Science fiction and midwestern regionalism?: Bill Kauffman on Ray Bradbury. I haven’t read Bradbury for a long time but what I remember fits with what Kauffman says: that he uses sci-fi and fantasy to make some very earthy points.
Ross Douthat on the American heresy. Douthat is Catholic and a bit of a prodigy in that he is a “senior” editor of The Atlantic while still (I think) in his 20s; I find it a very hopeful sign that someone with his views is in such a position.
–Maclin Horton
That was a great article on Bradbury. Farenheit 451 is so much more chilling now than it would have been when it was written. I remember Something Wicked . . . as one of the scariest books I ever read, although it’s been so long ago that I barely remember it–I still remember being frightened.
I took the audiotapes of the Martian Chronicles along with us on a vacation about 5 years ago and was surprised because I didn’t remember them as being so dark. I’d like to read them again, but they weren’t what I was looking for on vacation.
AMDG,
Janet
The Chronicles are pretty much about mankind going to Mars and ruining it, right? I read them in high school so only have kind of an impression at this point. It’s a cliched phrase but “sense of wonder” certainly describes something prominent in his writing.
Not really. The first several chapers are about expeditions to Mars which turn out badly for the Earth visitors. In fact, the Martians were pretty inhospitable to the humans in the first few stories. Then, there is a story about a family that goes to Mars and finds everyone gone. I think all the Martians may have died from some disease carried by the previous expeditions. So, in that sense, they ruined it, but it wasn’t a case of anything they did deliberately.
I don’t really remember much of what happens after that. Except that the humans colonize and get wiped out somehow–whether by their own hand or others I don’t know. In the end, I think there’s only one man left alive.
The TV mini-series is totally different. I don’t remember it well, either, except that they have Martians still living after Earth colonization, and that doesn’t happen in the book.
AMDG,
Janet
There is a chapter about an early expedition that is tricked and killed by the Martians that is one of the most poignant stories I have ever read. It will kill you with longing.
AMDG,
Janet
OK, the all-knowing experts reveals that I am wrong on a couple of accounts–no family, just another expedition–and a few Martians seem to have survived the plague. However, the book and the series ARE different.
Anyway, the story I was talking about is “The Third Expedition.”
AMDG,
Janet