The Martian Chronicles – Chapter Five – The Taxpayer (March 2000/2031) by Ray Bradbury

Chapter five, The Taxpayer, first appeared in The Martian Chronicles. A man insists that he has a right to get on the next rocket to Mars, because he is a taxpayer. He insists on being let on the ship so strongly because the Earth will be having a great atomic war soon, and no one wants to be around when it happens. He is not allowed on the ship and eventually gets taken away by the police.

Characters:

Pritchard – An American taxpayer.

Conflict:

The protagonist is Pritchard. He wishes to go to Mars to avoid atomic war on Earth. The antagonist is the United States government, who ignores him. The climax is when his demand to join the third expedition falls on deaf ears. The outcome is he remains on Earth.

Themes:

There are two themes. The first is escape from a horrible situation. The second is a false sense of entitlement. The phrase “I’m a taxpayer” is often used to protest perceived poor treatment at the hands of the government.

Summary:

Pritchard demands to go to Mars to avoid atomic war on Earth. His request is refused.

Notes:

The foreshadowing of an atomic war is brought to the forefront in this brief vignette. Pritchard’s desperation seems unwarranted: he may be considered a crank, someone whose dissatisfactions are out of proportion from the reality of the situation. And yet, there are subtle hints in other stories that indicate the extent of the problem: that only Americans make the voyage to Mars, indicating a strong rift in international relations; the disillusionment about humanity that Spender expresses quite fatally on the fourth expedition. In a way, Pritchard is a prophet unheeded by his people.

Read Full Post »

The Martian Chronicles – Chapter Four, The Earth Men (August 1999/2030) by Ray Bradbury

Chapter Four, The Earth Men (August 1999/2030) was first published in Thrilling Wonder Stories, August 1948.

This story tells of the “Second Expedition” to Mars. The astronauts arrive to find the Martians to be strangely unresponsive to their presence. The one exception to this is a group of Martians in a building who greet them with a parade. Several of the Martians in the building claim to be from Earth or from other planets of the solar system, and the captain slowly realizes that the Martian gift for telepathy allows others to view the hallucinations of the insane, and that they have been placed in an insane asylum.

The Martians they have met all believed that their unusual appearance was a projected hallucination. Because the “hallucinations” are so detailed and the captain refuses to admit he is not from Earth, Mr. Xxx, a psychiatrist, declares him incurable and kills him. When the “imaginary” crew does not disappear as well, Mr. Xxx shoots and kills them. Finally, as the “imaginary” rocket remains in existence, Mr. Xxx concludes that he too must be crazy and shoots himself. The ship of the Second Expedition is sold as scrap at a junkyard.

Characters:

Jonathan Williams – Captain of the second expedition from Earth to Mars.

Three unnamed Earthians – Williams’ crew.

Mrs. Ttt – Martian annoyed by arrival of Williams and his crew.

Mr. Ttt – Sends the Earthmen to Mr. Aaa.

Mr. Aaa – Sends the Earthmen to Mr. Iii.

Martian girl – Listens to the Earthmen describe their journey.

Mr. Iii – Locks the Earthmen in an insane asylum.

Mr. Xxx – “Cures” the Earthmen and himself of insanity by killing them and himself.

Mr. Uuu – Martian who claims to be from Earth.

Miss Rrr – Martian who claims to be from Earth.

Mr. Www – Martian who claims to be from Earth.

Mr. Qqq – Martian who claims to be from Earth.

Mr. Vvv – Martian who claims to be from Earth.

Conflict:

The protagonist is Jonathan Williams. He tries to make the Martians believe he and his crew are from Earth. The antagonist is The Martians. They all believe Williams is insane and his crewmen are external delusions borne of this insanity. The climax is when Jonathan Williams and his men are placed in an asylum. The outcome is when trying to cure Williams, Mr. Xxx kills Williams and his men, then kills himself when the delusion persists.

Themes:

There are two themes that create tension when they interact in this story: the ego of achievement and the limits of credibility.

The ego of achievement is embodied by the astronauts from Earth, who are not content to have completed their feat, but to be universally recognized for what they did.

The limits of credibility are embodied by the Martians, who find it preposterous and unbelievable that someone would travel from another planet to Mars. Of course, this is the same attitude Earthians have about people they encounter who make similar claims.

Summary:

Captain Jonathan Williams and his crew of three men have arrived from Earth to Mars. They arrive at the home of Mrs. Ttt and wait to meet her husband for several hours, only to then be sent to Mr. Aaa and then Mr. Iii. Along the way to Mr. Iii, they speak to a little girl who seems unimpressed by the story she hears of their travels. Finally, Mr. Iii takes them to a room where they are feted by a group of Martians – only to discover they also claim to be Earth and are actually insane asylum inmates. Williams realizes he has been declared insane: seeing the insane Martians manifest their thoughts while sleeping, he understands that his strange Earthian appearance is being dismissed as yet another insane Martian using his everyday mental abilities to do the same.

The next morning, Mr. Xxx meets with Williams to cure him of this illness: Williams takes the doctor to the Earthian spaceship but Mr. Xxx deems him incurable thanks to the extent of the delusion – three seemingly solid crewmen and a seemingly solid spacecraft. Thus, Mr. Xxx decides to kill Williams, but the delusions persist; he then shoots the other three crewmen “delusions” but the craft is still there. Deciding he himself is incurably insane, Mr. Xxx does the merciful thing and kills himself. Later, Martians find the spacecraft and, not knowing what to do with it, pass it along to a junk dealer.

Notes:

Obliquely, this story shows the hazards – and advantages – of thinking too logically, of not trusting imagination. A hazard, since the truth of the situation is never quite figured out by the Martians; but also an advantage along the lines of “ignorance is bliss” since they unwittingly fended off yet another invader from Earth. This story paves the way for both “The Third Expedition” and “The Martian”, stories that build on the abilities of Martians.

Read Full Post »

The Martian Chronicles – Chapter Three: The Summer Night (August 1999/2030) by Ray Bradbury

Chapter Three was first published as “The Spring Night” in The Arkham Sampler, Winter 1948.

This short vignette tells of Martians throughout Mars who, like Ylla in chapter two, begin subconsciously picking up stray thoughts from the humans aboard the Second Expedition’s ship. As the ship approaches their planet, the Martians begin to adopt aspects of human culture such as playing and singing American songs, without any idea where the inspirations are coming from.

Characters:

The Martians, but no specific ones.

The Earthmen.

Conflict:

The protagonist is the Martians who are receiving telepathic signals from Earthmen. The antagonist is the Earthmen who are unwittingly sending their thoughts ahead of them as they travel towards Mars. The climax of the chapter is the Martians grow disturbed by the sudden influx of alien information. Th chapter’s outcome is the Martians become uneasy and restless.

Themes:

The psychological toll of invasion and colonization.

Summary:

On a pleasant summer night, the Martians are surprised by alien thoughts from Earth, giving them insights of a culture they had never encountered before.

Notes:

In a literal foreshadowing of events to come, the psychological impact of the Earthmen’s invasion of Mars takes place before the invasion actually becomes effective.

Read Full Post »

The Martian Chronicles – Chapter Two: Ylla (February 1999/2030) by Ray Bradbury

Chapter Two: Ylla, was first published as “I’ll Not Ask for Wine” in Maclean’s, January 1, 1950.

The following chapter, “Ylla”, moves the story to Mars. Ylla, a Martian woman trapped in an unromantic marriage, dreams of the coming astronauts through telepathy. Her husband, though he pretends to deny the reality of the dreams, becomes bitterly jealous, sensing his wife’s inchoate romantic feelings for one of the astronauts. He kills the two-man expedition, astronauts Nathaniel York and one simply called Bert, as soon as they arrive.

Characters: 

Ylla K – A Martian wife.

Yll K – Ylla’s husband.

Nathaniel York – The Earthman who contacts Ylla through dreams.

Bert – The second Earthman.

Pao – A friend of Ylla’s who lives in the Green Valley.

Doctor Nlle – A friend of Yll and Ylla.

Conflict:

The protagonist  is Ylla. She wishes to meet the Earthman from her dreams. The antagonist is her husband Yll. He is jealous of Ylla’s attention towards this seeming imaginary figure named Nathaniel York. The climax is when Yll deceives Ylla by forcing her to stay home at the time the Earthman is supposed to arrive. The outcome is Yll kills the Earthman, causing a rift between himself and his wife.

Theme:

Marriage and jealousy are the two main themes of this story. What makes a marriage work? How much trust is necessary? And what happens when someone or something threatens the marriage?

Summary:

Ylla K has dreams about a man from Earth arriving on Mars. She shares with Yll details of this Nathaniel York’s exotically strange appearance, the music of his culture, and the belief that he will and in the Green Valley. Yll K suppresses his jealousy as best he can and tries to be more attentive to his wife, but realizes she intends to meet York when he lands. Using the ruse of a supposed visit by Doctor Nlle, Yll convinces Ylla not to go to Green Valley – she herself tried the ruse of visiting Pao to go to the area. She stays home and Yll goes out hunting, killing York. Though nothing is said of this, Ylla is aware of what happened.

Notes

The wife’s name is an extension of the husband’s, subtly indicating her subservience to him. The married couple never admit to each other that Ylla’s dreams of York are based in reality, instead speaking of it as a kind of imaginative fancy. However, both of them behave as if York’s arrival is real, making him Yll’s rival for Ylla’s affection. The marriage is kept together tenuously by this refusal to speak of things that could tear their bond apart.

Read Full Post »

The Martian Chronicles – Chapter One “Rocket Summer” – Ray Bradbury

Rocket Summer (January 1999/2030)

Rocket Summer was first published in Planet Stories in the Spring 1947 edition. It is the first story in “The Martian Chronicles”. The stories of the book are arranged in chronological order, starting in January 1999, with the blasting off of the first rocket. Each story forms a separate chapter of the book.

Conflict:

Let’s look at the conflict in chapter one. The protagonist is the rocket. The antagonist is winter, metaphorically set aside by the rocket’s heat. The climax of the chapter is when the rocket ascends and melts winter away. The outcome is the town is temporarily in summertime again.

Themes:

The theme in the story is the seasonal shift. It emphasizes the changes brought by technology on human life, and in turn foreshadows the theme of human life (with their technology) changing Mars and the Martians when they colonize the planet.

Summary:

“Rocket Summer” is a short vignette which describes Ohio’s winter turning briefly into summer due to the extreme heat of the rocket’s take-off, as well as the reaction of the citizens nearby.

Notes:

This vignette is very brief and intends to convey a sense of awe and wonder at what technology is capable of. Summer is symbolic of youthfulness and energy, which space travel and colonization is supposed to inspire.

Read Full Post »

The Martian Chronicles – Ray Bradbury

Preface: I own the Bantam Books paperback edition, printing number 68 in 1988. It includes the story where the blacks (African-Americans) get fed up with the south and head to Mars. Some editions have this story edited out. The removal of the story was for political correctness and to not offend some racial groups.

I first read The Martin Chronicles in the 1980’s. I continue to come back from time to time to dip (to use a Bradbury phrase) into the wonderful writing and story telling of Ray Bradbury. He set the standard high when he wrote The Martian Chronicles. The book has one of the most important set of observations about our human issues ever written in either science fiction or science fantasy form.

Introduction

The Martian Chronicles is a 1950 science fiction short story collection by Ray Bradbury that chronicles the colonization of Mars by humans fleeing from a troubled and eventually atomically devastated Earth, and the conflict between aboriginal Martians and the new colonists. The book lies somewhere between a short story collection and an episodic novel, containing stories Bradbury originally published in the late 1940s in science fiction magazines. For publication, the stories were loosely woven together with a series of short, interstitial vignettes.

Bradbury has credited Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio and John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath as influences on the structure of the book. He has called it a “half-cousin to a novel” and “a book of stories pretending to be a novel”. As such, it is similar in structure to Bradbury’s short story collection, The Illustrated Man, which also uses a thin frame story to link various unrelated short stories.

The book covers a period from 1999 through 2026. In the book, much of the human colonization of Mars brings those who want to recreate Earth against those who appreciate what is special about Mars. Therefore, exploitation versus conservation is one theme in the book. There are magnificent stories in here against racism, censorship of books, and war.

The first act (set in the period from January 1999—April 2000) details the attempts of the Earthmen to reach Mars, and the various ways in which the Martians keep them from returning. In the crucial story, “—And the Moon be Still as Bright”, it is revealed by the fourth exploratory expedition that the Martians have all but perished in a plague caused by germs brought by one of the previous expeditions.

This unexpected development sets the stage for the second act (December 2001—November 2005), in which humans from Earth colonize the deserted planet, occasionally having contact with the few surviving Martians, but for the most part preoccupied with making Mars a second Earth. However, as war on Earth threatens, most of the settlers pack up and return home. A global nuclear war ensues, cutting off contact between Mars and Earth.

The third act (December 2005—October 2026) deals with the aftermath of the war, and concludes with the prospect of the few surviving humans becoming the new Martians, a prospect already foreshadowed in “—And the Moon be Still as Bright”, and which allows the book to return to its beginning.

Near the book’s end are three stories about a variety of meanings of loneliness. They are wonderful. The first looks at men and women seeking each other out when there is no other company. The second considers the loss of a family and how to cope with that. The third looks remorsefully at the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust.

The last story in The Martian Chronicles, “The Million-Year Picnic,” makes me very melancholy. From that story, you will be able to answer “Who are the Martians?”

Do not let the fact that Bradbury mainly writes science fiction and fantasy keep you from reading this master story-teller. Read Bradbury for his great story telling, dialogue, and writing.

A 1997 edition of the book advances all the dates by 31 years (thus running from 2030 to 2057), includes “The Fire Balloons”, and replaces “Way in the Middle of the Air” (a story less topical in 1997 than in 1950) with the 1952 short story “The Wilderness”, dated Mabfby 2034 (equivalent to May 2003 in the earlier chronology).

In the days ahead I will give share a chapter by chapter summary of the book.

Read Full Post »

“Prairie Dogs’ Helmets”

I was notified this week my 5900 word short story “Prairie Dogs’ Helmets” received final acceptance from “Bewildering Stories”. It is on their publication schedule.

Read Full Post »

Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury

Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury is not a single volume on writing. Rather, it is a collection of essays written over his long career. Each of the essays has a real nugget of insight for the reader.

Bradbury teaches us about writing. He tells us to write about what we love, and what we hate and to always stay drunk on writing, because it saves us from the world of reality.

The book’s title is a little misleading. While Bradbury makes some statements that sound like a “Zen Master”, that is the closest I could come to finding anything “Zen” about the book. I find the title a “hip” title some marketer probably dreamed up.

Bradbury devotes a chapter on the mechanics of writing, the way he learned it. To achieve success as a writer according to Bradbury, one must write at least a thousand words a day. The thousand words a day minimum must continue until the process becomes automatic.

It is simply fascinating to get into the mind of one of the greatest science fiction writers on how the craft is done. This chapter alone is worth buying the book which is very economical. It is a wonderful book for the beginning writer and very inspirational for the advanced writer.

Read Full Post »

The Toynbee Convector by Ray Bradbury

I first read this collection of short stories in 1992. It includes a reprint of the 1983 story that appeared in the January 1984 issue of “Playboy.”

It has twenty-two other stories. The majority are reprints from magazine articles.

I nominate the short story of “The Toynbee Convector” for the best fantasy/science fiction story ever written. It is as good as Bradbury’s story from his 1951 book the “Illustrated Man – “The Veldt”. It is that good.

Here is the story plot/summary. The story’s protagonist claims to have returned from the future. He has tapes and films of a miraculous technological wonderland. Humankind has solved all its major problems – no cancer, no world hunger, etc. This energizes the world with confidence.

People believe that their dreams will come true. They proceed to build that future. They have no idea it is all a lie. The lie pictures a wondrous future. It describes this future in breath-taking detail. There is almost an action plan with hints as to how to get there.

The world’s brain trust of scientists, economists, and politicians take the clues and make this future a reality. It comes the day when we are at the time and place where he is to appear from the past in the created future. A major deflection occurs.

You have to read the story for the conclusion. It is worth reading. While the other stories in the collection are good and “worth the read,” none match the opening story.

Read Full Post »

Book Review: Driving Blind by Ray Bradbury

This 1997 collection is uneven and at times weak. There is less fantasy or science fiction than in many of Bradbury’s earlier works.

Familiar themes:

• In the short story “Remember Me?” we find the theme of meeting a familiar face in a distant place.
• The theme of children’s storytelling and kissing games is found in “House Divided”.
• The theme of looking up an old flame is in “Wonder What’s Become of Sally?”  
• And one of my favorite themes, the revenge of the nerd everybody picked on is the theme of “The Highest Branch on the Tree”.

Terrific Moments:

The book has some terrific moments. Examples are:

• when Bradbury recalls a tiny, dusty, moth-eaten Mexican circus,
• tells the hilarious story of Irish drinking buddies looking for a safe place in the bogs to take a woman, and
• yet another tale of perfect love squandered (“Madame et Monsieur Shill”).

If you’re new to Bradbury, this will do nicely, but for veteran readers it’s a bit of same old same old. Read by Jimmie A. Kepler.

Read Full Post »