I finished two books in the last week or so. Bear with me as I try to explain something I found interesting.
The first book I finished was "The Martian Chronicles", a classic science fiction book written by the incomparable Ray Bradbury ("Fahrenheit 451") in 1950. The book is basically a series of connected short stories chronicling the colonization of Mars as the Earth descends into chaos, war and ultimate destruction. However, since most of the stories are told as they unfold on Mars, we are able only to imagine what must be taking place on the Earth (one of my favorite episodes, "Way in the Middle of the Air," however, takes place on Earth...it is a jarring episode with racial hate at its' core.)
Some of the stories/chapters unfold from the Martians' point of view, some from humans who settle into Mars with awe and respect, and some from humans who view Mars only as a place to conquer. Throughout the book, Bradbury creates an overall atmosphere of desperation, of a certain hopelessness and disconnect. There is a forlornness to the stories which never quite offset the beauty and wonder of the strange planet. In the end, though, as the novel circles back to where it began, there is hope, as well as love, and even though the novel ends in a bitter-sweet fashion, it avoids being overly depressing.
"The Road," written by Cormac McCarthy in 2006 (and lent to me by Scott Richards, bless his heart) is a post-apocalyptic novel which describes the journey of an unnamed father and son. The world that McCarthy paints is all but lifeless. No birds, few plants, no animals...nothing but dark skies, ash and dead trees and people. There are other survivors (from what, we are never told), but the father and son desperately try to avoid them as most of the people remaining seem to be cannibals who survive by eating one another (the quest for food is a driving force throughout the book.) The gist of the story is the father's quest to save his son from meeting such a fate, and to survive from one day to the next. Through encounters with other people who would do them harm, episodes of near starvation, and the daily herculean task to simply survive, it is the father's love for his son which takes center stage. Though dying and, at times, near despair, the father focuses all of his energy, and is motivated entirely by, his son.
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What I found interesting is that these two books really are quite similar. Written 56 years apart, they both speak to the human condition as the world slowly dies. They both present gripping, at times terrible, stories which cause the reader to reflect upon what it means to love and to live. Both authors write in a very terse, somewhat minimalistic fashion (McCarthy takes this pretty far...his dialog in the book is as if neither the father nor the son want to waste words.) Perhaps most centrally, both stories paint pictures of the good in us, the bad in us, and the struggle between the two that never ends.
"The Road" is an amazing book, written in fashion that makes it hard to forget. Ray Bradbury, well, he's one of the best writers, period, of the last century. I would highly recommend both books (even if Sci-Fi isn't your thing, you might give this one a try.)
Even better, read one and then the other and see if you don't agree that both books, in some tenuous and subtle way, tell a very similar story, perhaps different only in point of view.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008 at 12:01AM 
