# "The Martian Chronicles" is either a clumsy fix-up or a brilliant satire, and I'm not sure which but maybe it's both: A very belated book report **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [April 6, 2026, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-chronicles-is-either-a-clumsy-fix-up-or-a-brilliant-satire-and-im-not-sure-which-but-maybe-its-both-a-very-belated-book-report/1029062 "2026-04-06T12:31:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-chronicles-is-either-a-clumsy-fix-up-or-a-brilliant-satire-and-im-not-sure-which-but-maybe-its-both-a-very-belated-book-report/1029062/81 "2026-04-09T16:18:23Z")
ONE of the oldest, I would agree. Though some of the “New Wave” SF writing of the 60s & 70s is starting to feel a bit dated nowdays, wouldn’t you think? ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-chronicles-is-either-a-clumsy-fix-up-or-a-brilliant-satire-and-im-not-sure-which-but-maybe-its-both-a-very-belated-book-report/1029062/82 "2026-04-09T16:22:55Z")
The “new wave” is not so new anymore. ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-chronicles-is-either-a-clumsy-fix-up-or-a-brilliant-satire-and-im-not-sure-which-but-maybe-its-both-a-very-belated-book-report/1029062/83 "2026-04-09T16:29:51Z")
Very true. Like ‘New Wave’ in music just after the punk era. Every revolution has a backlash depicting itself as taking the New Ideas but melding the best of them with the old traditions. Not necessarily a bad thing, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-chronicles-is-either-a-clumsy-fix-up-or-a-brilliant-satire-and-im-not-sure-which-but-maybe-its-both-a-very-belated-book-report/1029062/84 "2026-04-09T16:56:42Z")
> [@Hermione1](#): > > It makes a bit more sense when you consider that the _F451_ we know was published in 1953, and its first draft, the novella “The Fireman”, was published in 1950. That was only five to eight years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and I’m assuming the widespread aftereffects of nuclear weapons weren’t generally known at that point. Not at all. Hersey’s _Hiroshima_ made the effects of the bomb well known indeed, and if you read the many sf stories from that time about a final war you’ll see the effects were well understood. I was born about then, and I can assure you that even if I didn’t know the technical details of the impact of the bomb, I sure knew not to go into radioactive zones. Bradbury was not one to let scientific accuracy get in the way of poetic truth. He probably did better that way. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-chronicles-is-either-a-clumsy-fix-up-or-a-brilliant-satire-and-im-not-sure-which-but-maybe-its-both-a-very-belated-book-report/1029062/85 "2026-04-09T17:56:35Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > WRONG. They all abandon Mars and go back to Earth to join the war effort. People are weird. I remember how shocked I was to learn that most of the survivors of Shackelton’s expedition, after surviving 2 years on the ice, enlisted to fight in WW1. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-chronicles-is-either-a-clumsy-fix-up-or-a-brilliant-satire-and-im-not-sure-which-but-maybe-its-both-a-very-belated-book-report/1029062/86 "2026-04-09T18:05:39Z")
Once you know you’re immortal, why not? The Somme sounds like paradise compared to what they’d just endured. Besides, being a red-shirt on Shackleton’s expedition didn’t pay very well. They needed work and the Army was hiring. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-chronicles-is-either-a-clumsy-fix-up-or-a-brilliant-satire-and-im-not-sure-which-but-maybe-its-both-a-very-belated-book-report/1029062/87 "2026-04-09T19:10:21Z")
> [@JohnnyEcks](#): > > Bradbury didn’t write science fiction, or even science fantasy- he wrote science fables. Either a sort of Fantasy or Speculative Fiction is closer. Not really Science Fiction. What bugged the hell out of me is that is school, Bradbury was always the example given for reading 'science fiction" altho it really isnt. For example Fahrenheit 451- often required reading and not a bad story- but NOT Science Fiction- altho closer than many Martian stories. Bradbury himself said > **[Ray Bradbury](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Bradbury)** > > Ray Douglas Bradbury (.mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}US: /ˈbrædbɛri/ BRAD-berr-ee; August 22, 1920 – June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and realistic fiction. > Bradbu... > Bradbury was once described as a “[Midwest](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwest) [surrealist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrealism)” and is often labeled a science-fiction writer. He resisted that categorization, however, defining science fiction as “the art of the possible.”[[37]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Bradbury#cite_note-37)[[38]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Bradbury#cite_note-38) > > > First of all, I don’t write science fiction. I’ve only done one science fiction book and that’s _[Fahrenheit 451](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451)_, based on reality. Science fiction is a depiction of the real. Fantasy is a depiction of the unreal. So _[Martian Chronicles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martian_Chronicles)_ is not science fiction, it’s fantasy. It couldn’t happen, you see? That’s the reason it’s going to be around a long time—because it’s a [Greek myth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_myth), and myths have staying power.[[39]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Bradbury#cite_note-39) > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Bradbury is his own genre, but if you must classify him do so as a horror writer who hated science and the modern world. One of his best stories, “All Summer in a Day,” looks like sf, as it’s set on Venus, and is a riff on the same subject as Asimov’s “Nightfall,” but it’s repurposed horror. So are many of the stories in _The Martian Chronicles_, which portray seeming utopias that prove to be nightmares. Interesting point. ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-chronicles-is-either-a-clumsy-fix-up-or-a-brilliant-satire-and-im-not-sure-which-but-maybe-its-both-a-very-belated-book-report/1029062/88 "2026-04-09T20:04:17Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Either a sort of Fantasy or Speculative Fiction is closer. Not really Science Fiction. What bugged the hell out of me is that in school, Bradbury was always the example given for reading 'science fiction" altho it really isnt. Yes, as I said: English teachers loved him. Because, I guess, his language was so ‘poetic’ as opposed to those other clunky writers like Asimov who didn’t use an adjective or adverb in every phrase and just told the story. There IS a place for poetic science fantasy: Cordwainer Smith is unparalleled. His work has a flavor unlike anything else, IMHO. But it’s a different place. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-chronicles-is-either-a-clumsy-fix-up-or-a-brilliant-satire-and-im-not-sure-which-but-maybe-its-both-a-very-belated-book-report/1029062/89 "2026-04-09T20:05:31Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Either a sort of Fantasy or Speculative Fiction is closer. Not really Science Fiction. What bugged the hell out of me is that is school, Bradbury was always the example given for reading 'science fiction" altho it really isnt. When I was buying his books in the late 1960s-early 1970s the covers read “The Dean of Science Fiction”, which isn’t really true. Besides, Heinlein’s paperbacks called HIM the “Dean of Science Fiction”. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-chronicles-is-either-a-clumsy-fix-up-or-a-brilliant-satire-and-im-not-sure-which-but-maybe-its-both-a-very-belated-book-report/1029062/90 "2026-04-09T20:48:51Z")
> [@xtenkfarpl](#): > > Yes, as I said: English teachers loved him. Because, I guess, his language was so ‘poetic’ as opposed to those other clunky writers like Asimov who didn’t use an adjective or adverb in every phrase and just told the story. I mean, science fiction literature is _literature_, just like any other genre. It needs to be well-written - it doesn’t get to be graded on a curve because the writer happens to know physics. Prose, characters, themes, story: these things are perquisites, not bonuses. I guess that’s why New Wave has always been my jam. The only pre-1963 writer I can still bear to read is Jack Vance, who was never really one of them (although this thread is making me want to look into Cordwainer Smith, too). ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-chronicles-is-either-a-clumsy-fix-up-or-a-brilliant-satire-and-im-not-sure-which-but-maybe-its-both-a-very-belated-book-report/1029062/91 "2026-04-09T21:28:08Z")
But Martin replaced Bradbury with Bester - a wonderful writer, but hardly a hard-sf guy. He was more proto-New-Wave than nostalgic Bradbury ever was. Martin just has his preferences, no more based on principles than anyone else’s (except for me - my preferences are purely objective!) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-chronicles-is-either-a-clumsy-fix-up-or-a-brilliant-satire-and-im-not-sure-which-but-maybe-its-both-a-very-belated-book-report/1029062/92 "2026-04-09T21:42:42Z")
The local public middle school goes straight from Steinbeck to Bradbury. I sort of wonder if they’re trying to drive up the teen suicide rate. And yes, I know that not all of Bradbury is depressing, but the ones they picked for school reading sure are, and when Bradbury does depressing, he really does it. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-chronicles-is-either-a-clumsy-fix-up-or-a-brilliant-satire-and-im-not-sure-which-but-maybe-its-both-a-very-belated-book-report/1029062/93 "2026-04-09T22:08:14Z")
Wait, didn’t he say “Clarke, Asimov and Heinlein”? In the original Latin-American Spanish at least, I seem to remember him saying that. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-chronicles-is-either-a-clumsy-fix-up-or-a-brilliant-satire-and-im-not-sure-which-but-maybe-its-both-a-very-belated-book-report/1029062/94 "2026-04-09T22:11:31Z")
IMHO the way literature is taught in schools (the world over it seems) it’s wrong wrong wrong. You take a barely literate child and force feed him Bradbury, Steinbeck, Garcia Marquez, Borges, etc… when they should be reading Harry Potter or Dungeon Crawler Carl, things that are easy to read so they get hooked on reading, _then_ you can start them on more difficult works. The way it’s currently done children are convinced at an early age that reading is a boring, difficult _chore_. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-chronicles-is-either-a-clumsy-fix-up-or-a-brilliant-satire-and-im-not-sure-which-but-maybe-its-both-a-very-belated-book-report/1029062/95 "2026-04-09T22:23:31Z")
Nope - Asimov, Bester, Clarke - whom he calls the A, B, Cs of science fiction - which leads to the question about Ray ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-chronicles-is-either-a-clumsy-fix-up-or-a-brilliant-satire-and-im-not-sure-which-but-maybe-its-both-a-very-belated-book-report/1029062/96 "2026-04-09T22:25:38Z")
I’ve always thought so. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-chronicles-is-either-a-clumsy-fix-up-or-a-brilliant-satire-and-im-not-sure-which-but-maybe-its-both-a-very-belated-book-report/1029062/97 "2026-04-09T22:27:35Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The local public middle school goes straight from Steinbeck to Bradbury. I sort of wonder if they’re trying to drive up the teen suicide rate. > [@Frodo](#): > > The way it’s currently done children are convinced at an early age that reading is a boring, difficult _chore_. Yeah, we didn’t do Bradbury but had far too much exposure to Steinbeck’s worst exercises in depression. Literature in grade school was a pretty mixed bag for me. On the one To Kill a Mockingbird was a little grim but captivating - an excellent book for HS students to get exposure to. On the other I never saw the point of forcing me to slog through Milton’s Paradise Lost. Also Thomas “It-Can-Always-Get-Worse” Hardy can fuck right off. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-chronicles-is-either-a-clumsy-fix-up-or-a-brilliant-satire-and-im-not-sure-which-but-maybe-its-both-a-very-belated-book-report/1029062/98 "2026-04-09T22:30:28Z")
They made us read _Crime and Punishment, the Stranger_ and _1984_ in the same year in high school. It’s a wonder any of us survived. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-chronicles-is-either-a-clumsy-fix-up-or-a-brilliant-satire-and-im-not-sure-which-but-maybe-its-both-a-very-belated-book-report/1029062/99 "2026-04-09T22:32:41Z")
Yeah, To Kill a Mockingbird is the greatest work of American literature, and should definitely be taught in schools. Thankfully I never had to read Milton or Hardy, but I did have to read Hemmingway. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-chronicles-is-either-a-clumsy-fix-up-or-a-brilliant-satire-and-im-not-sure-which-but-maybe-its-both-a-very-belated-book-report/1029062/100 "2026-04-09T23:02:57Z")
I rewatched the latin-american version, in it Martin says “Asimov!, Master! (not Bester), Clarke!”, so probably a mistake by the voice actors or a translator that did not know about Alfred Bester. And nothing about an “ABC” either. I must have mentally replaced “Master” with Heinlein in the years since I saw that episode. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-chronicles-is-either-a-clumsy-fix-up-or-a-brilliant-satire-and-im-not-sure-which-but-maybe-its-both-a-very-belated-book-report/1029062.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-martian-chronicles-is-either-a-clumsy-fix-up-or-a-brilliant-satire-and-im-not-sure-which-but-maybe-its-both-a-very-belated-book-report/1029062.md?page=6)