In 1965, the Mariner 4 probe beamed images of the surface of Mars back to Earth. It showed a pocked, cratered ground more similar to the moon than to our home planet. While later probes would show more detail, Mariner essentially killed the notion of Mars being home to complex, intelligent life.
Killed it as science, anyway. In those terms it had been hanging by a thread already. In Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles a Martian character insists that there can't be life on Earth because there's too much oxygen in the atmosphere. The premise that aliens might consider paucity of oxygen a prerequisite for life is shows science fiction in the postwar era in the bargaining stage when it comes to life on Mars. But then, Bradbury was very much a storyteller rather than a scientist.
Other creatives were also having fun with the idea. Chuck Jones gave would-be destroyer Marvin the Martian Roman getup like the actual god Mars. And the Twilight Zone episode "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?" showed saboteurs from not only Mars but also Venus, soon to be revealed as a corrosive acid pit that even NASA probes can't survive.
The thought of having close alien neighbors who for whatever reason hadn't (openly) visited or invaded served a psychological need. It wasn't about to just evaporate.
1 comment:
Mars has been a topic of speculation for many centuries, far eclipsing 1965 when mankind finally got a closeup look at the place. Essentially, those stories relate to the worldwide mythological recognition of Mars and Venus as representing the God of War and the Goddess of Love respectively. It's interesting to consider how it is that the two planets closest to Earth in the Solar System have been identified having such universal human characteristics.
It seems only natural for us as imaginative creatures to find reason to believe in extraterrestrial life. If we're here then why aren't other beings on other rocky worlds around for us to talk to? Since it only took about a billion years for life to appear on Earth either we managed to get incredibly lucky, or given the right ingredients then life tends to happen. In the meantime writers and artists are free to invent aliens from Mars, Venus or even Alpha Centauri but in the long run the stories are always going to be about us.
This next is from Jer:
www.oldsportscards.com/mars-attacks-cards/
- came out when i was 13 (1962). my favorites were #21 & #36...
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