The Future Is Now: Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles

If Dr. Seuss had written a summary of The Martian Chronicles, this would be it:
A human’s a human, no matter how far,
And humans kill people, wherever they are.

Oh, and also:
The Martians are right to distrust every human,
And so was the earthling who killed all his crewmen.

And maybe even:
When we blow up the earth with a nuclear war,
There’s no need to be glum—there are eight planets more!

A great bedtime story for today’s kids.

From Fiction to Fact

I first read The Martian Chronicles about 25 years ago, and it made me sad. But I finished reading it again last week, and now I think it’s just plain spooky. Seriously, Bradbury must have had some sort of prophetic powers when he wrote books like this. He saw the trajectory of human technology and conflict leading to nuclear war that ends in the annihilation of humanity.

True, his science fiction doesn’t paint a rosy picture. But the scary part is that today, it’s more science than fiction. With SpaceX’s dreams quickly approaching reality, our future on Mars is more probable than ever. Personally, though, I’m not sure why we’d want to go mess up Mars. We haven’t even finished messing up Earth yet! Granted, we’re trying our best, but these things take time.

Familiar Struggles in The Martian Chronicles

The book begins by looking at the troubled marriage of a Martian couple. Their civilization is more advanced and refined than modern-day Earth’s, but the couple has the same conflicts that humans do—jealousy, suspicion, and adultery, to name a few. Then, when the first earthmen come to explore Mars, the husband kills them on the spot. The next envoy fares no better: they’re considered insane and are eventually shot. The third expedition unravels as the humans fight amongst each other, with one man shooting several other crewmen before being hunted down and banished himself.

It doesn’t get any better after that. People leave earth to escape cruelty, war, and injustice, but they find it waiting for them on Mars. How? Because it came with them in the rockets. Where there are people, there will be sin. In fact, Bradbury posits that where there are sentient beings, there will be sin. Remember the Martian couple.

I won’t spoil the whole storyline for you, but the second-to-last chapter, called “August, 2026,” is probably the most haunting of the book. Back in California, a fully-automated human house continues through its daily routine of cooking food, cleaning up, setting out entertainment, and reading poetry. It runs despite the fact that the only traces of its human inhabitants are five silhouettes in the atomic ash blast on the house’s siding—the father mowing, the mother tending flowers, and the two children tossing a ball.

But the house, like Earth, just keeps going. Bradbury underscores his thesis when the house’s Alexa-equivalent quotes a poem called “There Will Come Soft Rains” by Sara Teasdale, which calmly states that nature wouldn’t even notice if humanity annihilated itself in war. Finally, even the automatic house burns down in a malfunction, but time marches on. The final words of the chapter show time’s indifference to human fate as the house’s speaker repeats, “Today is August 5, 2026, today is August 5, 2026, today is…”

Most News Is Bad News

This book is depressing, but reality isn’t much better. The more I listen to the news, the more I wish I didn’t. Biological weapons, nuclear bombs, escalating tensions, and erratic leaders make me worried about the future. Not my future, per se, but my kids’ future.

Reading a book like The Martian Chronicles in conjunction with a regular diet of bad news can lead to anxiety and fear. But as a believer in Jesus, I’m thankful to know that this world is not the end. We don’t have to move to Mars to start over. God tells us that, after this earth goes up in flames, He will remake the world without war, evil, and death.

The Good News

Revelation 21:1, 3-5 says,

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”

If fiction (or fact) has your anxiety skyrocketing, take a step back and seek the Prince of Peace. No matter what Elon Musk tells you, hoping for Earth II on Mars is nothing compared with the hope of eternity with your Creator.