I recently took a look at the books in my two bookcases and realized I have been moving books I have never read from place to place over the years. A couple weeks ago I picked up The Martian Chronicles - still brand new - and started reading. First, I love Ray Bradbury, and am quite fond of other books of his. However, when I started reading this book, I had a hard time forgetting what I knew about Mars from the recent NASA explorations. I almost gave up on the book. I'm really glad I didn't.
What a beautiful and poingnant piece of work, even after 60 years. So difficult to believe (and amazing to see) that Ray Bradbury was concerned about the same issues back then that I am concerned about now - humans wrecking the Earth then moving on to other planets only to wreck them too; American's disregard and disdain for anything different and unfamiliar. Ray packs a lot of story and meaning into a little book. Once I was able to suspend disbelief and accept his version of Mars, I could focus on his message. I guess I had no idea anyone was worried about the Earth to this extent back in the 40s. I understand concern about atomic war, but to hear the characters complain about humans chopping down trees and overpopulating and mining the hell out of the land was interesting.
When I read the ending, I interepreted in a way I don't think many other people do. It ended with a family from Earth arriving on Mars in a private rocket. Everyone on Mars had gone back to Earth to fight in the last great war. The father of the family promised his sons that he would show them "real live Martians", and in the end he did - he took them to the canal and had them peer into the water. He told them the Martians were there in the reflections. Based on the earlier parts of the book that had several examples of Martians outsmarting humans, my initial thought was that Martian had gone down to Earth when humans started populating Mars, created a family and bade his time until it was safe to come back and take his planet back.
While that may be the case, it could also be that the man meant that as his family moved to Mars, they are now Martians and should let go of the ideals of Earth. This would be a better message and more idealistic, but I like my initial thought as it is more clever (and I wanted the Martians to 'win'.)
Awesome book. I must read more!
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For some reason, I think we also have a new copy of the Martian Chronicles sitting around. I read it in high school and didn't remember the plot.
Also, my favorite TV show when I lived in Spain was called the Martian Chronicles (but in Spanish, of course). It was like David Letterman, but with occasional sci-fi flourishes.
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