DIMENSION X - The Martian Chronicles (Ray Bradbury)

DIMENSION X
The Martian Chronicles
Aug 18, 1950
The Martian Chronicles is a novel assembled from short stories and other writings by Ray Bradbury. He assembled a decade of publications into a cohesive chronicle of mankind's move from Earth to Mars, tying the separate stories together with new events and characters to make them fit a larger narrative. It was published May 4, 1950 and by August Ernest Kinoy had an adaptation ready for radio.
Kinoy expertly abridges the 241 page novel into a half hour radio program, less than half an hour since the show has to be interrupted by Wheaties ads to pay for the production. The novel has meandering threads and subplots, but Kinoy is able to present Bradbury's bigger picture of humanity's vices and virtues, and how they play out in a world where there is a possibility of running away from troubles, leaving Earth and starting over.
The protagonist of the story in humanity itself, and we see the ourselves in the various characters who demonstrate the continuum of human characteristics, and the twist ending is surprisingly unexpected.
HISTORICAL GLOSSARY
In the middle of winter in Ohio the day becomes warm and Billy says, "But it isn't cold, it's warm outside. It's rocket summer." When his mom asks him what he means he responds, "You know, like Indian Summer." That is a term for several weeks of warm weather that occurs after the first frost of winter. It is sometimes called "second summer". The internet gives many conflicting and somewhat absurd definitions of why it is called Indian Summer. In the elementary schools of Southern California in the 1970's children were taught that the term came from the fact that the Native Americans could often predict such weather patterns and would get a second harvest in, while the settlers left their fields empty and missed this opportunity to gather extra food. Therefore, to the settlers it was still fall, but to the Indians it was summer.
When people emigrated to Mars, the story tells us that some were motivated by a desire to "escape from the smell of the subways and the cabbage tenements." Cabbage is cheap and nutritious, and smells pungent when cooked. Tenements are run down overcrowded high-rise apartments. The poor who lived in these tenements stereotypically cooked cabbage since they couldn't afford anything else. So to call an apartment complex a tenement was to say it was run-down but to add the adjective "cabbage" described the place more specifically as filled with people who were barely surviving.
The family in Ohio, in their "smart home" enjoy breakfast and "...the facsimile machine clacked and deposited the morning paper on the table. A facsimile machine, or FAX machine, uses landline telephone wires to send images, and that includes images of printed text. In the 1950s they were very large, like half the size of a dining table, and were not available to the public for personal use. They were mostly found in military settings. It wasn't until the 1980s that they became common in office settings. In the 1950s the latest news was printed on paper and delivered to homes each morning, or only on Sunday, depending on the type of subscription the person signed up for. Ray Bradbury imagines that a futuristic home would receive their newspaper through a FAX machine.
If you would like a FREE copy of the script that myself and Robert Hoffman worked so hard to create... just ask: [e-mail].

[@sandeakilpatrick2386]

I enjoyed it a lot. Thank you!

[@insights2reality100]

Your welcome! I am always so encouraged when I get views the same day I post it. I appreciate you watching it :)

[@zlmat]

Oh yeee