THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES, by Ray Bradbury #SciFiMonth

A few weeks ago, fellow blogger Bormgans reviewed one of Ray Bradbury’s most famous novels, and that review piqued my curiosity to revisit one of the classics I read so long ago.  These revisitations tend to be somewhat dangerous journeys, because when decades elapse and tastes change you risk being disappointed, but this was not the case with The Martian Chronicles.

The Mars depicted in the Chronicles is not the one we now know thanks to the various unmanned expeditions launched toward the Red Planet, but it’s rather an idealized version of it, with blue skies and canals where waters flow plentiful, where there is a breathable atmosphere – if not as rich in oxygen as the one on Earth – and rains and grass and trees. Where cities, mostly abandoned but still beautiful and whole, dot the landscape as testimonials of a flourishing civilization whose last denizens are either too shy to risk contact or subtly dangerous for the invading humans.  Yes, invading, because Bradbury’s Mars is something of an idealized paradise free from the vices that plague humanity and therefore prone to the damaging influence of the new arrivals.

The Martian Chronicles is a collection of short stories rather than a cohesive novel, and these stories are the tiles of a mosaic through which the author delves into the shortcomings of human nature and the dangers of unthinking exploration: observing the attitude of the astronauts who reach Mars in successive waves it’s easy to draw the parallel with the behavior of the adventurers who touched the shores of the New World and proceeded to turn it into a copy of the Old one, while plundering its newfound riches.  The most emblematic story in this regard is And the Moon Be Still as Bright, where some of the new arrivals act in a boorishly uncaring manner, breaking Martian artifacts and scattering their trash around: only one of them understands the value of the now-dead original civilization and goes to extremes to preserve its vestiges.  The behavior of those uncouth astronauts reminded me of the ugliest form of tourist one can observe all around the world, those who are noisy and disrespectful and are unable to appreciate the beauty of what they are seeing.

Bradbury comes across as quite skeptical about the Earthers’ capacity to overcome their nature and the overall tone of the collection is one of sadness for the inevitabile, i.e. the progressive obliteration of any vestiges of Martian civilization and the “poisoning” of the Red Planet as it’s turned out into a carbon copy of Earth.  This choice might have all too easily turned into a moralistic soapbox cautionary tale, but this does not happen (or if it does it’s  only a light brush stroke) thanks to the evocative prose that’s able to summon quite vivid images – both in beauty and in ugliness.  Humans are portrayed as incapable of learning from their mistakes, and the Chronicles are very far removed from the optimism that, a mere sixteen years after their publication, will inspire Star Trek with the hope that people of different cultures would be able to find some common ground beyond their differences, or that exploring new places might bring a form of  mutual enlightening.

Revisiting the Chronicles turned out to be a journey into unexplored territory, because I hardly remembered any details of these stories (a few decades can play havoc with one’s memory…) and I’m glad I retraced my steps and re-discovered a work that, while dated in its outlook and social representation, still feels readable and applicable to many moderns considerations.

My Rating:

Artwork by Yosua Bungaran Cahya Putra