I have to admit – A Princess of Mars has been my favourite text to analyse so far, because it's easy to digest pulp science fiction, and more of a page-turner than the previously assigned reads (long epistolary works are my kryptonite).
Serialized in 1912, it's remarkably
still on par with contemporary speculative fiction; though in a way
that's quite disappointing because it's a classic rescue the princess
story; where the focus is on the adventures of men. My mother read
the Barsoom series and others growing up, and said she used to think
she must be a boy, because girls never went on adventures in any of
the stories she read. That's changed less in the last century than
I'd hope for, as you may have inferred from my many tirades on that
topic, over at my other blog.
Still, there's always been something
I've loved about the sub-genre of planetary romance. The naturalistic
themes of exploring alien worlds always lures me in, and all the
descriptions of yellow lichens and mastodons were quite enjoyable,
being that I am quite unashamedly a total natural history geek. I
nearly wrote my essay on that, but it would have resulted in a
rambling discussion filled with rabbit trails on the representations
of familiar and alien nature in the planetary romance sub-genre
involving the yellow lichens of Barsoom, the forest moon of Endor,
and Delta Vega; the planet of the ice monsters.
Earthly Elements in A
Princess of Mars
A Princess of
Mars constructs an analogous relationship between the ancient
history of Mars to contemporary life on Earth, by integrating Earthly
elements into the Martian world. The futuristic analogy of Mars for
Earth explores the possibility of a dystopian future, and draws
readers into considering how human culture can survive cataclysmic
events; and the role of science (as salvation, and as a means of
understanding life and culture on other worlds) in humanity's future.
Even before Carter's adventure on Mars
begins, a clear relationship is drawn between the landscapes of Earth
and Mars, with the scenery of Arizona foreshadowing the ancient and
barren world:
“...the grotesque details of
the stiff, yet beautiful cacti form a picture at once enchanting and
inspiring; as though one were catching for the first time a glimpse
of some dead and forgotten world...”
During
his Martian adventure, Carter makes further discoveries of
similarities between the ancient history of Mars, and present life on
Earth. An ancient mural depicts how life on Mars once was, with
“...scenes which might have portrayed Earthly views but for the
different colorings of the vegetation.” Clear relationships are
also drawn between the ancient “higher” Martian people, and
those of Earth's present. The familiar identifier of “human” is
applied to all, and the ancient “higher” Martians are revealed
to have been similar in appearance to different races of Earth.
The
similarities between these planets at different stages of their
history establishes the precedent for a world like Earth to suffer a
cataclysmic ecological event, for which scientific advancement is the
only means for survival (as it was on Mars, to prevent total climate
failure). Ultimately this analogy inspires speculation on the
futuristic role of science, and fulfills the key purpose of a
science fiction story: to speculate on what may come to pass in the
future, and explore the “undiscovered country” of futuristic life
(Powell 2009).
References
Powell,
G. L. 2009. The Role Of Science Fiction.
(accessed
March 19, 2013).
