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Ray Bradbury Message Board


Andrea UMD posts on 4/7/2008 4:07:03 PM I found Martian Chronicles to be a good book. It was hard at first to adjust to having many stories in one book, but I did enjoy reading it. I thought that Mrs. K's conversations with Nathaniel York were interesting. She appeared to have a good life, but she was bored with her husband and the repetition of her daily life.
Krystal UMD posts on 3/18/2008 4:50:51 PM I found The Martian Chronicles very fascinating. The variety of short stories does a great job of spanning many subjects. A few being space travel, respect for the environment, censorship, nuclear war, and telekinesis. Although there were many stories, there was one that I found the most entertaining, the one about the second expedition to Mars. I think it was the whole idea of insanity that caught my interest. I found the series of events leading up to the crew's deaths to be one of a kind. An then the Martian kills himself because the ship and crew don't disappear and he thinks that he is then crazy. Odd but facinatting. I found many of the other stories interesting as well and overall liked the book.
Andy UMD posts on 3/12/2008 4:08:48 PM Martian Chronicles is a good book that is a portrayal of the recent past, the present, and the somewhat near future but in the mindset of the 1940's. The book begins with the Martians who are being visited by the humans, but the Martians either are in disbelief that they are really from another planet and think that they are insane or they are hostile toward and kill them. Then it follows the settlement and development of the planet after most of the Martians die out because of the chickenpox. There are segments about excessive censorship and the reaction to it when given a new beginning. The book reflects on the human reaction to loss and loneliness. It eventually leads to the return to Earth because of the major war and the destruction of mankind and technology. The end is a reflection of what mankind had created and ends with the last remaining humans becoming the last remaining Martians.



Augusta UMD on March 10 2008 posts on 3/10/2008 1:06:21 PM The Martin Chronicles is a look into our own history. Braduary hits on how we colonized the west and pushed countless tribes and people off their land to make room for the new colonizers who would more readily use the land for better purposes than what it was being used for. This book also was an efficent tool of showing both sides of colonization not only for the martins but for the white colonizers themselves.
Dave UMD posts on 3/5/2008 11:33:32 AM This book The Martian Chronicles, by Bradbury was one of reviling the emotions of people and society of people through a science fiction book. Looking at the first few trips you see how a lot of emotion of the Martians. Mrs. K has feelings that start out as humorous then grows into love. At the same time her husband, Mr. K, has feelings of curiosity that turns into rage. The second trip, the Martians have emotions of insanity and disbelief. They can't believe that there is other forms of life and place the new arrivals into an insane asylum until they realize what they say is true and kill them. The third arrivals are met with deception. They are trick into believing that this foreign place is one of the past, and that the people they met are friendly towards them. They too are killed by the Martians. Other emotions that can be seen are the ones that are displayed by Spender. Spender is from the fourth trip to Mars and he can relate to the deserted Martian cities. He has feelings of hate of his fellow man because of the lack of respect of history. His rage brought him to insanity and he killed people who trusted him. The other part that I wanted to relate is how society is described in this book. Spenders talk with his captain show much of society of people in the world today. How people fear things that they don't know, and change things to what they feel are the norm. Spender states that people will come up to Mars and ruin the cities by putting in plumbing. Also at the end of the book how people kill off people just to gain land to call their own. They family at the end became Martians, because they were the only ones that were on the planet. I believe Bradbury made this book by looking at the acts of others and related this to make a science fiction book.
Matt w posts on 3/4/2008 3:01:28 AM it is interesting to notice how once the human race is removed form the earth it is so easy to point out the short comings of the human race. Spender seams to be the first to really start to point out the wrongs of the human race. by far my favorite chapter has to be Usher II. the subject of censorship is always very interesting topic when ever it is brought up in a book. Especially for Bradbury who seamed to have had a soft spot for the issue considering his other book Fahrenheit 451,
pam m posts on 2/29/2008 9:54:59 PM One ongoing theme that seems apparent to me throughout most of The Martian Chronicles is the ethnocentricity of the human race. Although we never really learned of the true motives of the first three expeditions because they were killed before that information could be revealed, the mere fact that they were traveling to Mars to escape the unrest on Earth implies that they were looking for a new home for the human race. I don't think the characters ever really understood the viewpoint of the Martians, with the exception of Spender, and maybe Captain Wilder. On that note, how should we interpret the actions of the Martians? After all, they killed off the first expeditions before the crews even had a chance to state their case. The Martians responded with jealousy, fear and ignorance, which are very human traits. Were they really any different than the humans? I think the message that Bradbury was trying to make was the importance of demonstrating empathy and tolerance for others who may be different than you. I don't see a real villain in this story, only two cultures that don't know how to interact.
Mary posts on 2/25/2008 3:11:45 PM This book was very interesting. As I was reading it, I started to realize that striking similarities between humans on Earth invading Mars and our history of wars and invasions. As someone said in a previous post, the Martians tried their hardest to prevent the humans from coming and taking over Mars but killing off the first three expeditions and with each one progressively getting more aggressive, it was clear that the Martians knew what was going to happen. But in the end it didn't work out and everyone from Earth came and ruined the planet. I think it relates a lot to our history as a whole. We, as a civilization, seem to think that we can control everything and have the power to do so. The only problem is that we tend to take over things that are pure and good and ruin them, eventually killing it off entirely. I think Bradbury was trying to get the message across that we need to stop doing that and let people live in peace.
Alex P UMD posts on 2/19/2008 2:57:53 PM The most moving part of the entire novel (The Martian Chronicles) for me was the very beginning and the very end of the book. I was fascinated to learn how similar to Mars and Earth cultures were based on the characters Mr. and Mrs. K. despite the fact that we live in completely different climates and we must live our daily lives to accommodate where we leave, it seems we all have the same problems. Mr. and Mrs. K were experiencing relationship problems; it seemed that marriage took all the romance and love out of what they once had. Mrs. K beings to dream of Nathanial York which ignites a bit of jealousy and annoyance from her husband. They talk about how little they go to town to see and "entertainment" and how they hardly ever go on vacation anymore together. These problems that deal with emotion and how we interact with others are so similar you would think that if it came down to it, there must have been a way for the Martians and the Humans to get along. Fundamentally, we appeared to be the same, everyone is just terrified by those who practice a different culture or by who is just different than us. The end of the novel describes a family who waited till the last minute to get out of Earth before it was blown. It was a father looking out for his family and hoping that they could find a way to avoid all the awful things that happened to Earth. The father mentions that Earth let science get too far ahead and it took over before the Humans could fully understand it. In many respects, his opinion on how life should be lived mirrored that of the Martian way of life. It seems the book ended right where it started.
Jamie UMD posts on 2/17/2008 11:12:34 PM This book was very interesting. Does anyone feel bad for the Martians? I feel that they were pushed right out of where they lived and out of their way of life. Was Bradbury trying say that the Earth men were like how the first settlers were when they came to America? Are the martians like the Native Americans? Spender had it right. He didn't want any earth people to come to Mars because he knew that something bad was going to happen to the martians and the planet Mars. Look at what happened! Each person, or each family was there for their own specific reason. They didn't care what was there before them. They didn't care what had happened for them to be able to come there or what the reason was that they weren't seeing any martains. They were afraid of the martians, and knew that there were a few survivors. The earth men took everything away from the martians for themselves. America is a very individualistic country just as each of the people were that went to Mars.
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