Mars : a tour of the human imagination

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Mars : a tour of the human imagination

Eric S. Rabkin

Praeger, 2005

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Includes index

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Description

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.

Table of Contents

Preface Acknowledgments Red Light in the Black Sky Starry Night Ancient Egypt: Har Decher The Idealized Solar System What Was A Planet? Mesopotamia: Negral Ancient Greece: Ares Ancient Rome: Mars The Sunset of Mars Changes in Venus Metaphorical Mars Ptolemy The Observation of the Planets Astrological Symbols Days of the Week Alchemy The Mars Symbol Nicolaus Copernicus: Reorganizing the Universe Johannes Kepler: Putting Mars in Its Place Galileo Galilei: Questions of Authority Evangelista Torricelli: How Space Became Empty Christian Huygens: Other Earths? Giovanni Cassini: Very, Very Carefully Isaac Newton: One Big Universe Mars on Their Minds Jonathan Swift: Imaginary Travels William Herschel: Stars and Mars The Solar System Today Asaph Hall: The Sons of Mars Giovanni Schiaparelli: Gaining in Translation Camille Flammarion: Astrophile Extraordinaire Percival Lowell: A Glorious Obsession Percival Lowell: Mapping Mars and Martians H.G. Wells: The War of the Worlds H.G. Wells: Another View From Mars A World Ready to Believe Mark Wicks: A Lowellian Utopia Edgar Rice Burroughs: Mars and America Mars: The Bar vrom Barsoom Dead Mars? Orson Wells: The War of the Worlds Broadcast Marvin the Martian: Playing sith Aliens Ray Bradbury: An American Fairyland George Pal: The War of the Worlds Again Spacecraft: Us v. Them Off to Camp Chemosphere Robert A. Heinlein: The Martian Savior Enter NASA My Favorite Martian The Age of Aquarius The Face on Mars Mars Attacks! Leaving Earth Behind Mars Today Phobos and Deimos Today Men Are from Mars The Nasafication of Mars Mars: The Eighth Continent Marscape Terraforming Mars Red Rover Water on Mars Land of Spirit and Opportunity August, 2003 The Beagle Hasn't Landed A-Roving We Will Go

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