XPost: alt.usage.english, rec.arts.books, rec.arts.sf.misc   
   From: ldo@nz.invalid   
      
   On Mon, 2 Feb 2026 14:54:04 -0800, John Ames wrote:   
      
   > It'd be interesting to track the evolution of Mars in popular   
   > culture over time, as the accuracy of our astronomical observations   
   > improved. The "canals" were always a mistranslation from   
   > Schiaparelli's "canali," but I don't think the idea was conclusively   
   > debunked 'til the 1900s. Nevertheless, Burroughs's Barsoom is a   
   > dying, desert world, and Welles has implications of the same as the   
   > motive for his Martian invasion.   
      
   Well, Wells before Welles, anyway. ;)   
      
   The earlier half of the 20th century was full of depictions of the   
   other planets as being like exotic versions of far-flung parts of   
   Earth -- none of the need for this “space-suit” folderol. The plants   
   and animals might look like nothing on Earth, but they still were   
   basically plants and animals, of a sort. Basically an extension of the   
   “darkest Africa” and “exotic Asia” stories of the earlier century.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)