wouldn't read any authors who wrote past 1950 or so. Buchanan (who doesn't read any author who is dead) knocked that out of my head when he introduced me to Raymond Carver and Andre Dubus. So, believe it or not, reading Bradbury is really branching out for me. My thing is more like Dickens, classic lit, etc. Anyway, it sounds dumb, but this is new lit to me, something not covered in school and something I never read before. I'm excited about it.

Posted by wendytime at September 3, 2004 11:14 AM | TrackBack