Martian
From The Black Vault Encyclopedia Project
The word Martian is applied to a hypothetical native inhabitant of the planet Mars. Historically, life on Mars has often been hypothesized, and the notion that the planet harbours or once harboured life continues to the present day, having such proponents as Courtney Brown. While it is possible that there is or once was life on Mars, there are no scientific data to support the notion.
The idea of intelligent Martians was popularized by Percival Lowell and in fiction, especially by Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter (Barsoom) Series, H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds and Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles. Despite the observation by Alfred Wallace that Mars' atmosphere was too thin to support an Earth-like ecology, various depictions of a Martian civilization were popular throughout the 20th century. The first pictures of Mars returned by space probes dashed hopes of contacting Martians, although dubious claims of past Martian civilizations have continued into the twenty-first century. (See face on Mars for one such claim.)
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Wells' Martians
In The War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells describes the Martians as octopus-like creatures; the "body" consists of only a head with eyes, v-shaped lipless mouth, and two brunches with a total of 16 tentacles. They have no male or female differences; a Martian is born by "budding" off its parent. The Martians also consist of just a brain, lungs, heart and blood vessels; they had no organs for digestion. The ear, located in the back of the head, was believed to have been useless in our atmosphere.
Wells also mentions that, apparently, there were two distinct species of Martians. One is the species that attacks Earth and the second (briefly described) appears to have existed only as a source of nutrition for the superior race (much like the relation between the Eloi and Morlocks in Wells' novel The Time Machine). Skeletons of the subordinate race were recovered in the Martians' transport cylinders. This species was bipedal and similar to humans. Since the Martians had no digestive track, they were able to sustain themselves by injecting blood from this sub-race directly into their veins. Two or three of these creatures were brought by the Martians and were killed before they landed. This explains why the Martians seemed to prefer the blood of humans.
Many adaptations of the Wells novel also incorporate Martians as the invading race, though with some descriptive differences (such as the Martian from the 1953 film, to the right). However, because science has revealed that the planet is devoid of anything that can come and take over Earth, the concept of using Martians is sometimes dropped as it is no longer deemed realistic. The Steven Spielberg adaptation and the syndicated TV series are the most prominent examples of this, though the series does tie the invasion force with Mars, using it as a temporary base, making them pseudo-Martians.
The real Martians
Because of the prevalence of stories containing Martians, the idea of the Martian has become the default identity of extraterrestrial characters in popular culture. If Mars is colonized in the future by humans, the generations descended from the settlers may well be called Martians. Some members of the Mars Society, an organization devoted to such colonization, semi-humorously describe themselves as "Martians in exile".
For various descriptions of fictional Martians, see Mars in fiction. For discussion on the possibility of Martian micro-organisms, see extraterrestrial life.
Copyright
"Original data received from Wikipedia on April 01, 2006. Credit given to original authors can be seen Here."
Copyright
"Original data received from Wikipedia on April 21, 2006. Credit given to original authors can be seen Here."
