The Power of the Martian Chronicles Essay -- Martian Chronicles Essays

The Power of the Martian Chronicles The Martian Chronicles is a collection of short stories by Ray Bradbury These stories all relate to the idea of humans visiting mars, but are only connected by the loosest of threads. At times, it can appear as if Bradbury was grasping mercilessly, searching for something to draw together the random conglomeration of human situations his mind had created individually. The entity that embraced all these stories and melded them from half-hour kiddy-show format stories into a great two-hour special consume novel was the forth planet from the sun, earths neighbor and Bradburys stage for The Martian Chronicles, mars. This association of a foreign planet and Bradburys reputation as a science assembly author immediately identified The Martian Chronicles as a work of science fiction. Decades later, in an essay on the novel, Edward S Gallagher (Gallagher 55-82) said that The Martian Chronicles is ace of those acknowledged science fiction masterpieces. Bradbury was breaking new grounds, creating respect for science fiction as a literary genre that would be admired by those involved in the literary establishment (Marowski and Matiz 321.) The blue and orange cover of the paperback version of the book depicted characters more reminiscent of Fantasy & scholarship fiction magazines artwork than of Bradburys vague descriptions of his Martians. Whilst The Martian Chronicles was being shelved in the science fiction section of libraries and bookstores everywhere, die-hard science fiction fans and literary critics scratched their heads. They pushed up their heavyset glasses and straightened their pocket protectors whilst collectively wondered why this... ...ri Gale -Research Company, 1987. p 321. Card, Orson Scott How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy. upstart York Writers Digest -Books, 2001. p 11. Clute, John Science Fiction Illustrated Encyclopedia. capital of the United Kingdom Dorling Kindersley, 19 95. -pp 201-203. Sullivan, Anita T Ray Bradbury and Fantasy English Journal. December 1972 pp -1809-14. Bradbury, Ray Ray Bradbury Poet of Fantastical Fiction Science Fiction Voices 2. -1979 pp 20-9. Pell, Sarah-Warner Style is the man Imagery in Bradburys Fiction Ray Bradbury. -1980 pp 180-194. Knight, Damon When I was in knee pants Ray Bradbury Search of Wonder Critical -Essays on Science Fiction. New York Advent Publishers, 1967. pp 108-13. Levin, Martin The Machineries of Joy, The New York Times Book Review. February -16, 1964 pp 38-9.