The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

For Morgan

1. It's always difficult to discern tactics and writers' lessons from a series of short stories like this. I've read some of these before and had been curious if there were any others. The continuity of this fix-up novel is in the continuity of location: it's plot concerns human colonization, abandonment, and re-colonization of Mars. The theme of each story differs and only a broad theme can be sketched of human attitudes towards home, archaeological and natural resources, and the unfamiliar. Perhaps the theme is best distilled in the story "—And the Moon be Still as Bright", in which an introverted idealist decides to sabotage the fourth expedition in order to preserve Mars's natural and archaeological resources, all because of his dissatisfaction with what his companions reveal about aspects of earth culture, home. As each crew member reacts differently in the face of the unknown, this story best sums up what is my best guess at the overarching theme. The whole conglomeration of short stories works for me, and the frame of progressing time, specifically stated in the titles, helps keep it legible and moving. It's effective that the novel also reaches a sort of height in plot action when the world goes to war.

2. The shifting of perspective from earth to Mars and back a few times really shows context well. By referring back to earth's events through onscreen earth stories, the themes are shown affecting all humanity, not only the Martian pioneers. This is effective to help give context and relatable, relative import to the Mars based chronology.

3. A few characters are well developed: Ylla, Spender, Captain Wilder, Parkhill, the old man who converses with Thomas at the gas station, Father Peregrin, and the father in "The Million-Year Picnic." These are all well written because they exist in enough different situations that give them opportunities to show their complexity. Being a series of short stories, many characters are not allowed enough time to breathe and define themselves as the point and scope of some stories does not require more than a two dimensional representation of characters. However, even in that two-dimensional aspect, Bradbury is trying to draw out something about us as humans that relates today.

4. The book comes off like a writer's playground: Bradbury keeps returning to the settings and themes as if worrying at a piece of popcorn stuck between his teeth. It's as if the setting is familiar enough to Bradbury to allow these very different stories to exist together, to allow him to experiment with a new idea, a new character, or a new situation in this safe zone where the conglomeration of all the stories is better than them alone and separate. This is because together each idea discussed adds another dimension to the themes, another layer of importance, and a fresh point of reference in the chronology. Therefore, these stories seem like a deck of cards where a new one can be shuffled in to support the whole, though it maybe be very different. [This appears to be how his publishers have treated these stories as well with seemingly every publishing of this fix-up containing a unique set of stories. I sort of wish all his Martian stories were collected in all the versions.]

5. The writing is efficient and communicative, but I don't think it ever obtains greatness. The plodding of some of the stories is solid, allowing the theme a slow reveal of importance that kept me thinking after I was finished reading. But the writing did not. I don't remember a phrase or description of particular beauty, but the ideas came across loud and clear. Wait, that's not quite true, as I just now remember that passage describing the silhouettes in paint of a family caught in an atomic blast in California, and that's a beautifully poignant passage that is well written. But it's the only one that I can remember.

"Ten-fifteen. The garden sprinklers whirled up in golden founts, filling the soft morning air with scatterings of brightness. The water pelted windowpanes, running down the charred west side where the house had been burned evenly free of its white paint. The entire west face of the house was black, save for five places. Here the silhouette in paint of a man mowing a lawn. Here, as in a photograph, a woman bent to pick flowers. Still farther over, their images burned on wood in one titanic instant, a small boy, hands flung into the air; higher up, the image of a thrown ball, and opposite him a girl, hands raised to catch a ball which never came down. The five spots of paint—the man, the woman, the children, the ball—remained. The rest was a thin charcoaled layer. The gentle sprinkler rain filled the garden with falling light."

6. Where Foundation fails for lack of driving theme, this succeeds by having one. But it plays with that theme, examining it from this way and that like a three dimensional kaleidoscope. Bradbury doesn't overdo it though—some characters are allowed actions outside of that theme that provide a mental break for the reader, which helps make the themes more palatable, but also adds some context. And some stories support the chronology more than they support the theme. This is a strong tactic, allowing these situations together to have more believability through variety than they do separate from each other.