KIND OF LITERATURE : poetic science fiction
LANDSCAPES :
On Mars, a house made of cristal, and, in the background, wide sand landscapes : valleys, hills, the famous martian channels ( with or without water, depending on the epoch), old ghost cities made up with white stone and wonderful mosaic floorings (see the pictures below, from the TV serie I had the chance to watch here in France when I was a teenager):
LANDSCAPES :
On Mars, a house made of cristal, and, in the background, wide sand landscapes : valleys, hills, the famous martian channels ( with or without water, depending on the epoch), old ghost cities made up with white stone and wonderful mosaic floorings (see the pictures below, from the TV serie I had the chance to watch here in France when I was a teenager):
STORY :
The harmonious life of the true last martians, next the human conquest of Mars through 4 expeditions (the astronauts of the 3 first one have been killed by the martians). In the end, a bacterium, the chickenpox, brought by men, kill the last true martians. We observe how the men destroy what’s left of the martian civilization, the same way they have destroyed the human civilization on Earth, which is about to self – desctruct.
TOPICS :
- The conquest of a foreign planet by the mankind
- The martians depicted as pacific and the men as violent, proud and stupid (There is here a contradiction, because don’t forget the nice martians have destroyed the first 3 expeditions ( by self defense I suppose)
- How men use to destroy their world by racism, intolerance (against some kind of art – The”Usher’s house” -), violence…
- Telepathy, hypnosis
CONTEXT :
1945 : End of racial segregation in the USA
1950 / 1953 : Cold War, Mc Carthysm in the USA (paranoia about the “reds”, the communists , being everywhere in the American society : Politics, arts,…. We call it “witches chase” here in France.
COMMENTS :
You musn’t miss this book. This story, very well written in a very simple style, is made up with many short stories describing either the human point of view, or the martian’s. There’s a lot of poetic moments, especially in the ”nocturnal meetings” and “The long years” chapters. The men arrived more and more numerous on Mars, with no envy to know who was here before them. The vision of Bradbury is of course a little bit excessive : The evil men against the nice and innocent martians…but that doesn’t interfere with the very great charm of this story, a great science fiction classic .
GLOBAL VALUATION :
1 – to Avoid
2 – Not really interesting
3 – It is worth reading
4 - Excellent
The harmonious life of the true last martians, next the human conquest of Mars through 4 expeditions (the astronauts of the 3 first one have been killed by the martians). In the end, a bacterium, the chickenpox, brought by men, kill the last true martians. We observe how the men destroy what’s left of the martian civilization, the same way they have destroyed the human civilization on Earth, which is about to self – desctruct.
TOPICS :
- The conquest of a foreign planet by the mankind
- The martians depicted as pacific and the men as violent, proud and stupid (There is here a contradiction, because don’t forget the nice martians have destroyed the first 3 expeditions ( by self defense I suppose)
- How men use to destroy their world by racism, intolerance (against some kind of art – The”Usher’s house” -), violence…
- Telepathy, hypnosis
CONTEXT :
1945 : End of racial segregation in the USA
1950 / 1953 : Cold War, Mc Carthysm in the USA (paranoia about the “reds”, the communists , being everywhere in the American society : Politics, arts,…. We call it “witches chase” here in France.
COMMENTS :
You musn’t miss this book. This story, very well written in a very simple style, is made up with many short stories describing either the human point of view, or the martian’s. There’s a lot of poetic moments, especially in the ”nocturnal meetings” and “The long years” chapters. The men arrived more and more numerous on Mars, with no envy to know who was here before them. The vision of Bradbury is of course a little bit excessive : The evil men against the nice and innocent martians…but that doesn’t interfere with the very great charm of this story, a great science fiction classic .
GLOBAL VALUATION :
1 – to Avoid
2 – Not really interesting
3 – It is worth reading
4 - Excellent
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