In Soviet Russia, Mars travels to you

January 11, 2012 11:31 AM

The utopian Mars fiction of Soviet Russia
posted by Artw (8 comments total)

everyone should see Aleita, Queen Of Mars. Like today.
posted by The Whelk at 11:50 AM on January 11 [1 favorite]

For some reason I'm reminded of Ursula Le Guin's The Dispossessed.
posted by George_Spiggott at 11:50 AM on January 11 [1 favorite]

For a different take on the same idea, there's Commies From Mars comics.
posted by zombiedance at 12:05 PM on January 11

Two books and a couple of movies is a pretty thin reed to bear the weight of all that theorizing. Also:

"Fifty years ago I got to see Lenin in that same hall, with his broad shoulders and high chest - talking from a small raised tribune. He moved spontaneously and effortlessly on the tribune, addressing different parts of the audience… I recall him now as the flame that burns on the Field of Mars. The revolution came and ascended the stairs."

Viktor Shklovsky, On the Dissimilarity of the Similar

This has nothing whatever to do with the planet Mars. The Field of Mars (Марсово поле) in Saint Petersburg is named after the Campus Martius in Rome, which is named after the Roman god of war.
posted by languagehat at 1:05 PM on January 11 [5 favorites]

That 1924 animation is very Monty Pythonesque.
posted by XMLicious at 4:49 PM on January 11

Ice caps thousands of feet high -- melted away in a few days...

Oh, yay, Red-Planet Mars! After finding that the whole thing is available from the studio that owns the rights I was glad to see it. You need to watch the movie Red Planet Mars.

It has layers. The reviews didn't get all of them. Youtube also does't get it... it "looks like McCarthy anti-Communist propaganda", but it is great if one isn't too sensitive. It is the Cold-War American response to the many "Soviet Mars" stories that exist. A really interesting window on some perspectives of the time.
posted by infinite intimation at 8:11 PM on January 11

It shares elements with Contact (signals from space that use math).
posted by infinite intimation at 8:11 PM on January 11

And thanks for reminding me I wanted to refine a question to ask if it was common to "recess" televisions, creating the "proto-flat panel television" that Red Planet Mars shows us in the "news" scenes, (it can be seen here; link to 36 minutes into "Red Planet Mars").

Was this sort of thing done commonly? I know the spectacular movie "Things To Come" (H.G. Wells) has flat panel video-communication and news devices... but can't think of others. Great blog.
posted by infinite intimation at 8:20 PM on January 11