Mars: A Tour of the Human Imagination

Eric S. Rabkin

Jun 2005 · Greenwood Publishing Group

About this ebook

What is Mars? From the ancients to the present, we have imagined Mars repeatedly and studied it longingly. As scientific knowledge of Mars has changed, so has the cultural imagination of this celestial neighbors. The earth-centered beginnings of astronomy connected the blood-red planet with the God of War. The Copernican Revolution and a later, simple mistranslation from Italian supported fantastic visions of distant Mars as the abode of life variously bizarre, ideal, or malignant. In the work of H. G. Wells and Orson Welles, in books, films, radio, and television, Mars reflected not only eternal hopes and fears but then-current political realities. In recent years, NASA-fication has brought Mars home, imagining the Red Planet almost as an eighth continent of Earth, a candidate for exploration and exploitation both in fiction and in fact. Rabkin weaves a chronological tale of many threads, including mythology, astrology, astronomy, literary criticism, and cultural studies.

About the author

ERIC S. RABKIN teaches in the Department of English at the University of Michigan. He is the author (and editor) of more than thirty books on science fiction and writing, including SCIENCE FICTION: A HISTORICAL ANTHOLOGY, SHADOWS OF THE MAGIC LAMP: FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION IN FILM, FOODS OF THE GODS: EATING AND THE EATEN IN FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION and more than 100 articles in scholarly and mainstream media.