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Ray Bradbury Message Board


Kristin Juntunen (UMD) posts on 7/30/2010 10:39:39 PM When first reading the book I was extremely confused. It took me awhile to understand the style of the book's writing but once I did I enjoyed the book much more. It was enjoyable because of the many different scenerios that occur. I was quite disturbed by the stories of murder. For example, there is a group that lands on mars and finds their dead family members "alive" on the planet. The captain tells them not to but the crew goes to see there relatives. That night the dead realtives kill all the crew. It turns out the relatives were really aliens. Another disturbing story is when a group land on mars and the aliens believe that they are a hallucination and shoot them. I liked the fact that there was variety, but also some stories tied together. It kept things interesting and fresh with every chapter.
Garrett Zimmerman posts on 7/29/2010 8:46:29 PM To me this book was an example of American history. Western expansion in American history, and the colonization is demonstrated in this book by the colonization on mars. It was also a reflection of the American spirit "be all that you can be." In the book you see a man trying to improve his social place on mars. I believe that it is also a reflect ion on the possibilities we have to explore space, and the possibility that we are not the only ones out there. Lastly, it can also be a tool to forecast what can become of earth with our ability to create weapons that can wipe out humanity.
Brian Hill posts on 7/26/2010 1:51:24 PM Bradbury's collection of short stories, for me, really paralleled the old west of our young country. In the first few chapters, there was a lot of death, and I thought to myself that it seemed rather harsh. Everything seemed to be delt with in absolutes. As it all sunk in, I realized that this was deliberate on the part of Bradbury. Death is a harsh and absolute conclusion and it illistrates the tough road that is settling a "new world," both the old west and Mars. The old west was a hard way of living, the people who pioneered this area were tough, hard people and many issues were literally life or death. These references in the early chapters really helped paint the picture of how harsh the beginning really was. As the book continued, life began to be much more civilized; more socialized, and quietly showed the progression of the colonization of Mars, again much like the development of the old west. This is just a small part of the many stories, but it is one that really caught my attention.



Emily Meuwissen (UMD) posts on 7/25/2010 2:20:16 PM I thought this book was absolutely fascinating! I think that the ability to objectify human behavior enough to write about it from the viewpoint of an different species is difficult; but I think that Ray Bradbury does this very well. When I would begin reading about a new adventure, I would guess what I think would happen, and then think to myself "No. That's too extreme." But then my guesses would be right! I loved that there was no boundaries. The imagination put into this book is just fantastic! I also enjoyed how there was no actual narration. It allowed the reader to see the situation from many points of view. I also thought the mystery of what the martians were, and what they were capable of was very interesting. I almost wish he would have provided more information about their telepathy and how they take form of people's loved ones. My favorite scene in the book was the house that was self-sustaining. The thought of a life that simple is just intriguing. Watching something that complex and that advanced be destroyed was a good predictor of the destruction of Earth. Maybe I'm just speculating, but I saw parallels there! The book, in general, provided an opportunity for the reader to explore the idea of a civilization other than our own. All in all, I thought it was a great read!
Sara Sturzenegger (UMD) posts on 6/14/2010 11:11:24 PM Before reading this book I has a pre-existing opinion about it. I was under the impression that this book would be scary as well as thrilling. I thought this due to my knowledge that Bradbury used to read short stories over the radio that really frightened people during that time. I really enjoyed reading this book, it was quite imaginative and detailed. The martians were described in such detail that I could paint a clear picture of what they may look like while reading. I don't believe this book was meant as a cautionary tale about space travel and martians, but rather a book written as a fantasy. While reading this book one part did a great job of creating fear within me. The portion of the book where the martian use their telepathic powers to make the members of the expedition believe they are their loved ones in order to gain their trust to only kill them in the end. It was rather intimidating to think that this might be possible, even though it was just meant as a fantasy. I did enjoy how this book was composed of several short stories, it did a good job of provoking me to continue on. I was fairly glad to see that a couple of the characters in some of the short stories did make second appearances later in the book.
Sara Sturzenegger (UMD) posts on 6/13/2010 4:58:14 PM Ray Bradbury's book was a great collection of many different stories about the way life is/was on mars as he portrayed it would be. The way he talks about the man and the women at the beginning of the book and how she hears these songs and dreams about another man shows us that there are many similarities between those are mars and those visiting mars. The husband gets jealous and goes out to meet the earthlings but ends up shooting them. Another way that it is shown that there are similarities between the two is where the group of people arrive on mars but keep getting sent to another person and no one pays attention to the fact that they are from Earth. Finally they end up in a mental hospital because they don't believe they really made it all the way to Mars from Earth and eventually get shot because they thought hallucinations of the mind were contagious. This book does an excellent job on portraying many different ideas of what life on Mars would be like if it could sustain life. It also has got me thinking about what could happen in the future when we understand more about Mars and what it's climate/atmosphere is like.
Wendy (UMD) posts on 6/10/2010 5:48:55 PM Ray Bradbury's book was a great collection of many different stories about the way life is/was on mars as he portrayed it would be. The way he talks about the man and the women at the beginning of the book and how she hears these songs and dreams about another man shows us that there are many similarities between those are mars and those visiting mars. The husband gets jealous and goes out to meet the earthlings but ends up shooting them. Another way that it is shown that there are similarities between the two is where the group of people arrive on mars but keep getting sent to another person and no one pays attention to the fact that they are from Earth. Finally they end up in a mental hospital because they don't believe they really made it all the way to Mars from Earth and eventually get shot because they thought hallucinations of the mind were contagious. This book does an excellent job on portraying many different ideas of what life on Mars would be like if it could sustain life. It also has got me thinking about what could happen in the future when we understand more about Mars and what it's climate/atmosphere is like.
Sarah - UMD posts on 5/30/2010 5:34:29 PM I read the Martian Chronicles and found that there were many interesting points made in this novel. One of the first stories struck me as interesting - the story about the martian husband and wife. The wife had her dream of the human, and his kissing her. The husband, despite their culture and behaviors (portrayed as finer and more mature than the human race), killed off the humans when they arrived. This gave a message of similarity, no matter your origin - even between alien species. My favorite story was the last, when the father told his son that the earth was no more. In response, the child thought of his religious belief about the revelation and Christians dying and wept. This was a powerful message that I thought was very interesting - I hadn't considered that perspective about the "war" described in this book.
Destinie Geisinger posts on 5/21/2010 4:19:30 AM The Martian Chronicles shows Bradbury's declaration of love for a world that can never be touched. It brings out the best and worst in us as species. There is very little science in fiction so it is difficult for his views to be challenged by modern knowledge. This story consists of building a new world. Bradbury shows this in the story with care and emotion. He destroys a world with some dignity and creates a hope for a better one. I personally enjoyed reading the book over watching the movie. I felt the production was poor and very slow paced. The string of short stories all correlate to the colonization of Mars by Earthlings. They are fighting for freedom from the government because of this it results in betrayal and alienation. It shows the clear struggles in societies to remain on top of each other. There is a constant battle to win the war of power. This is shown throughout the novel making it very thought provoking and quite the page turner.
Glen UMD posts on 5/14/2010 7:31:58 PM I had two favorite scenes/stories in this novel. The first was the story with the shapechanging Martian. It seems like it would be a great power to have, but not if you couldn’t control it and were subject to be shifted into the strongest image among the people present. I thought it very sad that so many people had lost loved ones or other strong emotional ties to people they longed to see that it was powerful enough to overwhelm and kill the Martian. My other favorite story was that of the Martian and Earthling stuck between time, each seeing a different time version of the same place. I wish this would have been expounded upon, it piqued my curiosity.
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