For more than a century, Mars has been at the center of debates about humanity's place in the cosmos. Focusing on perceptions of the red planet in scientific works and science fiction, Dying Planet analyzes the ways Mars has served as a screen onto...
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For more than a century, Mars has been at the center of debates about humanity's place in the cosmos. Focusing on perceptions of the red planet in scientific works and science fiction, Dying Planet analyzes the ways Mars has served as a screen onto which humankind has projected both its hopes for the future and its fears of ecological devastation on Earth. Robert Markley draws on planetary astronomy, the history and cultural study of science, science fiction, literary and cultural criticism, ecology, and astrobiology to offer a cross-disciplinary investigation of the cultural and scientific dy
Includes bibliographical references (p. [405]-435) and index
Electronic reproduction; Available via World Wide Web
Contents; Acknowledgments; Introduction; ''A Situation in Many Respects Similar to OurOwn'': Mars and the Limits of Analogy; Lowell and the Canal Controversy: Marsat the Limits of Vision; ""Different Beyond the Most Bizarre Omaginings of Nightmare"":Mars in Science Fiction, 1880-1913; Lichens on Mars: Planetary Science and theLimits of Knowledge; Mars at the Limits of Imagination: The DyingPlanet from Burroughs to Dick; The Missions to Mars: Mariner, Viking, andthe Reinvention of a World; Transforming Mars, Transforming ''Man'':Science Fiction in the Space Age
Mars at the Turn of a New CenturyFalling into Theory: Terraformation and Eco-Economicsin Kim Stanley Robinson's Martian Trilogy; Epilogue: 2005; Notes; Works Cited; Index
