# "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:** 6
**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, 11:45pm 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/1029062/101 "2026-04-09T23:45:33Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > 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”. I agree with both counts- Bradbury may be a great writer 9or not) but he most certainly is not “the Dean of SF” and RAH certainly qualifies. > [@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. Good point. > [@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. > > 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. Not all of Steinbeck is depressing but man, he could depress a hyena. I just checks his novellas, often taught in Scholls- all depressing. Bradbury- sigh. > [@Frodo](#): > > 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. While i agree with the first part, the child should get some of Twains shorter works (or excerpts from Tom Sawyer, etc), or Edgar Eager (Half Magic, Time garden, etc), maybe even Narnia. I like Harry Potter, but those books are THICK. > [@Chronos](#): > > Yeah, To Kill a Mockingbird is the greatest work of American literature, and should definitely be taught in schools. I say Huckleberry Finn, but both are High School books. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 11:55pm 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/1029062/102 "2026-04-09T23:55:39Z")
I am one of the few people in the world who has subjected themselves to the misery of reading every mainstream newspaper and magazine article on science fiction through the 1950s. More misery than tedium, as the number of such stories that mentioned the field in any other context than possible submissions to pulp magazines probably could be counted on one had before WWII. _Time_ ran a piece on the field in 1939, two years into John Campbell’s reign. > Scientifiction’s fans, mostly boys of 16 to 20, are the jitterbugs of the pulp magazine field. Many keep every issue, and a copy of the magazine’s first issue often fetches $25 from collectors. Publishers soon discovered another odd fact about their readers: They are exceptionally articulate. Most of these magazines have letters columns, in which readers appraise stories. Sample: “Gosh! Wow! Boyoh-boy!, and so forth and so on. Yesiree, yesiree, it’s the greatest in the land and the best that’s on the stand, and I do mean THRILLING WONDER STORIES, and especially that great, magnificent, glorious, most thrilling June issue of the mosta and the besta of science fiction magazines.” Condescending as that might be, it wasn’t completely wrong. SF readers were primarily boys of 16-20, with an entry age of around 13. (The Golden Age of science fiction is 13, as the saying goes.) SF was meant to be young adult fiction. Except for a fraction of Campbell’s authors, the writers wrote young adult prose. While YA can at rare moments be literature, the vast majority of it never has been or been intended to. No other genre, mysteries, westerns, romance, the Big Three at the time, would tolerate such awful writing. SF was read for ideas, thinly slathered with bad prose and flat characters. Ideas went a long way and carried the field for decades. Fortunately for sf, that notion has been mostly squashed. But so has hard sf. Superheroes, fantasy, and horror have crushed it. Since I’m not a teenager any more, I’m glad. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2026, 12:04am 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/1029062/103 "2026-04-10T00:04:03Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > No other genre, mysteries, westerns, romance, the Big Three at the time, would tolerate such awful writing. Altho I agree with much of your well written post here, I have read quite a bit of pulp mysteries and some pulp westerns, and they were just as bad if not worse than Pulp SF. And those cheapo bodice ripper romances are even worse. Have you read any Doc Savage or other Pulp heroes? ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2026, 12:22am 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/1029062/104 "2026-04-10T00:22:13Z")
> [@xtenkfarpl](#): > > 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. That’s odd; all the English teachers I’ve ever heard from are trying to [tamp down on adjectives and adverbs](https://www.septembercfawkes.com/2015/02/how-to-break-writing-rules-right-dont.html#:~:text=1). They’d rather see a story told through vigorous verbs and specific nouns. Where are you finding English teachers with a preference for adjectives and adverbs? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2026, 12:44am 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/1029062/105 "2026-04-10T00:44:48Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Have you read any Doc Savage or other Pulp heroes? I’ve read many pulps of all descriptions. I stand by my statement. Pre-war pulp SF was worse than other genres. Pulp magazines weren’t the only outlet. Genre novels were published in hardback by the hundreds. SF couldn’t meet the minimum standards for publication. Only a handful saw mainstream releases. Philip Wylie was by far the most recognized sf writer in the country because of his novels, including _Gladiator_, a major inspiration for Superman. I don’t think he ever published in sf magazines, but his “The Paradise Crater,” published in the prestige fiction pulp _Blue Book_ in the October 1945 issue, is probably the single finest extrapolation of a future society in the 1940s. Not much characterization but a beautifully worked out and coherent near future (except for the atomic bombs which he couldn’t know any real information about at the time of writing). And I’m not a Wylie fan. > [@Johanna](#): > > Where are you finding English teachers with a preference for adjectives and adverbs? The same place they’re finding no adjectives and adverbs in Asimov? Hemingway he wasn’t. ---
**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 10, 2026, 12:47am 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/1029062/106 "2026-04-10T00:47:45Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > being a red-shirt on Shackleton’s expedition Nitpick, none of Shackleton’s crew died. ---
**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 10, 2026, 12:51am 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/1029062/107 "2026-04-10T00:51:14Z")
Random quote from Asimov with adverbs and adjectives highlighted. > Theremon was experienced enough in _worldly_ things to understand that no amount of _smooth_ talk was persuasive enough to break through barriers that were so **determinedly** maintained. He had long ago decided that no _worthwhile_ woman could ever be seduced; you could present the possibility to them, but you had to leave it **ultimately** to them to do the seducing for you, and if they weren’t so minded, there was very little you could do to change their outlook. And with Siferra, things had been sliding in the wrong direction for him all year long. She had turned on him **ferociously** —and with some justification, he thought **ruefully** —once he began his _misguided_ campaign of mockery against Athor and the Observatory group ---
**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 10, 2026, 12:53am 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/1029062/108 "2026-04-10T00:53:57Z")
I don’t think it’s so much that English teachers are on a campaign against adjectives and adverbs, but just that overuse of them is a very common mistake, which they’re trying to moderate. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2026, 12:55am 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/1029062/109 "2026-04-10T00:55:32Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I don’t think it’s so much that English teachers are on a campaign against adjectives and adverbs, but just that overuse of them is a very common mistake, Time to start teaching kids Lovecraft, then. 🙂 ---
**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 10, 2026, 1:10am 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/1029062/110 "2026-04-10T01:10:58Z")
That would be unimaginable, innominable, aberrant, abominable, bizarre, chaotic, deformed, diseased, eldritch, foul, ghastly, grotesque, loathsome… ---
**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 10, 2026, 1:18am 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/1029062/111 "2026-04-10T01:18:11Z")
True. And if any had, those would not be the folks enlisting in the British Army after they returned. Maybe sloppy slang on my part, but my intent was that these folks were seen as, and saw themselves as, expendable laborers on the expedition. They were not scientists or renowned explorers. Once back home in Britain, they needed to find working class jobs for their working class selves. Which in that era included many actively dangerous jobs where workers were largely considered expendable. In that milieu someone enlisting in the Army to go fight the jolly much looked-forward to little tiff in Europe that eventually became WW-I would be right in character. It was only a year or 2 later that the true horror of WW-I would penetrate the common public consciousness. ---
**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 10, 2026, 1:23am 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/1029062/112 "2026-04-10T01:23:15Z")
Concur across the board, I just remember being stunned at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2026, 10:55am 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/1029062/113 "2026-04-10T10:55:18Z")
> [@Frodo](#): > > That would be unimaginable, innominable, aberrant, abominable, bizarre, chaotic, deformed, diseased, eldritch, foul, ghastly, grotesque, loathsome… How could you leave out “squamous” and “gibbous”? Can’t have a Lovecraft story without a gibbous moon. ---
**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 10, 2026, 11:06am 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/1029062/114 "2026-04-10T11:06:51Z")
And _batrachian_ ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2026, 11:08am 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/1029062/115 "2026-04-10T11:08:37Z")
You need to work _cyclopean_ in there, too. ---
**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 10, 2026, 11:20am 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/1029062/116 "2026-04-10T11:20:00Z")
Not to mention _squamous_. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2026, 12:00pm 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/1029062/117 "2026-04-10T12:00:58Z")
“I already said squamous.” “I like squamous.” ---
**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 10, 2026, 12:04pm 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/1029062/118 "2026-04-10T12:04:12Z")
Because I started writing them from memory and then took the rest from an alphabetical list of Lovecraftian adjectives I found on the net and I took the first 11… _hangs heads in shame_ ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2026, 2:41pm 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/1029062/119 "2026-04-10T14:41:31Z")
For many people Space = Science Fiction, but what they are doing in space is everything. If the story isn’t concerned about the human implications of technology it’s just a setting. Star Wars for instance is opera in space. But Space Fable is a new one I had not considered and yet fits perfectly for MC. ---
**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 10, 2026, 2:43pm 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/1029062/120 "2026-04-10T14:43:36Z")
Star Wars is fantasy, not SF, it even starts “A long time ago in a ~~kingdom~~ galaxy far far away”… [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=5) [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=7)