1956: Boris Artzybasheff Also Went to Mars

[beamjockey]

I am fascinated by the works of Boris Artzybasheff, despite his penchant for creepiness.

I've previously written about his illustrations of inhabitants of the Moon in 1958 and Buckminster Fuller's head in 1964.

For a Life spread about Mars in the September 24, 1956 issue, Artzybasheff showed us Martians portrayed in literature through the centuries.


The accompanying article:

A FANCIFUL PREVIEW TO NEW FACTS

To imaginative men Mars is a world teeming with bizarre life. In this fanciful drawing Boris Artzybasheff compiles an anthology of Martian monsters. In 1758 the Swedish mystic, Emanuel Swedenborg, reported he had talked to Martians, who were gentle, holy people dressed in tree bark. At lower left they stand with a fluid fire they invented. Nearby are a furred and feathered couple suggested in 1698 by Christian Huygens, who had discovered Syrtis Major (p. 38). At their feet cavort "little green men" of modern science fiction. Small, bearded Martians (left) with domesticated unicorns were created in 1880 by Writer Percy Greg. Warriors behind them were imagined by 17th Century Writer Bernardin de St. Pierre.

To give Martians light at night Writer Bernard de Fontenelle in 1686 dreamed up glowing mountains and luminescent birds. Soon after, Jonathan Swift and Voltaire prophetically chose an easier solution, moonlight from a pair of Martian moons (upper left and right).

After Astronomer Percival Lowell claimed Mars had artificial canals, others picked up his theme, adding graceful boats, cities, solar-powered pumping stations with huge mirrors and various styles of space ships (top). Sailing near the castlelike edifice at upper right are Martians invented by Olaf Stapledon. Ephemeral and cloudlike, they worship diamonds as symbols of rigidity, can turn into tentacled, many-eyed masses of jelly.

At left center are CS Lewis' penguin-otter-seal people who introduce themselves by barking "Hross." The glasslike plants behind them have their chemistry based on silicon instead of carbon, an idea used by various writers. The barrel-shaped monster in foreground is a food-pill-maker which spends its time gathering trash and converting it to food.

To the right of the plants are long-nosed half-ostrich people who leap 75 feet, land on their beaks.* In front are feathered Martians invented by HG Wells who also described a "low-gravity" forest (far right) filled with spindly animals.

Fancy will give way to fact next summer, after the 100,000 pictures of Mars taken this year are studied. An international symposium at Flagstaff will review the results, and these, one astronomer says, "may relegate to prehistory all earlier information on the subject."

*Although Life does not say so, these Martians are from Stanley G. Weinbaum's A Martian Odyssey. Edited to Add: In a comment below, tb_doc_smith suggests that the "barrel-shaped food-pill-maker" also comes from this story-- but that the pointy-beaked Tweel might not actually be a native Martian...

Comments

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

What happened in 1956 that was supposed to completely revolutionize our understanding of Mars? "100,000 pictures of Mars taken this year"? Was a major new telescope inaugurated?

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Mars was closer to Earth at opposition than it had been for several decades, a dandy chance to study it with telescopes and fancy high-tech instruments.

[richardthe23rd.livejournal.com]

If they know Weinbaum, then they're okay with me.

[eub.livejournal.com]

Ooh, prettiness.

[tb-doc-smith.livejournal.com]

IIRC, both Tweel (the "long-nosed ostrich people who leap 75 feet, land on their beaks") and the "barrel-shaped monster... a food-pill-maker which spends its time gathering trash and converting it to food" are from "A Martian Odyssey."

However, I've maintained for some time that Tweel is not from Mars. He even says so, though the narrator never figures it out. The narrator diagrams the solar system, showing his route from Earth to Mars. Tweel responds by backing up a tremendous distance, leaping into the air, and landing on his nose right in the diagram.

Conclusion: he's an interstellar traveler, possibly a castaway. Unfortunately, his human Man Friday gets rescued, so he's still out there on Mars, waiting for his ride home.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Interesting!