Joe Norman
posts on 11/9/2009 8:57:27 PM
I like how this book is a collection of short stories loosely woven together to create a complete narrative. This type of writing keeps me interested.
My favorite part of the book is the end when we are introduced to "the last Martians." There is a lot of significance to this and it shows that our planet is being slowly destroyed and one day will no longer be able to support life. Maybe we will have to relocate to a different planet in the future to keep life going. Maybe this has already happened in our past?
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Tamara
posts on 11/2/2009 8:53:20 PM
This book really confused me; I felt like it was a bunch of different stories all rolled into one. I enjoyed the concept though and applaud the author for his creativity. He came up with a lot of different situations about what would happen if we went to Mars. Even though I was confused; I really enjoyed this book and the places it took me to.
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The commentator jocylne
posts on 10/25/2009 12:11:10 AM
Wow! This was a great book. The middle sagged a bit for me, but Bradbury pulled it all together nicely. I'm intrigued by its ideas of experience and perception, and its moral that life is a blessing and one shouldn't ask too many questions. I liked the first seven chapters the best, especially the tax payer because of its overall purpose. Thanks. Jocylne
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Jason Hakly(UMD)
posts on 10/20/2009 9:28:06 PM
Is this book/movie a metaphor for where human beings are headed. Are we becoming overrun with a lust for machines? Also, if we did colonize other planets would we make the same mistake there? I believe we are where we are because of our instinctual need to survive and be at the top of the food chain. All animals strive for the same.
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Joshua C (UMD)
posts on 10/20/2009 3:15:52 PM
The Martian Chronicles was a very interesting book. It reminded me of I, Robot in that it has many interconnected stories that are related but not connected, and then end up telling a complete story. Instead of being exclusively about robots, however, the book is about life on Mars, and how it is destroyed and reborn over and over again. The original Martians get destroyed by humans, after the first human explorers are killed by Martians. The later human colonists desert the planet in favor of a war torn Earth. The final colonists are determined to do it the right way, and civilization on Mars will be reborn.
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Wayne S UMD
posts on 10/7/2009 5:19:09 PM
I think it is remarkable how Bradbury is able to make a novel where each chapter can stand alone but is able to integrate them into one common story. What makes this so interesting is the fact that his writing is integrated inside the readers head and not just on paper. The ability to introduce such diverse themes without affecting the flow of the book is quite remarkable. His stories are very philosophical and each chapter has its own moral to the story. I have seen that many people have had the question of what Bradbury’s message was for this book. I believe that it is not a message but that it is a purpose and that purpose is for self reflection and the development of our own messages.
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Dan Wine UMD
posts on 10/4/2009 5:22:57 PM
An anthology of atrocity.
In reading the Martian Chronicles, it was an unsettling and interesting experience, although neither occurred simultaneously. The author, Bradbury, does a fine job in telling the various tales and perspectives of a colonizing Earth trying to interact with a foreign species on the red soil of Mars. The various entries follow the general feel of science fiction, of implementing otherworldly concepts and technology with the nature of humanity and the deep unknown.
Each entry however is a bit chilling when one considers it a recollection of what has past, and what is to come. The civil rights movement that attempted to lift minorities out of inequality, the imperialism of European countries to the brave new world, the usage of infection to rid the lands of native populace, the government's tendencies to employ censorship and restrictions on liberties, all culminating to the one misfortune that has yet to arise; the systematic destruction and razing of the world itself.
A recollection of the past, an expression of his own era, or a premonition of a grisly future, the Martian Chronicles are indeed a timeless tale of our very existence, in both the good and the bad.
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The commentator Lisa Mattson
posts on 10/1/2009 8:13:41 PM
I really enjoyed reading The Martian Chronicles. I read The Illustrated Man, which has the same style of short stories woven together, but this one flows a lot better. Bradbury does an amazing job of painting a picture of man colonizing mars from many different perspectives. Each short story has its own themes, but they also always add a piece to the major story.
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James Norby
posts on 9/23/2009 8:29:04 PM
I think the book shows the flaws of human character. Spender knows the destructiveness of the human race and wants to protect Mars from being destroyed. He knows the destruction of Mars is unenivitable but he kills members of the crew anyway knowing it will stave off the humans for only a few years. He thought the Martians were equals, if not superior, to humans because of the way they lived in harmony with art, religion, and the environment. But even Spender, wanting to save remnants of this great civilization, resorted to killing those crew members. It shows that someone with good intentions still resorts to doing something they themselves do not agree with but do it anyway for the larger cause. Spender did not want to kill those people, he got sick over it, and couldn't do that anymore. I think that is why he let them kill him on top of that hill.
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Dustin Plinski - UMD
posts on 9/19/2009 3:38:25 PM
I really enjoyed this book. It was short, sweet, and very well written. I got a lot of themes coming through the book as I read it. A few being censorship (the house of Usher II)- pollution (- and the moon be still as bright) and of course racism. Want I want to know is, what was Ray Bradbury trying to accomplish with this book? He doesn't necessarily spell out mankinds doom (although we see the Earth burn near the end). But he does have certain things to say about the way we run our planet. How we mold, change, and eventually destroy everything we come in touch with. I think this a cautionary tale about how the Earth may end up if we don't take a stand against the change we keep inflicting. Although Ray Bradbury doesn't state specifically what the problem is, it seems from his book that there are a whole host of things that come together to lead to Earth's demise. Either way, perhaps we should heed his warnings.
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Casey Geissler
posts on 9/17/2009 5:53:25 PM
What is Bradbury's take on religion? Does he believe in a higher power? The only chapter I can remember him incorporating religion was in The Fire Balloons. I understand the priests went up to Mars to purify the martians of their sins, but when they get up there they discover the "Old Ones." The "Old Ones" had evolved into blue fiery orbs that needed nothing, live in happiness and in God's grace. But ulimately they tell the priests that they do not even need the church that they had built for them. It's as if the martians had reached this point in evolution where they worship God but not through any type of organized religion. Is Bradbury saying that God can be worshiped without an organization (i.e. the Roman Catholic Church) or that we do not even need religious organizations?
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Grant - UMD
posts on 9/2/2009 4:05:58 PM
In response to Eric's questions, I don't believe there is one specific genre of books he is fascinated with, but rather the take on government censorship. Bradbury's chapter Usher II weighs heavily on the argument against censorship. I believe Bradbury feels that censorship negates the creativity and uniqueness that we are encouraged to showcase throughout our lives. Destroying this creativity is destroying the human mind, running parallel to the events happening on Mars in this story. Humans are censoring (eliminating) Martians from the planet.
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Outsider
posts on 8/22/2009 6:13:59 AM
BradBury did a fantastic job of using science fiction to question reality. In the book he was able to use several different separate stories to "capture" the larger moral. However, and more significant in this case of the prognosis. I think he was showing us all the eventual demise of man-kind.
Nevertheless, I would argue that the Bradbury is questioning the very roots of our society. Moreover, a theme that is unable to be altered, which therefore leaves me the read frustrated. "How can we stop evolution"?
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The commentator Eric
posts on 8/20/2009 7:13:15 PM
One thing I found pretty fascinating is how Bradbury viewed the world in 1950, when this was written. The book often mentioned authors and books that were 'questionable' in history, many were banned. I don't know much about these books but does anyone know about his fascination with these books? Were they all of the same genre or was he just fascinated with banned books? Also, what was Bradbury's take on racism? This book was well before the civil rights movement, yet from this book I would guess he was against slavery. The author was from Illinois so this might be true, however the shop owner (I forgot his name) who didn't want the black people to go to Mars made me think otherwise.
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Lindsay McSweeney UMD
posts on 8/15/2009 10:42:08 PM
I really enjoyed this book. It was the first science fiction book that I ever read, and it had several different interesting themes throughout. I thought that in the chapter and the moon be still as bright, he made an interesting point about history, and how man has destroyed one planet already, so why should we allow it do so to another planet. Also, I think it was interesting how he made the point that martians understood the meaning of life was to live, a lot like animals. The parts about telepathy, and the ability of martians to transform things into objects that humans want to see, whether it be a hometown, or a loved one. This book showed how big of a hold nostalgia has on people, and their desire to have things be the way they used to be. Colonization and its progress was the main theme of this book. Whether or not the progress we have made is a good or bad thing, is highly debated, but Bradbury seems to think it is a bad thing, because we are erasing another cultures history.
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The commentator Nick UMD
posts on 8/13/2009 9:32:47 PM
I really enjoyed reading this book, because of the fact that it reminds me a lot of our own American culture. What i mean is that a lot of the stories had to deal with the new settlement in America. What really reminded me of this was how the humans bring a disease from Earth to Mars which eventually kills many of the Martians, just as what happened to the Indians when the Easterners came to the United States. Overall i really enjoyed this book, it was my first experience with Bradbury, and first experience with a science fiction read. I was never really too interested in science fiction but I really enjoyed this book, and i recommend it to everyone.
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The commentator Rob Kaiser-Schatzlein
posts on 8/13/2009 12:23:48 AM
In all of the background research I have done about The Martian Chronicles one thing really stand out. Bradbury seems to view the novel (or collection of short stories) as a whimsical reinterpretation of life. To him, this is the essence of fantasy. He intentionally chooses this medium instead of drifting more into the realm of science fiction. Even within the first few pages of the book you can tell that you are dealing with a story concerned more with the characters than the specifics of the technology that goes into space travel or Martian living. In fact Bradbury leaves many things unexplained, like the extent of Martian telepathy or the specific capabilities of shape-shifting beings. This science fiction misstep ends up being an fantasy enhancement. I think this is the most brilliant part of this book.
It is the same reason this story is timeless. This also is another intentional element of Bradbury’s writing. He says that the story is more akin to Greek mythology and this similarity allows the book to transcend generations. As a writing and thinker it gives him the opportunity to illuminate countless generation to his musing on the faults and follies of the human condition. For all of the facts make me think that Ray Bradbury has truly used the medium of fiction and the genre of fantasy to it’s full potential.
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The commentator Dan
posts on 8/9/2009 9:03:11 PM
This was the first Ray Bradbury book that I have read so far...I thought it was very interesting and I liked the way the book was set up from short story to short story. It was awesome to read about visions while trying to decide what visions were reality or which ones were not. I enjoyed the October 2026 chapter of The Million-Year Picnic. The father had his whole plan of going on this "trip" for twenty years and executed it perfectly. They played a fun game and ended up claiming the planet they landed on while there were still martians claiming territory on the planet also. Do the martians open up and embrace the humans eventually, is there a mutual respect, or do they battle it out?
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Derek SaintOnge
posts on 8/7/2009 4:52:43 PM
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It opened up many points that are wrong in our society such as greed, selfishness, and the need to be superior to others. These negative traits were frequently pointed out in the fourth expedition chapter which I found to be quite interesting. I also enjoyed reading the "Usher II" chapter. It reminded me of the book "Fahrenheit 451" as well as the film "Equilibrium" where both pieces are based on societies where emotions and anything emotionally based are forbidden and punishable by death. Life in itself should consist of emotions such as love, happiness, sadness, etc otherwise whats the point of living? Forbidding emotions only goes to show that we have failed to have control over ourselves and our actions.
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Will Schmidley
posts on 8/5/2009 6:01:19 PM
Along with our flaws, I believe the book demonstrates our races’ depth and complexity as well, with flaws but also with some great traits, such as compassion and love. I think some of our better traits are shown in the chapters titled The Martian and The Millionaire Picnic.
My favorite chapter from this book was titled Usher II. It seemed so odd and out of place. Most of the chapters helped moved the story forward in some manner but this chapter was one in its own. In the chapter, a millionaire moves to Mars and spends millions building a mansion that models a nightmare. He eventually gets revenge on those that burned his book collection. This chapter addressed the idea of censorship and made reference to Edgar Allen Poe frequently. I liked this chapter because it shows Ray Bradbury’s creativeness. I also like this chapter because I too am against the idea of certain types of censorship although I wouldn’t murder the supporters of the issue.
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