Martian Chronicles

The idea of ​​creating a “Martian” cycle dates back to the writer's childhood. As Bradbury himself recalls in one of his interviews: “At the age of twelve, I could not afford to buy the continuation of the Martian Warrior Edgar Burroughs , because we were a poor family ... and then wrote my own version.”

“At first I thought about those features that would give a resemblance to the conquest of Mars and the conquest of the Wild West,” wrote Ray Bradbury in an unpublished essay “How I wrote my book,” dated October 17, 1950. - From early childhood, I absorbed stories about the various adventures in the Wild West that my father and grandfather told me. The events of some of them took place at the beginning of the century, when this region was much more empty, abandoned and lonely. I knew at heart that the real Mars would be the new horizon that Billy Buck, the hero of Steinbeck’s short stories, peered thoughtfully while standing on the Pacific coast: the great “Conquest of the West” was already over, and the prospects for amazing adventures began to inexorably dissipate ” ^{[1 ]} .

In 1949, Ray Bradbury, already seriously engaged in writing, but has not yet received recognition, goes to New York . In a big city, for quite some time he unsuccessfully “runs around the editorial offices” ^[2] , offering everyone his short science fiction stories. Researcher L. Butyakov Bradbury explains the failure by the fact that his prose did not correspond to the "literary fashion": "The stories in those years were not popular, the public wanted comic books and novels" with continuation "" ^[3] . The fate of the writer was decided by his acquaintance with his namesake - the experienced editor of the Doubleday publishing company Walter Bradbury ^{[~ 1]} , who caught the thematic community in most of the stories about the “red planet” (they were supposed to make up the backbone of the new conceived collection) and invited the author to arrange them in a kind of novel story, the main object of which would be the mysterious and unattainable for modern mankind Mars ^[4] . Ray Bradbury decided to follow the advice by combining “Martian Tales” in one piece. He came up with new names that allow readers to take novels as chapters of the novel, introduced a chronology of events and entitled all this - “Martian Chronicles” ^[3] . A year later, the work was published and brought Bradbury first national, and then world fame.

The Martian Chronicles was first published in 1950 in the United States .

In 1951 , the book was published in the UK under the title The Silver Locusts , with slightly different content from the original. In some publications, the chapter “Usher II” was missing, which was replaced by the novel “The Fire Balloons” ^[5] .

In the Hispanic version, the work was preceded by a preface written by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges .

In 1997 , when the Chronicle was reprinted, the dating of events was changed - the development of the action was moved forward 31 years. Thus, the new time frame in the work is from 2030 to 2057. Also included in the reprint was the novel “The Fire Balloons”, which had not previously been part of the novel ^{[~ 2]} ; instead of the chapter “... High in the Sky” (Way in the Middle of the Air), less relevant in 1997 than in 1951, the novel “The Wilderness” was placed. In all likelihood, the decision to change the dating of events was due to the fact that the original time frame (from 1999 to 2026) turned out to be too close to reality, while this science fiction work, according to the author’s intention, tells about the future.

Later reprints of the Chronicle also include a preface (The Long Road to Mars, 1990) and an afterword (How I Wrote My Book, 2006) by the author.

The novel "Martian Chronicles" in a chronicle form describes the history of the colonization of Mars by people, the confrontation of Aboriginal "uninvited guests", and also tells about the beginning and consequences of the Third World War on Earth .

January 1999. Rocket Summer

( January 1999/2030. Rocket Summer )
First published in Planet Stories , spring 1947.

February 1999. Illa

( February 1999/2030. Ylla )
First published under the title “I'll Not Ask for Wine” in Maclean's , January 1, 1950.

August 1999. Midsummer Night.

( August 1999/2030. The Summer Night )
First published under the title “The Spring Night” in The Arkham Sampler , winter 1948.

August 1999. Earthlings

( August 1999/2030. The Earth Men )
First published in Thrilling Wonder Stories , August 1948.

March 2000. Taxpayer

( March 2000/2031. The Taxpayer )
First appeared in Martian Chronicles .

Nameless American by hook or by crook tries to get into a rocket flying off to Mars, motivating its claims with its law-abidingness, positive characteristics, and most importantly with the taxes paid on time, due to which the exploration of Mars is going on.

April 2000. Third Expedition

( April 2000/2031. The Third Expedition )
First published under the title “Mars is Heaven!” In Planet Stories , Fall 1948.

June 2001. "And the moon still expanses the rays of silver ..."

( June 2001/2032. —And the Moon Be Still as Bright ) ^{[~ 3]}
First published in Thrilling Wonder Stories , June 1948.

The fourth expedition arrives on Mars, the task of which, in addition to colonization, is to establish the causes of the death of previous astronauts. One of the scientists, Spender, looking at the behavior of his colleagues, begins to guess what happened to the other astronauts, and most importantly, what happened to the Martian civilization as a result of contact with earthlings. When one of the astronauts, Sam Parkhill, finds amusement in the form of the shooting of Martian cities, Spender hides in one of them and slowly his personality begins to mix with the Martian. He attacks his colleagues, and Captain Weidler is forced to hunt him.

August 2001. Settlers

( August 2001/2032. The Settlers )
First appeared in Martian Chronicles .

December 2001. Green Morning

( December 2001/2032. The Green Morning )
First appeared in Martian Chronicles .

February 2002. Locusts

( February 2002/2033. The Locusts )
First appeared in Martian Chronicles .

August 2002. Night meeting

( August 2002/2033. Night Meeting )
First appeared in Martian Chronicles .

October 2002. Shore

( October 2002/2033. The Shore )
First appeared in Martian Chronicles .

November 2002. Fireballs

( November 2002/2033. The Fire Balloons )
First published under the title “... In This Sign” in Imagination Magazine, April 1951.

February 2003. Sideshow

( February 2003/2034. Interim )
First published in Weird Tales , July 1947.

April 2003. Musicians

( April 2003/2034. The Musicians )
First appeared in Martian Chronicles .

Children of earthly colonists found amusement using the skeletons of Martians found in abandoned cities as musical instruments.

May 2003. Desert

( May 2003/2034. The Wilderness )
First published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction , November 1952.

June 2003. ... High to Heaven

( June 2003/2034. Way in the Middle of the Air )
First published in Other Worlds , July 1950.

Black inhabitants of the earth massively emigrate to Mars. The owner of the hardware store, Teese, not wanting to put up with this, is desperately trying to keep at least her worker Cilli on the ground. (The fate of blacks is described in the story “Eye for an Eye?”, Not included in the cycle).

2004-2005. New Names

( 2004-05 / 2035-36. The Naming of Names )
First appeared in Martian Chronicles. Not to be confused with the eponymous short story The Naming of Names, first published in Thrilling Wonder Stories , August 1949, and subsequently renamed Dark They Were, and Golden Eyed (They were dark and golden-eyed) .

Once on Mars, the Earth colonists massively rename Martian geographical objects: mountains, rivers, etc.

April 2005. Escher II

( April 2005/2036. Usher II ) ^{[~ 4]}
First published under the title Carnival of Madness in Thrilling Wonder Stories , April 1950.

A certain Stendhal and his companion Pikes are building a real Escher house on Mars, where they plan to reconstruct the events of the works of Edgar Allan Poe (“ Murder on Morgue Street ”, “ The Well and the Pendulum ”, etc.). But before the house opens its doors to guests, censorship official Garrett arrives there, who is clearly not enthusiastic about Stendhal’s plans and his passion for books forbidden on Earth.

August 2005. Old People

( August 2005/2036. The Old Ones )
First appeared in Martian Chronicles .

September 2005. Martian

( September 2005/2036. The Martian )
First published in Super Science Stories , November 1949.

Elderly spouses who moved to Mars once meet there their son, who had once died on earth.

November 2005. “Travel Products”

( November 2005/2036. The Luggage Store )
First appeared in Martian Chronicles .

November 2005. Dead Season

( November 2005/2036. The Off Season )
First published in Thrilling Wonder Stories , December 1948.

Sam Parkill, a former astronaut, a member of the fourth expedition, opened a sausage, but things are going badly because of the outbreak of war. In addition, ghosts from the past began to haunt him.

November 2005. Observers

( November 2005/2036. The Watchers )
First appeared in Martian Chronicles .

December 2005. Silent Cities

( December 2005/2036. The Silent Towns )
First published in Charm , March 1949.

Walter Flu, one of the few remaining on Mars, has fun in the abandoned colony city. Soon, he begins to feel lonely and look for other people. And then one day, having randomly dialed a telephone number, he calls up with another remaining one - a woman named Genevieve. To celebrate, he immediately hurries to her in another city, expecting to meet the queen, but ...

April 2026. For many years

( April 2026/2057. The Long Years )
First published under the name Dwellers in Silence in Maclean's Magazine, September 15, 1948.

Dr. Hattway with his family stayed on Mars when everyone flew away. After many years, his old comrades, returning from a long expedition, land on Mars not far from his house. The astronauts are flying to the ground and want to take Hattway and his family with him, but then one of them begins to suspect that something is wrong with the doctor’s family.

August 2026. It Will Be Sweet Rain

( August 4, 2026/2057. There Will Come Soft Rains ) ^{[~ 5]}
First published in Collier's Magazine, May 6, 1950.

The atomic massacre on earth has passed. There are no living people, only cybernetic mechanisms in one of the houses continue their work, serving their long-dead masters.

October 2026. Holidays on Mars

( October 2026/2057. The Million-Year Picnic )
First published in Planet Stories , Fall 1946.

Genre Affiliation

Bradbury himself, not without humor, called the “Martian Chronicles” “an accidental novel” (“an accidental novel”) ^[6] . Also known are the author's definitions of the “second cousin of the novel” and “a collection of short stories that pretends to be a novel”. Nevertheless, the definition of the genre of a work as a “novel” has repeatedly caused controversy among literary scholars. Apparently, the source of these disputes is connected with the “artificial” nature of the creation of the Chronicle.

Subject mismatches

Most researchers note the artistic “heterogeneity” of the novel: Mars Bradbury “is either inhabited or hopelessly dead; either life-giving water rumbles or dry sand creaks dry through its famous channels” ^[7] . On the one hand, there are certain plot inconsistencies in the novel, and yet one cannot say that nothing unites the short stories. The Chronicles are connected by a common theme - they all tell about the conquest and colonization of the planet Mars ^[8] . In addition to the subject matter, it is necessary to take into account the ideological content of the work, which also serves to unite short stories into a single whole.

"Separate, weakly interconnected short stories tell of the stages in the development of man by Mars." So often write in publishing annotations. This is both true and false. Chronicles muffle each other, sometimes contradict each other, weaving a grotesque pattern of captivating and terrible beauty. <...> His [Bradbury] Mars is not so much the planet of the solar system closest to us, but a deeply symbolic test site. Everything that concerns the writer on Earth, he transfers to Mars, in ideal conditions, free from any complicating interference. He examines human intolerance and human perseverance, hatred and self-sacrifice, nobility and dullness. And depending on the task, he changes not only the Martian scenery, but also his fiction. Brilliant inventive range! From transparently joyful, like the first sticky leaf shining through in the morning sun, the chronicle Green Morning to the creepy and merciless Third Expedition ^[7] .

Other scholars also advocate the original form of the Martian Chronicles, noting that the plot heterogeneity of the work allows the author to freely address various topics that concern him and his contemporaries:

The conventional form of the chronicles does not in any way connect the imagination of the author (as well as the latest scientific data on Mars), who leads a poetic story about the collision of two cultures, which began with xenophobia and mutual misunderstanding; about the tragic death of the inhabitants of Mars as a result of the epidemic introduced by earthlings; the “pioneering” activities of Americans not burdened with respect for a foreign culture; the death of a civilization left by them on Earth as a result of a nuclear war; about the new start of this civilization on an empty planet-neighbor ^[9] .

• 1980 - The Martian Chronicles (television miniseries, USA , directed by Michael Anderson .
• 1980 - “The Eighth Day of Creation ” (feature film, USSR ), director Suren Babayan .
• 1984 - “ It will be gentle rain ” (cartoon, USSR ), directed by Nazim Tulyakhodzhaev .
• 1987 - Veld (feature film, USSR ), directed by Nazim Tulyakhodzhaev .
• 1988 - “The Thirteenth Apostle ” (feature film, USSR ), director Suren Babayan .
• 1985–1992 - The Ray Bradbury Theater (TV series, USA , Canada , France , United Kingdom , New Zealand ), directors Randy Bradshaw, Bruce MacDonald, Ian Moon, etc.
  • 1990 - Mars Is Heaven (a story included in the “Martian Chronicles” under the title “Third Expedition”) ^{[~ 6]}
  • 1990 - "Asher II" (Usher II) ^{[~ 7]}
  • 1990 - “And the moon still expanses the expanse of the moon ...” (And the Moon Be Still as Bright) ^{[~ 8]}
  • 1990 - “The Long Years” ^{[~ 9]}
  • 1992 - The Earth Men ^{[~ 10]}
  • 1992 - The Martian ( ^{~ 11]}
  • 1992 - Silent Towns ^{[~ 12]}
• 1995 - “ The Fourth Planet ” (Russian feature film, director Dmitry Astrakhan, remake of the story “Third Expedition”)
• 2001 - “ The Neon Life ” (Neon Life) (cartoon, Russia) directed by Roman Puchkov.

• The main scene in the novel is the planet Mars. The exception is four chapters (“Rocket Summer”, “Taxpayer”, “... High in Heaven”, “There will be gentle rain”), the action of which takes place on Earth.
• The Martian Chronicles, like many other Bradbury works, contains a large number of allusions and reminiscences . For example, in the chapter "Escher II" there are about two dozen of them.
• Based on the work, Ray Bradbury created two versions of the script (versions 1964 and 1997) and one play in two acts (The Martian Chronicles: A Full-Length Play in Two Acts, 1986).
• Federico Fellini wanted to film the novel: “I think that I did not miss anything written by Ray Bradbury. After reading “The Martian Chronicles”, I became very passionate about making a film on them ” ^[10] .
• In 2010, Ray Bradbury compiled the cycle “The Martian Chronicles: The Complete Edition”, which is by far the most complete collection of works by the author about Mars ^[11] .

Ray Bradbury also owns a number of short stories about the “red planet,” which for one reason or another were not included in the Martian Chronicles. Some of them are very close to the events described in the work, while others contradict the picture of events created in the Chronicles.

• A Love Story ^{[~ 13]} (The Love Affair, 1948)
• The Alien (The Visitor, November 1948)
• Holiday, 1949
• “Conversation Paid In Advance” (Night Call, Collect, April 1949)
• Loneliness (The Lonely Ones, July 1949)
• “They Were Swarthy and Golden-Eyed” (Dark They Were, and Golden Eyed, August 1949)
• “The One Who Waits” (The One Who Waits, Summer 1949)
• The Exiles (The Exiles, Winter / Spring 1949)
• Payment in Full, 1950
• Concrete Mixer (The Concrete Mixer, 1950)
• “The Blue Bottle” (The Blue Bottle, Fall 1950)
• “Other Times” ^{[~ 14]} (The Other Foot, March 1951)
• A Short Journey (A Little Journey, 1951)
• The Strawberry Window (The Strawberry Window, 1954)
• The Martian Lost City (The Lost City of Mars, January 1967)
• The Messiah (The Messiah, Spring 1971)
• “Fly to Heaven” (Fly Away Home, 2009)
• Some of My Best Friends Are Martians, 2009
• The Disease, 2010
• Dead of Summer, 2010
• The Martian Ghosts, 2010
• Jemima True, 2010
• They All Had Grandfathers, 2010
• The Marriage, 2010

• Gloria McMillan, Donald E. Palumbo, CW Sullivan III, Foreword by Peter Smith, Donald E. Palumbo, CW Sullivan III. Orbiting Ray Bradbury's Mars: Biographical, Anthropological, Literary, Scientific and Other Perspectives. - McFarland, 2013 .-- 253 p. - (Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy). - ISBN 9780786475766 .
• Federico Fellini , Charlotte Chandler. I remember. “Vagrius”, 2005. - ISBN: 5-9667-0018-5