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Re: The Martian Chronicles (was Re: SF: Book recommendations)

From John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com>
Newsgroups alt.usage.english, rec.arts.books, rec.arts.sf.written, rec.arts.sf.misc
Subject Re: The Martian Chronicles (was Re: SF: Book recommendations)
Date 2026-02-02 14:54 -0800
Organization A place where nothing fits quite right
Message-ID <20260202145404.00003774@gmail.com> (permalink)
References (14 earlier) <MPG.43eaa82464340556989a70@news.eternal-september.org> <20260202105936.0000758d@gmail.com> <MPG.43eacd8f6c431582989a72@news.eternal-september.org> <10lr3eg$v923$1@dont-email.me> <MPG.43eaed1013279719989a75@news.eternal-september.org>

Cross-posted to 4 groups.

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On Mon, 2 Feb 2026 17:19:53 -0500
The True Melissa <thetruemelissa@gmail.com> wrote:

> I recall classic Mars as a desert and classic Venus as a jungle, not
> barren. Bradbury certainly didn't paint it as barren in "All Summer
> In a Day." Pasty white plants tower to the skies, and the temperature
> seems about like ours (it must be all that rain). 

It'd be interesting to track the evolution of Mars in popular culture
over time, as the accuracy of our astronomical observations improved.
The "canals" were always a mistranslation from Schiaparelli's "canali,"
but I don't think the idea was conclusively debunked 'til the 1900s.
Nevertheless, Burroughs's Barsoom is a dying, desert world, and Welles
has implications of the same as the motive for his Martian invasion.

Bradbury's is interesting in this context; his Mars is a naturally
harsh but livable world, partially terraformed by Earth colonists
during their settlement phase. He wasn't the first to posit terra-
forming as a concept, I gather, but I wonder if anyone before him used
it the way he does - as a means to "rationalize" what was already a
scientifically dated (if not fully outmoded) popular conception for
literary purposes...

(Lewis's Malacandra is also in the harsh-but-livable category, with
scrubby but verdant river-canals and highlands with thin atmosphere
barely adequate for the lowland species - but he was hardly concerned
with scientific accuracy.)

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Re: Deadly mushrooms in Australia occam <occam@nowhere.nix> - 2026-01-27 13:32 +0100
  Re: Deadly mushrooms in Australia nospam@de-ster.demon.nl (J. J. Lodder) - 2026-01-27 23:34 +0100
    Re: Deadly mushrooms in Australia Snidely <snidely.too@gmail.com> - 2026-01-27 17:56 -0800
      Re: Deadly mushrooms in Australia nospam@de-ster.demon.nl (J. J. Lodder) - 2026-01-28 13:44 +0100
        Re: Deadly mushrooms in Australia Adam Funk <a24061@ducksburg.com> - 2026-01-28 14:27 +0000
          Re: Deadly mushrooms in Australia Hibou <vpaereru-unmonitored@yahoo.com.invalid> - 2026-01-28 16:42 +0000
            Re: Deadly mushrooms in Australia Peter Moylan <peter@pmoylan.org> - 2026-01-29 08:33 +1100
              SF: Book recommendations Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2026-01-29 04:51 +0200
                Re: SF: Book recommendations kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) - 2026-01-28 22:16 -0500
                Re: SF: Book recommendations Peter Moylan <peter@pmoylan.org> - 2026-01-29 15:11 +1100
                Re: SF: Book recommendations Peter Moylan <peter@pmoylan.org> - 2026-01-29 15:50 +1100
                Re: SF: Book recommendations Peter Moylan <peter@pmoylan.org> - 2026-01-29 16:08 +1100
                Re: SF: Book recommendations Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2026-01-31 05:32 +0200
                Re: SF: Book recommendations Titus G <noone@nowhere.com> - 2026-01-31 18:36 +1300
                Re: SF: Book recommendations Titus G <noone@nowhere.com> - 2026-01-31 18:37 +1300
                Re: SF: Book recommendations occam <occam@nowhere.nix> - 2026-01-31 09:42 +0100
                Re: SF: Book recommendations occam <occam@nowhere.nix> - 2026-01-31 09:42 +0100
                Re: SF: Book recommendations occam <occam@nowhere.nix> - 2026-01-31 09:42 +0100
                Re: SF: Book recommendations nospam@de-ster.demon.nl (J. J. Lodder) - 2026-01-31 10:51 +0100
                Re: SF: Book recommendations The True Melissa <thetruemelissa@gmail.com> - 2026-01-31 07:18 -0500
                Re: SF: Book recommendations doctor@doctor.nl2k.ab.ca (The Doctor) - 2026-01-31 15:30 +0000
                Re: SF: Book recommendations Don <g@crcomp.net> - 2026-01-31 16:31 +0000
                Re: SF: Book recommendations scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2026-01-31 18:37 +0000
                Re: SF: Book recommendations Ignatios Souvatzis <u502sou@bnhb484.de> - 2026-01-31 18:28 +0000
                Re: SF: Book recommendations Ignatios Souvatzis <u502sou@bnhb484.de> - 2026-01-31 19:01 +0000
                Re: SF: Book recommendations Titus G <noone@nowhere.com> - 2026-02-01 17:04 +1300
                Re: SF: Book recommendations Peter Moylan <peter@pmoylan.org> - 2026-02-01 15:17 +1100
                Re: SF: Book recommendations Titus G <noone@nowhere.com> - 2026-02-02 17:03 +1300
                Re: SF: Book recommendations Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2026-02-02 07:13 +0200
                Re: SF: Book recommendations Ignatios Souvatzis <u502sou@bnhb484.de> - 2026-02-02 08:27 +0000
                Re: SF: Book recommendations kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) - 2026-02-02 19:27 -0500
                Re: SF: Book recommendations The True Melissa <thetruemelissa@gmail.com> - 2026-02-01 06:15 -0500
                Re: SF: Book recommendations Don <g@crcomp.net> - 2026-02-01 14:14 +0000
                Re: SF: Book recommendations Titus G <noone@nowhere.com> - 2026-02-01 17:03 +1300
                Re: SF: Book recommendations Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2026-02-01 16:41 +0200
                Re: SF: Book recommendations Don <g@crcomp.net> - 2026-02-01 16:48 +0000
                Re: SF: Book recommendations Snidely <snidely.too@gmail.com> - 2026-02-03 18:11 -0800
                Re: SF: Book recommendations William Hyde <wthyde1953@gmail.com> - 2026-01-31 15:26 -0500
                Re: SF: Book recommendations John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2026-02-02 08:04 -0800
                Re: SF: Book recommendations The True Melissa <thetruemelissa@gmail.com> - 2026-02-02 12:25 -0500
                Re: SF: Book recommendations John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2026-02-02 10:59 -0800
                The Martian Chronicles (was Re: SF: Book recommendations) The True Melissa <thetruemelissa@gmail.com> - 2026-02-02 15:05 -0500
                Re: The Martian Chronicles (was Re: SF: Book recommendations) Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2026-02-02 13:03 -0800
                Re: The Martian Chronicles (was Re: SF: Book recommendations) The True Melissa <thetruemelissa@gmail.com> - 2026-02-02 17:19 -0500
                Re: The Martian Chronicles (was Re: SF: Book recommendations) John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2026-02-02 14:54 -0800
                Re: The Martian Chronicles (was Re: SF: Book recommendations) John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2026-02-02 15:01 -0800
                Re: The Martian Chronicles (was Re: SF: Book recommendations) Peter Moylan <peter@pmoylan.org> - 2026-02-03 10:57 +1100
                Re: The Martian Chronicles (was Re: SF: Book recommendations) Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2026-02-03 08:09 +0200
                Re: The Martian Chronicles (was Re: SF: Book recommendations) doctor@doctor.nl2k.ab.ca (The Doctor) - 2026-02-03 16:33 +0000
                Re: The Martian Chronicles (was Re: SF: Book recommendations) Cryptoengineer <petertrei@gmail.com> - 2026-02-04 12:11 -0500
                Re: The Martian Chronicles (was Re: SF: Book recommendations) John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2026-02-04 10:12 -0800
                Re: The Martian Chronicles (was Re: SF: Book recommendations) John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2026-02-02 13:05 -0800
                Re: SF: Book recommendations Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2026-02-03 07:05 +0200
                Re: SF: Book recommendations Cryptoengineer <petertrei@gmail.com> - 2026-02-04 12:07 -0500
                Re: SF: Book recommendations John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2026-02-04 09:24 -0800
                Re: SF: Book recommendations William Hyde <wthyde1953@gmail.com> - 2026-02-04 15:57 -0500
                Re: SF: Book recommendations lar3ryca <larry@invalid.ca> - 2026-01-29 23:30 -0600
                Re: SF: Book recommendations Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> - 2026-01-31 05:20 +0200
                Re: SF: Book recommendations Pluted Pup <plutedpup@outlook.com> - 2026-01-30 14:46 -0800
                Re: SF: Book recommendations Peter Moylan <peter@pmoylan.org> - 2026-01-31 11:19 +1100
          Re: Deadly mushrooms in Australia nospam@de-ster.demon.nl (J. J. Lodder) - 2026-01-28 21:25 +0100
            Re: Deadly mushrooms in Australia Sam Plusnet <not@home.com> - 2026-01-29 01:19 +0000
              Re: Deadly mushrooms in Australia nospam@de-ster.demon.nl (J. J. Lodder) - 2026-01-29 10:27 +0100
    Re: Deadly mushrooms in Australia occam <occam@nowhere.nix> - 2026-01-28 11:54 +0100
      Re: Deadly mushrooms in Australia nospam@de-ster.demon.nl (J. J. Lodder) - 2026-01-28 13:44 +0100
        Re: Deadly mushrooms in Australia occam <occam@nowhere.nix> - 2026-01-28 15:38 +0100
          Re: Deadly mushrooms in Australia nospam@de-ster.demon.nl (J. J. Lodder) - 2026-01-28 21:25 +0100
      Re: Deadly mushrooms in Australia Adam Funk <a24061@ducksburg.com> - 2026-01-28 14:59 +0000
        Re: Deadly mushrooms in Australia nospam@de-ster.demon.nl (J. J. Lodder) - 2026-01-28 21:25 +0100

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