XPost: alt.usage.english, rec.arts.books, rec.arts.sf.misc   
   From: thetruemelissa@gmail.com   
      
   Verily, in article <10ndqrk$1pg48$2@dont-email.me>, did ldo@nz.invalid   
   deliver unto us this message:   
   > 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.   
      
   The interplanetary settings let writers get crazier, though. For   
   instance, Barsoom no longer had a stable atmosphere, and a single air   
   factory pumped out enough breathable air for the whole planet. The far-   
   flung areas don't seem to be aware of this, and nobody ever got around   
   to creating a backup system -- when the air-maker and his apprentice   
   happened to die at once, the whole planet started smothering.   
      
   You can't set *that* level of nonsense in darkest Africa or the exotic   
   Orient.   
      
      
   --   
   The True Melissa - Canal Winchester - Ohio   
   United States of America - North America - Earth   
   Solar System - Milky Way - Local Group   
   Virgo Cluster - Laniakea Supercluster - Cosmos   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)