I think that it is interesting how well The Martian Chronicles shows the fears and the aspirations that people had in the early 1950s. The Cold War was beginning, the atomic bomb had just been invented, and both world the US and the USSR were rocketing towards the start of the space race. It is also interesting because it shows a view of colonization, which was quite new for the time period.
The fears shown in the book serve as a sort of time capsule for the fears of late 1940 and early 1950s America. The Soviet Union had just successfully tested their first atomic bomb and people were beginning to realize that the philosophy that would govern politics for the next 40 years amounted to that if anyone does anything, the entire world will be destroyed. Then in The Martian Chronicles, this actually happens, and the whole world becomes a bright spot in the sky of Mars. Another thing that came with the development of bombs, however, was the development of rockets to send them on.
The book also serves as a time capsule for the very short period of time when we knew that rockets to outer space were possible and knew what they should generally look like and be made of but hadn’t quite gotten the technology to do it yet. This is probably most obvious from Bradbury’s assumption that rockets would one day be used like airplanes to quickly transport people around the globe when nowadays we realize how astoundingly expensive and fuel-inefficient that would be. Bradbury also realizes in The Martian Chronicles how the ability to travel has been abused by some civilizations in the past.
The Martian Chronicles also comes from the time period when people were starting the change the minds on the morality of going around the globe, setting up colonies, and entirely ignoring the extreme amount of damage that you are doing to the native population. Just 35 years before the publishing of the book over 90% of Africa was controlled by European powers, so Bradbury would have actually experienced this during his lifetime, and Spender’s views although largely ignored by the rest of the crew do show that people were thinking about whether or not these real life colonizers had done the right thing when they decided to conquer the rest of the world.
Does this mean that this blog post, or really an other media we produce, is also a time capsule of whatever is going on at the time?
ReplyDeleteOne day, provided the internet doesn't shut down and/or explode, people will look back on our old memes and say "this was made during an era where 2 terrible candidates were in the running for president, and the author of this meme was clearly upset by this". Or maybe they'll examine our culture using our memes, "clearly having good taste in foot apparel was essential for success in this old society, individuals with bad taste would be ridiculed and mocked with the catchphrase 'what are those?!'"
when memes are our legacy
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The historical context gives the book a new meaning. There was definitely concerns with new warfare and the difficult moral decisions in the 1950s, plus they were on the cusp of the anti-war movement, which I think Bradbury would be a part of. There are also really obvious parallels between American colonization and colonization on mars, was definitely was a new view on invasions in sci fi, really similar to the Avatar movie in theme as well.
ReplyDeleteI don't have much that's specific to say about your observations about technology, other than--yes, yes, I hadn't thought about this in exactly these terms, and awesome.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how much this moment in time (the early atomic detonations) propelled sci fi from the largely pro-science views of hte 50s to the largely cautionary tales of the 60s?
I like how this relates to the theme of scifi being an extension of what we know, as seen in 20,000 leagues under the sea. Here you see a difference in that people are scared of the technology, rather than eager for it.
ReplyDeleteGood point!
DeleteWow! You make a lot of great points here. These were very real fears that Bradbury had for society, though for me they feel like history.
ReplyDeleteThe context or our reality was something I'd awknowledged about the book from the beginning, seeing as how it was made during a time when technology was breaching new hights, in some cases, literally, as we had just entered the ring with space fairing contraptions. Our ingenuity also beget more destructive inventions, which falls more in line with humanity's desire to be in control.
ReplyDeleteDespite what I'd already surmised before having read this post, the time capsule notion is an interesting one.