EVOLUTION AS UTOPIA: REPRESENTATIVE HUMAN IDENTITY IN THE MARS TRILOGY BY KIM STANLEY ROBINSON by Daniel Earl Wade Cureton A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS IN ENGLISH WEBER STATE UNIVERSITY Ogden, Utah May 31, 2018 Approved 􀀃􀌯/J􀀄􀐠 Dr. Eric Swedin 􀀃􀍷wub. Dr. Michael Wutz & DA Hal Crimmel 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Title Page Abstract 3 Literature Review 4 Red Mars and Beginnings 13 Green Mars and Dystopia 29 Blue Mars and Utopic Restitution 41 Conclusion 48 Works Cited 55 References 61 3 Abstract Mars has a long history in speculative fiction. Since the early 20th century, science fiction writers imagined a world with aliens, civilizations, and a dying planet. The most famous of the early pieces is perhaps Princess of Mars (1917) by Edgar Rice Burroughs. After the NASA probe Mariner shocked the world with images and data—solidifying Mars as a dead, waterless planet—writers were forced to abandon these early images, turning towards exploration, exoplanet sciences, colonization, and terraforming. The contemporary Mars Race, as I have chosen to call it, has caused a shift in the expressions of Mars in Western Culture. Thanks to the exploration and scientific tests done by rovers such as Curiosity, the idea of seriously going to Mars has moved from an ethereal “future projects” cloud to the “We will be there by this date [insert hopeful date]”. The Mars Trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson, published between 1993-1996, is the seminal fictional work describing the colonization of the Red Planet. The trilogy sets the stage for a step by step process of terraforming the planet over a two-hundred-year period. Various archetypes and themes structure the story. Included are ontologies, histories, personal dialogues, and politics as varied as human society. My interest is to understand how Mars, as an open spatial frontier, can shape human identity and create utopia while allowing humans to use Mars as a space to reimagine Earth. Focusing on their place in the novels as structural keystones is necessary to understanding the interaction of humans with science, ecology, and their evolutionary identity of the future. Specifically, I examine how several characters act as stand in representative figures for humanity, the ongoing conversation about humanity’s own evolution into the future while understanding its changing relationship with nature. 4 Red Mars begins with the first above ground city on Mars. Being some forty years after the initial arrival, the novel sets up the initial dialogue and dynamics by a group of one hundred scientist known as the First Hundred who are sent to colonize the planet. The novel tracks the scientific changes in the terraforming process, but also weaves stories of human politics, love, and adventure in the shifting sands of Mars, leading up to the take over of the planet by the U.N and transnational corporations with the fleeing of the remaining scientists to the South Pole. Green Mars is a generation after Red Mars and is the dystopia after a failed revolution. The novel concerns itself with the attempts of the First Hundred to regain control of the terraforming project and take power back from the corporations who are infiltrating the society on Mars through a second revolution. The story greatly concerns itself with the move towards creating an egalitarian human-nature coexisting society in which the planet speaks as equal to its human occupants. Blue Mars opens as the restored utopia, demonstrating how hard-fought efforts for eco- Marxist government can work in a society. The novel moves into the realms of genetically engineered human evolution, inter-stellar space travel, and the final changes of the terraforming project as Mars becomes like the High Sierra of California. Literature Review “Mars is as good as it gets” is the line from Kim Stanley Robinson during an interview about The Mars Trilogy (Long Now Foundation). Robinson is quoting Carl Sagan, who after thinking and considering the data from the Mariner and Viking NASA probes, began to push the scientific community to begin thinking about Earth-engineered planets. Science fiction writers followed suit, with Mars becoming the planet of possibilities. In 1989, Robinson turned his attention to writing a story of Mars terraforming and “quickly realized that it was going to be a 5 very long book, and my agent and editor of that time said to me ‘Stan, we call that a trilogy’; and so I shifted the title from Green Mars, which was my idea for the title of the whole book, to Red, Green and Blue Mars” (Liptak). A look into the literary history of The Mars Trilogy is important to understanding the landscape and discussion through which scholars and critics have analyzed it. From colonialism and ecology to economics and garden paradises, the twenty-five years since the first novel was published has seen about a dozen articles examining various themes, topics, and narratives within the text. This low number may be accounted by the exclusion of speculative fiction from serious literary scholarship. Elizabeth Leane in, “Chromodynamics: Science and Colonialism in Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy,” discusses the narrative of colonialism and science as conjoined themes rather than differing and separate. These two themes are further intertwined with topics of overpopulation, personal politics, religion, and the evolving “native” (second) generation of Martian colonists. Leane indicates that in no way are colonialism and science independent, but rather are dependent as co-existing figures. Leane further proposes science as the colonizer since colonization could not have taken place without the scientific knowledge required to live on Mars. Examining the different interactions over the course of the trilogy, Leane notes that science is political, inseparable from the events surrounding the terraforming. Science comes close to the truth by acknowledging its own objective failings and respecting the objects it wishes to scrutinize. No longer are the concepts of terraforming, science, colonization, and immigration separate. Rather, science is defined by the very interactions taking place, creating a successor science that is not void of feeling yet acknowledges the flaws in its systems. 6 Land ethics and the need for a restructured ontology of humans vs land is the central topic by Eric Otto’s essay, “Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy and the Leopoldian Land Ethic.” Otto proposes that Robinson uses the trilogy to advance the dialogue of difficulty, of showing how humanity’s inability to improve conditions of life is present on any planet. This is due to the inherent structure of the current models. Otto’s article submits the need that, like Robinson, humanity must renegotiate their ability to care for themselves and the planet. Likewise, Ursula K. Heise’s article, “Martian Ecologies and the Future of Nature,” reflects Otto’s theme of discussing the place of nature in human society. The changes proposed mean a paradigm shift in viewing the land, placing humans and the land in the same communities. Instead of farmable, minable, and strippable dichotomies, the land becomes part of the conversation that sustains life as opposed to being the othered space. Taking humanity away from industrial economics and centering it squarely into eco-economics is part of the outline of Robinson’s work. Jeanne Hamming follows suite on the discussion with “Nationalism, Masculinity, and the Politics of Climate Change in the Novels of Kim Stanley Robinson and Michael Crichton.” The term future-primitive is used to reinforce the dynamic in the literature of a simplified reenvisioned Western American frontier, Martian style. With science and politics working together, the future is transformed into an equal world instead of the former—dominated by centuries of old, rich, white, heterosexual men. The reworking of such a frontier by Robinson expands on those historical evidences and patterns, reforming them to be more inclusive to gender, sexuality, race, and political belief by using more objective minded scientists instead of post-Civil War soldiers, freed slaves, and bourgeoisie capitalist (who show up in Green Mars) that were often found in 19th Cent U.S. history. Male and female characters share duties 7 cooperatively with women in the majority of positions of power and influence. This echoes the historical rights movement in the U.S. with the western states being the first to grant women suffrage (Lange). The paralleling of the historical suffrage with 21st century scientist is a jumping off point into the story. Whereas 19th and 20th century suffragist had to fight for their rights, these rights are assumed in the trilogy and the novels can move forward to examining further developments with such rights already in place. This type of political mechanism is also applied to gender identities within Red spaces, assuming that the fight for equality is set at the stories chronological opening, allowing for an exploration into the future post 20th century. Following the theme of reimagining, Jennifer Atkinson discusses the ideas of reenvisioning garden spaces on Mars in her essay, “Seeds of Change: The New Place of Gardens in Contemporary Utopia.” Instead of places of leisure, Mars is the place where gardens are interdependent with human society. No longer will humans “other” nature as a space to relax or set outside of urban environments, but nature will be a continuing conversation, planetwide, that is at the heart of the new world. This moves plant-based spaces away from traditional capitalist notions of consumption and into integrated human-plant biospheres of codependence. “Falling into History: The Imagined Wests of Kim Stanley Robinson in the Three California’s and Mars Trilogies,” by Carl Abbott analyses the trilogy in the framework of Mars as the new frontier, echoing that of the American West while paralleling Hamming. This envisioning follows suite like much of historical colonization, with groups of migrants, people from more dominate nations, entering the spaces and setting them up for others who come later. Abbott also points out that the narratives situated in historical ideas are based on Western ideas of society building, coupled with Robinson’s attempt to deal with the complex issues of discourse that arise in multiethnic societies. While the end result is a utopia, the concept of 8 frontiers supplants the demands of the population which focuses the narrative on community building through interpersonal dialectics and personal choices. Folk tales, otherness, and semantic roles is discussed in “Structuralist Alchemy: Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars,” by William White. He expands the themes as a metaphor of alchemy, designating characters as hermit, mystic, scientist, and alchemist. These themes—as structural semantics—are interplayed, inverted, and twisted as myth to expand and fill the trilogy with depth and meat. By placing science, fiction, rhetoric, and history on a diamond, this allows the components of myth, fact, irony, and allusion to contrast and convene as opposing contrary entanglements which create a believable and plausible narrative for readers. William Burling sets a comparative analysis between Blue Mars and the theoretical models of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe as outlined in, “Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics” from 1985. Laclau and Mouffe’s essay argues that, “socialism is one of the components of a project for radical democracy” (178). Burling notes that Robinson never read the essay, but nevertheless has created a world in which revolution and socialism, hand in hand with the radical changes to democracy, unfolds throughout not just Blue Mars, but the entire trilogy. Burling states that the inherent instabilities, inconsistences, and disagreements among capitalists is how democracy is defined—the web of constituents which help it exist operates to empower the motives of those struggling in that democracy. Burling calls this “the interdependency of the democratic process.” Revolution as a future socialist primer is the main idea in, “Tumults of Utopia: Repetition and Revolution in Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy” by K. Daniel Cho. This process, relying on past models of Karl Marx, is necessary in the revolts on Mars to work out the disengaging and dismantling of societal systems of the past. In particular the capitalist nature of 9 humanity from the preceding centuries is turned on its head. Each revolution moves the stories toward a more utopian yet more alien ideas of Sir Thomas More. The first part is accomplished by the separation of the First Hundred from the U.N. Charter, and the struggle of overcoming old Terran systems of capitalism (as a way of life) through each of the three revolutions that build up the ideal Martian society. William Dynes discusses the various threads in his article, “Multiple Perspectives in Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Series.” Paralleling Leane, Dynes outlines how Robinson weaves threads of history, economics, politics, and environmentalism to create the story. Echoing Leane and Otto, Dynes take the articles down the polyphonic utopianism of K. Daniel Cho, as this polyphonic view is used to drive the plot. Dynes makes this clear with his assertion that the First Hundred and arriving colonists push the polyphonism as they succeed or fail in seeing Mars independent from Earth, underlining their responsibilities for changing social and ecological situations. Dynes further proposes that science and technology are critical to the creation and manipulation of authority on Mars, and it is the scientific vision shaping Mars’s future, society, and ecology. Robinson himself offers up a definition of the utopia found in The Mars Trilogy: “Food, water, shelter, clothing, healthcare, and education for everyone on the planet by whatever means that gets us that. Or the work towards that state” (Ford, 1). Kim Stanley Robinson believes that discord, dialogue, and dynamics are necessary to establishing a utopian world which Mars represents, “Utopia will always be under threat and dynamic. It will never be completely established. If it is then you almost have a dystopia of permanence and rigidity” (Ford, 1). Science as a method of change is able to be a component of the utopia. The characters are not consciously thinking about a utopian state of being but are pushing the frontier of human 10 existence as they engage in the practice of science. While not the utopia of literary figures in the past, such as Sir Thomas More and Jonathan Swift, it is the contemporary utopian form of 20th and 21st century imaginings of what democracy can become. Robinson’s particular visionary emphases on the dynamics and changing structures is what marks the difference between contemporary utopias and the better-known utopias of Swift and More. This is not the first time the scientific community has helped change definitions of utopia. Much like the science fiction writers of the early 20th century, Robinson joins forces with the long history of pushing the boundary of humanity and science. Roger Luckhurst discusses early writers challenging how the community could interact with the world in his book review, “Utopian Writers and Science.” He states, “[H.G.] Wells’ A Modern Utopia helps name a significant new development that moves beyond the classical, Platonic, static utopia. If the principal agency to move towards the modern utopian society is scientific practice…driven by a new sense of human potential to intervene in and direct natural and cultural forces for improvement” (388). It is as Carol Franko states in her article “The Density of Utopian Density in Robinson’s ‘Red Mars’” about the use of history, “This assertion must be qualified and complicated. Beyond positing utopia as a possible struggle within history, Robinson further dialogizes it in two related ways—through his novel’s dense and sometimes in-our-face intertextuality and through its plot that continually returns to a science-fictional Socratic dialogue” (59). With this new definition in mind, it becomes easier to mark the points in Red Mars that are key to the idea of utopian development. The scale of the undertaking for detailing scientific description was only surpassed by the tight narratives and structural elements necessary to 11 support such narratives. The political, as dimensioned through personal relationships and the developing biosphere is an ever-present coating to the reality the characters find themselves. The focus in this thesis is on the effects of scientific knowledge and technologies produced by science, affecting human evolution in Red spaces. In some ways an allegory of decisions making, primarily I work with representative embodied characters: Anny Clayborne as conservative anti-terraforming science; Sax Russell as pro-terraforming science, and Nadia Chernyshevski as the physical Mars planetary structure. Two other characters also play a supporting role: John Boone as the human brain and Hiroko Ai as the spirit. Together these five characters are the representative summation of the human body split into the internal dialectic components. Leane comments on similar characterizations but focuses on the Terran racial stereotypes (90-91). I am not so focused on the racial as the constituents of body and thought and am more interested in the stand in figures for the conversation ongoing among humanity in the novels. These roles are also different than those set up by White in his Alchemy essay. White matches them with the chromodynamic colors as archetypal figures of: Scientist-white, reason and science; Alchemist-blue, utopia; Mystic-green, viriditas (life); and The Hermit-red, kami (Mars) (586). While these divisions are interesting, their roles reflect more mystical interpretations of the characters, pinning religious and spiritual imagery, such as the Hermit of tarot cards, and indicating a favorability of blue=Earth. I work with five roles: pro terraforming (applied science), anti-terraforming (science of the lab), the body, the mind, and the spirit as the primary influences on the entire structural, sub structural, interlayered, and diffused stories which unfold through the trilogy and can be summed up to humanity’s internal struggle to make a decision about which future to choose. The two 12 futures being the determinations of a set future without terraforming (mostly Earth-bound), or taking the uncertain path and using the science and technology (through the terraforming process) as a way to evolve. Of course, other representative roles exist such as Michel Duval as the rational Freudian super-ego, Maya Toitnova as the sexual body, and Frank Chalmers as the jealous heart, but the are less significant for the topic of this thesis. One critical theory necessary to examine the character roles is locational feminism, which is defined as “give[ing] spatial coordinates to the subject, whose complex, fluid and often contradictory relationships to gender, race, class, and sexuality are determined by the places she occupies (1998: 5)” (Walsh, n.p.). This theory provides the best critique to understanding some of the changing identities and evolution of the human society during the novels. For many theorists, locational feminism's use of space as a flashpoint for understanding the complexities of difference has meant liberation from the difficulties of defining the subject and its role in identity politics. The noteworthy contributions of Rich and other theorists move us away from essentialist formulations of identity and embrace more flexible and contingent understandings of female experience. A number of scholars have taken up Rich’s geographic rhetoric, commonly focusing on the subject’s embeddedness in particular contexts and analyzing how these contexts call into play multiple and often paradoxical aspects of selfhood (Walsh, n.p). Rebecca Walsh is discussing an essay by Adrienne Rich from 1984 “Notes Toward a Politics of Location” in which Rich is critiquing the experience middle-class white woman “as the barometer for all women’s experience” (n.p.). By expanding the lens from female to all gender humans, the spatial coordinates that are subliminally diffused as defining factors of character 13 identity can be revealed and highlighted as elements of the text. Where appropriate, I use this variation on feminism to deconstruct the intertextual stories. Red Mars and Beginnings The Mars Trilogy opens four decades in the future, with the founding of the first above ground domed city Nicosia (Robinson, “Red Mars”, 4). Nicosia is made possible by chemistry, in the form of material science, manufactured to withstand the differences in air pressure on pre-terraformed Mars. The Arab community living in Nicosia believes that John Boone, the archetypal American hero, had “argued in secret against the U.N. approval for Arab settlements,” (10). Their fear is further encouraged by Frank Chalmers, the jealous Machiavellian politician. Frank’s plot pins the Arab immigrants that live in Nicosia into the historic archetype of “evil Arab” from 20th Century American literature and film. Robinson does not misplace this pairing of the evil Arab with the American Hero at the beginning of the story. In doing so he is introducing the readers to the main conflict in the structure that will cover the entire trilogy. Opening with conflicts in multiculturalism reflects the author’s goals in dialoguing and awareness raising about stereotypes of ethnic groups by Western media and minds. A closer scholastic examination reveals the historical origins of the Arab vs American in this context. Tim Semmerling discusses this archetype in his book, “Evil” Arabs in American Popular Film: Oriental Fear, Many of the portrayals of Arabs, at first glance give the impression of cultural and ethnic traits that are inherently inimical to Western civilization. Even so, are not “evil” Arabs actually fictional characters that we have devised and...our filmic villains are narrative tools used for self-presentation and self-identity to enhance our own statues, our own meaning, 14 and our own self-esteem in times of our own diffidence. There, are the “evil” Arabs in American film actually oblique depictions of ourselves: the insecure Americans (1-2). Semmerling sets up this discourse in the opening as he places the importance on understanding the historical and political assumptions of the Arabs portrayals. The key point of understanding this scene between John and the Arabs is to understand the need for historical evidence with Robinson’s structural technique, asking the question of, “Why does the novel open here instead of at the chronological beginning?” Robinson could have easily opened from the chronological beginning, showing the crew aboard the Ares on their journey through space. By switching the timelines, the opening is marking the greater importance on understanding the politics and multicultural aspects in conjunction with terraforming or the sciences that will figure on Mars. This switching also sets up the novels as immediately pushing back against stereotypes and the boundaries of political history, attempting to bridge those themes of Arab evils and American global righteousness. By killing the first man on Mars, John, the author creates the dynamic method for interaction that occurs constantly in the novel, which also plays up the privileges seen early on by the white scientist encountering ethnic minorities in spaces that are supposedly equal yet have begun to appear as white dominate spaces of Earth. The chronological beginning of the story—part two of Red Mars—takes the reader back forty years, to the crew aboard the Ares and their six-month journey in space. After landing, the First Hundred colonists are set up in trailers, which are protective pods, while they start to assemble underground habitation. The first settlement is called Underhill, located in Xanthe Terra (Robinson, “Red Mars”, map), and is built from local materials (magnesium, copper) and supplies sent in unmanned landers before their arrival. Nuclear power plants are set up and nitrogen drops from Titan begin to thicken the atmosphere (which starts out around 50 millibars). 15 The scientists are given everything they needed to survive, including a greenhouse, animals, food, water, machinery, medicine, and other materials necessary to set up a complete society that is self-sustaining and uses the Martian environment for its needs. Although a diverse crew, Americans and other English speakers dominate (Russian is second), which leaves some members of the crew as solo linguists; one being the ship psychologist, Michel Duval, the only French speaker. The irony is placed on Michel from the beginning to being that of the “other,” the psychoanalytical mind, the sane part that is supposed to impose logic and reason on the crew as the reality of space sets in. Michel has the duty of caring for the psychological well-being of 99 other scientists from vastly differing perspectives and cultural ontologies. This quiet pressure on Michel comes to an end when he decides to leave with Hiroko in Red Mars, vanishing for decades with her and the agriculture team. It is in this moment that Hiroko’s agenda and her position as the mystical, the high priestess of Mars (the spirit) is introduced to the reader. As personal politics develop, scientific knowledge is marching forward to terraform the planet. The launching of windmills to heat the planet starts the process before the U.N approves any terraforming—a rouge move. Intersectional relationships begin to affect daily lives as romances get complicated. Maya Toitova continues her relationships with both John Boone and Frank Chalmers, courting the two who pair as the objective brain (John) and the irrational brain (Frank), but eventually picks John (Robinson, “Red Mars”, 116). She stands as the Anna Karenina from literature, posed as a woman who is bound by two, yet is shunned in some ways for her choices. These early pairings, romances, friendships, and the forming of the Areophany cult (of Hiroko) mark important critical changes to character behaviors. Frank feelings are 16 natural, but it is Hiroko’s disappearance with the others that forms the biggest mystery early in the novel; a trait she continues to embody till the end of the trilogy. The political divisions among scientists over the issue of terraforming begins in this early stage. The Treaty of Mars opens the dialogue, bringing an introduction to the dichotomy of views for terraforming. Otto calls Ann Clayborne and Sax Russell the “advocates of pure science and advocates of applied science” (127)—one being bound to the lab and the other in the field. Ann Clayborne sets herself up as the advocate pure science, of an unterraformed Mars, unconsciously embodying the feminine planetary identity—the Martian essence—representing the planet and the view that the planet may not want to be altered. Inherent in this ideology is the sense of primal beauty, the unique state that Mars has existed in for billions of years (Robinson, “Red Mars”, 142). That uniqueness is what she loves, the rocks and regolith. Being the original “Red,” she is concerned with only preserving Mars in its original state. She would rather have the science of the lab, of tests and observation of the natural state than to see any practical application of the developing technologies. Conversely, Sax Russell, the objective-minded scientist, pushes for full terraforming. He stands for the applied science, taken out of the lab and put into practice. The practice of the application in his mind is seen to make the original science better. With recording studies, notes, and measurements, Sax can return to the lab and improve what is in development. Initially, Ann relies on The Mars Treaty, “we have to take measures to prevent the disruption of planetary environments… That seems to me to expressly forbid the terraforming that so many of you are talking about” (80). The divide between the two will last through the series, but is a metaphor of the divide of the internal dialogue of terraforming of humanity to 17 trust science, or not trust science which is a further conversation about humanity’s attempt to step out of the Earth cradle or just use Mars as a research station like those in Antarctica. The fighting between the two characters really foreshadows the politics of the future— coming revolutions, identities, evolution, and internal Martian struggles. It is in these initial conversations that there is the beginning a centuries-long struggle between Sax and Ann that pushes Ann further to the political right of conservative scientists. Even so, the more moderate scientists work in the background among these interpersonal politics. They set to work engineering various lichen and moss that can survive with little water, in a frigid environment, in a thin atmosphere dominated by carbon dioxide. The moss is spread using hundreds of thousands locally-made magnesium windmills that release heat into the atmosphere (Robinson, “Red Mars”, 182). These releases include the first attempts at controlling evolution, through genetic engineering, as the early driving force of the terraforming process. Humans forcibly change species to suit their needs, asserting their superiority through scientific knowledge and technology over other less evolved species introduced to Mars. The lichen and moss are early test subjects, which are used to set up the basic ecology. Ann and Sax split into their political binaries of Red vs Green, faction dichotomy which dominates the story. Sax’s camp is the winner early on—asserting the pro-terraforming agenda— without approval, from far away Earth. His camp is the one pushing the lichen and mosses, as well as the keeping them secret until exposed by Nadia Chernyshevski when she accompanies Arkady Bogdanov on a dirigible to drop the windmill units (170). With the distribution of the lichen and moss, Nadia does her best to cope with the knowledge that the scientists have broken U.N rules. Upon returning from the trip with Arkady, Nadia hears that U.N. approval was given in their absence, “The General assembly approved, a whole package of terraforming efforts, 18 among them the distribution on the surface of genetically engineered microorganisms” (Robinson, “Red Mars”, 182). A more important identity is created though during the beginnings of terraforming. Arkady and Nadia form a romantic relationship, which proves critical in later sections of the story for Nadia. Arkady identifies her as the queen of Mars after a passionate love session, “Beauty is power and elegance, right action, form fitting function, intelligence, and reasonability…expressed in curves…By these criteria you are queen of Mars” (169). Arkady is talking about Nadia’s physical curves that make her physically attractive to him, but the description doubles as a metaphor for the curves of the planet and Nadia’s structural role in shaping it. This sexual desire also seeds Nadia as the mother of Mars who, by their skill and design, can sustain life around the planet; protecting and nurturing fragile life in infancy, “While feminist theorists readily note the historical and dynamic dimensions to space, very rarely have they pointed to the critical need to actively pursue the kinds of histories that might not be readily apparent or visible in the spatial scene, particularly in the interactions between specific bodies” (Walsh, n.p.). Nadia is now directly linked to Edgar Rice Burroughs, invoking that first popular fiction of Mars from the novel A Princess of Mars (1912). The dubbing of Nadia as queen by the main proponent of a free Mars, Arkady, also will figure into the story as a foreshadowed arch that spans all three novels, which is no coincidence then that Nadia is the primary engineer who is working to construct cities. Accepting the title of queen of Mars places Nadia into the position to function as the support of the structure of society, the body of humanity doubling as planetary body. She is then projected into the background to physically, socially, and economically direct all levels of the emerging Martian society, thus countering Ann’s vision for the unterraformed 19 planet. This becomes two against one in the representation, with applied science (Sax) and the planet-body (Nadia) working to promote the same outcome. Around this time in the novel is when Hiroko disappears with her greenhouse crew, creating what is known as “the lost colony” (Robinson, “Red Mars”, 208). It was an idea planned from the very start, as the crew had to identify and build a new secret base upon arrival. This change away from the static day in, day out survival elevates the notion of a utopian society, creating change away from the static city building, supply mining, and social interactions. Mostly, Hiroko sets everyone on edge as there is no explanation as to how, where, and why she vanished. Unanswered questions as to her agenda float in the structure of the story as the others continue with their efforts to terraform. Though she left with her colony, Hiroko never shows intention of being against terraforming. Hiroko’s plan throughout Red Mars appears in small drops of information in the background, weaving a new mythology; her mystery born areophany cult prevents her from taking action till Green Mars. Mysterious rumors of people walking on the surface without suits or other myths begin to emerge—of a man named Coyote (in itself a mythical animal)—creating identities, possibilities, and original Martian ontologies (Robinson, “Red Mars”, 225-226). Some of the scientist speculate it’s the last native Martian, “a wizened thing who wander[s] the planet helping endangered wanders, rovers, settlements” (285). Even the creation of a Paul Bunyan Titian, Big Man, figure comes into being midway in the novel, evoking mythological literary figures in tall tales, exhibiting human need to default to myth for the unexplainable. The conjuncture of the new myth, the old tall tale, and the ancient poem by Persian poet Rumi Jallaluddin as a bedtime prayer by one of the background characters is an attempt to reorder and recreate what is considered myth: 20 I died as mineral and became a plant, I died as plant and rose to animal. I died as animal and I was human. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying? Yet once more I shall die human, To soar with angles blessed above. And when I sacrifice my angel soul I shall become what no mind ever conceived (Robinson, “Red Mars”, 285-86). Rumi’s words foreshadow humanity’s evolution over the course of the trilogy to move beyond ground-based humans to those flying in the air without wings on the moons of the ice giants, literally soaring as gods and angels as Rumi describes or as Icarus in Greek myth. It is no coincidence that the poem prayer is uttered to John Boone, who’s ideas and writings are pivotal in the develop of the entire trilogy, guiding characters for generations. This pairs perfectly with the representative role of John as the mind, the brain, from which ideas and original designs as the grand architect of society place him in a semi-mystical figure. Where Hiroko is the High Priestess, John becomes The Great Architect, a scaled down version of such ideas as The Great Architect of the Universe in Free-Masonry (Stewart). Even with the mystical pinnings being alluded to, the three agendas of Ann Clayborne, Sax Russell, and Hiroko Ai, and their scientific and political agendas, direct the structural flow of the story. Sometimes in tandem and sometimes as difference, the three representative figures influence the communities of people with which they surround themselves. Ann with her conservatism, Sax with his pragmatism, and Hiroko as High Priestess of Mars in Areophany. While they are building their followers to their ideas of Mars, varying communities of 21 immigrants begin in their own ways to change the planet. The new immigrants tend to build separate ethnic or national communities. Japanese settlers arrive and build their town Senzi Na (Robinson, “Red Mars”, 215). The immigrants in the various ethnic or national camps tend to self-select their roles as engineers, miners, or town builders; the Swiss build roads (232) and the Arabs mine minerals (250). National differences enter the sphere of politics and science. By allowing the space for the differing groups to use their technology and Earth ontologies, the national politics and multicultural points of the structure fade as the narrative moves to focus on individual communities, people, and their experiences traversing the changing terrains of the planet. The way in which those minorities change the planet is a foreshadowing mechanism of what is soon to come in the plot. No longer is utopia or identity semi-static, as was with a micro representation of humanity in the First Hundred, but the story expands to include the dynamics of human interaction at large. This multicultural influence changes the course of the narrative. By having roaming caravans, the work enters a global paradigm—parallel projects speed up the progress. John Boone makes it a point to visit the caravans and towns when he can. It is one of these, the Swiss caravans of road builders, that John pairs multiculturalism with politics and eventually with science, “Their love of country seemed to be expressed by making a certain kind of life: rational, just, prosperous, scientific…The Swiss road-building crew back there was Martian already, having brought the life and left the baggage behind” (234). Each culture contributes to the new infrastructure, the new society, building a web of multiculturalism that becomes a component of identity and will be later exposed physically in terraforming. Through his experience at the caravan, John makes notes about the Swiss government which eventually leads him to the idea of 22 an independent planet. Locational feminism tells the reader that John’s development and thought process is compelled to change as he is influenced in the spaces during his travels as he comes to understand how the influences in those spaces structure his view and narrative. His influence from the Swiss allows him in to fill the role of the rational, objective brain at work, putting pieces together to work out the best way to safeguard the emerging society. This understanding of the working mechanics reveals the influences John is receiving and brings to light the threads which later help John originate his original thoughts on the development of Mars. John Boone continues his visiting tour and finds himself inspecting a Japanese Mohole, which are giant shafts drilled to release heat from the core for terraforming. Someone drops a piece of machinery down the shaft, intending to kill John (Robinson, “Red Mars”, 212). The new multinational corporations first make an appearance in this narrative. Mentioned in a passing dialogue between John Boone and Sax Russell as transnationals (also called metanationals) (218), the term is glossed over during the flow of conversation and quickly bypassed. It is no irony that Frank Chalmers, who works as the U.S. Secretary, is appointed overseer of the setup on Mars for American-based transnationals. The pairing of the two is suggestive of Frank’s Machiavellian tendency and desire to crush his opponent by either murder (which is successful) or political means. John himself even comments on the political motives when their mutual love interest, Maya, shows up to the Arab caravan where John is visiting Frank. John successfully beds Maya, to the deadpan face of Frank and thinks to himself, “So much for political power Frank buddy!” (253). The rational brain (also the hero archetype) beats out the irrational jealousy (the Machiavellian fear). John is able to prevail, but he is not able to see or prevent the first contract given to the transnational Armscor, an old South African (later Azania) company that moved to Singapore to 23 become an aerospace firm (Robinson, “Red Mars”, 246). Though Mars is initially controlled by the United Nations Organized Mars Authority under a treaty (79-80), a slow increase in transnational influence creeps up as these companies begin to control national governments on Earth, whose influence is then used to control populations. This contract award breaks the U.N. Treaty of Mars, but as the narrator points out “it had the U.N.’s usual toothlessness before national armies and transnational money” (247). The plot suggests at this turn, that after only twenty or so years, the power of the United Nations had been supplanted by that of the transnational corporations. Helmut, the character that informs John of the contract, tries to convince him of the benefits to the countries of Earth, “As the old multinationals coalesce into transnationals, you see, they really gather quite a bit of power, and they have influence in the General Assembly. When we give one a concession, some twenty or thirty countries profit by it, and get their opening on Mars” (246). John backs down from the argument and buries his qualms for later, but understands that Helmut and the transnationals see Mars as the next minable Earth, supplanting the power and priority of the scientific community for political and monetary ambitions. Martian society, with its interweaving populations, ethnicities, and cultures, is still in the process of emerging, but transnationals consider only the capitalist aims and principles on which they were able to arrive at such global power on Earth. This change is antithetical to the utopian ideals initially rolled out on Mars and the planned structures the scientific community wanted to set up. Throughout this shift of power to transnationals (transnats) science and technology continues to conduct small terraforming projects and introduces the longevity treatments which will extend the lives of Martian citizens (263). How utopia will be expressed is changed by this new longevity technology. The entire identity of what it means to be human, with its short corporal existence of eighty years, falls 24 away to include multiple narratives of human time, multiple perspectives, and yet, continuity. From this point in Red Mars, utopia and human identify are no longer confined temporally to the history that preceded it, but breaks away to form alternative human timelines, resetting the possibilities of life beyond the limits that had confined the primates of Earth for millions of years prior. This promotes an interesting change on the understanding of evolution as put forth for the 4.5 billion years of Earth history, and what that means in context of human identity. Walshe’s discussion of Rich on locational feminism can be applied to the novel at this point as an expansion beyond the female experience, which Rich’s essay discusses difference— in terms of the intersectional and multi-dimensionality of women’s experiences based on race and economic privilege—how the complex of the nature of oppression can be in those spaces. Feminism supports all genders experiences in terms of identity and serves as the widest framework integral to understanding the evolving identities of the people (beyond binary and static) in the trilogy after the longevity treatment. These treatments spark dynamic changes, over centuries, and bend the idea of selfhood and the understanding of self. This is due to the new timelines given the characters, who begin to transcend traditional human life narratives, existing potentially forever, which has never before been experienced, though often sought after in human history. The parallels to history and the introduction of transnats on Mars are not misplaced by Robinson. Though longevity is beginning to increase human lifespan, it presents an opportunity for transnats to have more decades and centuries to exploit people. Much like the colonies of the New World on Earth, which were usually nonwhite spaces occupied by aboriginal or indigenous peoples, the intention at the midpoint in Red Mars is to show the repeating tendency of humanity to fall back on old habits, old structures, and old spaces. This political and economic lapse is in 25 contrast to the progress of change, which has begun to shape human identity and change the utopia. But as Matthias Lieven, in his essay, “Toward an Eco-Marxism,” pinpoints, it is that interweaving of Nature with humanity which is key, even at the disregard of mineral hungry transnats. The new capitalism of Earth immediately creates conflict in the stories of Nadia, Sax, and Ann, who struggle with defining the ethics of terraforming and nature early in the novel. Lieven’s point is to help humanity relearn their place in nature, “Society and nature appear to be distinct entities in capitalism, but cannot actually be separated. This is what a scientific analysis ought to show. On the basis of such a metabolic perspective, it ought also to be possible to show how every social phenomenon, every social relationship, every social crisis always implies a certain relationship with nature” (7). Since active scientific knowledge is creating and shaping nature on Mars, it will further invest itself in that relationship as nature unrolls and the structure of Martian ecology becomes apparent. Lieven’s essay is reflective of Robinson’s attempt midway through Red Mars to bring humanity and nature together again as coexistent constituents. The supplanting of power by the transnats destroys the budding merging of the human and nature dichotomy, propelling it back to the period of disenchantment originating in the Industrial Revolution of 18th century Europe when humans usurped ultimate authority over the fate of nature on the planet Earth. It also destroys the explorative identity narrative supported by Walsh’s geographic contextualization. The intentions of the transnats are discussed in secret between John Boone and Arkady Bogdanov on Stickney, the city on Phobos. Arkady informs John about the current circumstances regarding the grabbing of power and rising immigration numbers, “And quite a few of these new countries are becoming treaty members specifically with the intent to break the treaty at renewal time. They want to open Mars to individual governments…to try to open Mars to private 26 settlement ruled by corporations” (Robinson, “Red Mars,” 309). With the coming of the treaty negotiations, Frank Chalmers is chosen to be the representative of the new Marsfirst party, representing the scientific and societal interests of Mars peoples—the beginnings of traditional grouping of people arounds social, economic, and philosophical ideas The new renegotiated Mars treaty cuts the immigration problem only for a short period as it is mainly used as a blocking measure by the First Hundred to prevent transnats and countries from overrunning the planet. Mars is to be divvied up so that Earth countries can gain leverage on Earth and avoid (temporarily) the complete turnover of power to the transnats (Robinson, “Red Mars”, 355-357). The same problems faced on Earth pop up on Mars, displacing any progress towards utopia building as well as the evolution of Martian identities. Up to this point in Red Mars, the structural elements and plot outlines converge to demonstrate that Earth-based capitalist economics, inserted into the spaces that were not designed for them, stir evolutionary and social issues. The underlying premise is that capitalism is at odds with the trust and cooperation built up over the decades by the humans who had worked together on the Red Planet to create the new spaces which capitalism seeks to exploit. And indeed, very soon after the treaty is implemented, the breakdown begins. New workers feel trapped in their circumstances, coming on contracts considered illegal by the treaty (384). Gangs posing as security form to extort new comers (398). Tensions build to generate civil unrest and strikes among the new Martians (400). These tensions continue to the point that New Houston declares itself an independent republic, the first prison is formed by transnats (421), and then there is a revolution by Hiroko’s people in 2061 in the town of Nicosia (433). The narrative has come full circle back to Nicosia, the place founded with multicultural differences. It is only fitting that the town should also be the place that starts the revolution to 27 undo invasive corporate capitalism. Betrayal also factors into the equation. One of the First Hundred scientists, Phyllis Boyle, had invited the transnats to Mars, holding out the promise of metal (Robinson, “Red Mars”, 470). Science is betraying science (metaphorically) for profit, Phyllis is representative of the economics of human character. Much like the underground politics, Phyllis represents the darker, greedier (less intellectual) tendencies, highlighting the shadow side of the scientific community that exists. Here the narrative can be supported by Atkinson’s discussion on New York City urban gardening which is used to mirror garden spaces in the trilogy “…this struggle between inner-city gardens [ecology on Mars] and the various agents of urban gentrification [transnats] suggests the extent to which not only activist and utopianists [scientists] but also the bourgeoisie [the wealthy] and the state have begun to reconsider the time-honored assumptions about the garden as apolitical or ameliorative” (254). Phyllis has a first hand in the push back against utopia for a more bourgeoisie system. Like the empress in her castle (since she is higher up than queen Nadia), she gets to live on Clarke in orbit and never descend to the workers below unless necessary. With the revolution in full swing, members of the First Hundred attempt to prevent further immigration and take over by the transnats by bringing the space cable down (460), which flings the manmade asteroid moon Clarke, anchor of the cable, into space. Nadia Chernyshevsky later finds the remains of her dead lover, Arkady Bogdanov, in a town that was set on fire by the transnats. This pushes her to execute Arkady’s plan to destroy Phobos in the event of a hostile takeover. Nadia enters the code into a transmitter and Phobos is de-orbited, crashing into the surface of Mars (473); mother-planet eating adoptive son-moon. Engineer turned killer, but only in as much as Nadia is acting as the agent of change by tearing down old designs so that they can be replaced by new ones. Nadia exacts the full measure of her structural 28 control in this moment of vengeance. Nadia’s action isn’t just about vengeance, but about control, the individual’s power and its ability to tear down the incoming patriarchal structures of dominance that are unsuitable for the good of society. In that act, Nadia is evocating the feelings of all on Mars and human society who are against transnats. The transnats manage a full take over, which causes the revolution in 2061 to fail (Robinson, “Red Mars”, 519). The full takeover allows for an explosion in immigration and further colonization of the surface. Exploitation of workers is part of Robinson’s narrative in the discussion of differential histories. Earth’s history from slavery, to the proletariat, to the working poor of the 2010s in America and the issue of economic inequality (Center for Poverty Research). What was intended to be a restart of human society on Mars quickly becomes a repeat of Earth’s socioeconomic structures. The corporations represent the absolute capitalist part of the socioeconomic culture of Earth and are seen as a plague by the First Hundred. Intent on stripping the planet of every resource, gobbling up metals and minerals to send back, the corporations are destroying the planet before it can ever have a chance to develop out of the colony stage. Red Mars serves as a micro model of Earth’s history of colonization, particularly paralleling historical narratives of invading societies which took advantage of less technologically advanced, indigenous populations. This narrative is reflecting the conversation found in the scholastic literature, in particular with Abbott’s “Falling into History…” essay, “Kim Stanley Robinson explicitly defines science fiction as historical in character—as articulated narratives that can be seen as anchored at their origins in ‘real’ times and circumstances. ‘In every science fiction narrative,’ he writes, ‘there is an explicit or implicit fictional history that connects the period depicted to our present moment’” (31). 29 The revolution on Mars sparks a third world war on Earth in which over one hundred million people die, allowing the transnats to take complete control of Terran affairs (Robinson, “Green Mars”, 192). Gone is the dream of utopia and the possibilities of unique human-Martian identities. The transnat control destroys any investment into realistic and dynamic utopian multiculturalism by suffocating dissenting views and alternate economic systems that would express those dissenting views. Dynamic futurism is thus replaced by static formerism (the unrelenting push to maintain the past). Green Mars and Dystopia The trilogy enters its dystopian period with the second novel. According to Robinson, the capitalists “want to defend the status quo because of their privilege within it” (Ford, 1). This period can be defined as the attempt by Earth to apply the status quo through its pursuit of power, bringing “permanence and rigidity” (1). Green Mars opens on a note of a failed revolution, Terran occupation, and corporate control of Mars. This use of dystopia opens the novels and reader to questions of the future, allowing the reader to understand that the future is precariously dark; reflection in their own reality in real time (not the novel) promotes the discussion that the utopia/dystopia binary discourse seeks to examine: Earth reimagined through these historical parallels, examined in new settings. Only forty years has passed since the takeover, but already children, the Nisei (second generation) have been born, creating the first indigenous population, which is robbed of a unique Martian experience. Active science through the narrative of the First Hundred continues to subvert corporate influence to finally break colonial themes. But it comes to a halt during the tensions that rise due to the First Martian Revolution. The First Hundred are hold up in the South 30 Pole in Zygote with Hiroko, a city in a cavern of dry ice—a symbol of rebirth and in a distant way mirroring the Morlocks and Eloi societies of The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. The slow expansion of the atmosphere continues, facilitated by Titan drops and nuclear plants, with the average atmospheric pressure reaching 160 millibars (Robinson, “Green Mars”, 155), which is enough to walk on the surface with warm clothes and a helmet. The pressure outside is no longer too low to freeze or bruise the skin. Other unnamed scientists and transnat corporations continue the terraforming process. This is seen by the gradual thickening of atmospheric pressure and growth of krummholz trees, along with alpine tundra plants, to populate the surface. Animals are introduced after plant life is established. This first complex process of the atmosphere thickening is necessary in order to move the society from outpost to colony stage. Hiroko, spiritual mother of Mars, deemed mother goddess (5), is seen again and it is revealed what her Areophany is doing. Instead of dogmatic religiosity, the cult pushes the diffused barriers, being one surrounding the planet, but mainly found as a legacy through her lab created descendants—the Nisei. The children are taught the sciences, math, and languages. One of zygotes, Kasei, is a child Hiroko engineered from John Boone’s DNA, merging with her own eggs, thus gnosticaly giving John immortality (though without the deceased man’s knowledge); mother goddess of the body uniting with the god of the mind. Science and technology, in her culturally and politically influential perspective, are merely the most recent instruments in evolution’s tool chest. “Humans, even at their most technologically experimental moments are only perpetuating nature’s business rather than stepping outside of it or controlling it” (Heise, 460). 31 The First Hundred begin slow excursions back into society. Coyote, otherwise known as Desmond, is able to write fake personnel files to get people pass security systems (Robinson, “Green Mars”, 123). Some, like Sax Russell, use plastic surgery to blend in (116). The introduction of Reds in the underground (followers of Ann Clayborne) shifts the political narrative to juxtaposing binaries: the assumption of science as a human endeavor of knowledge for knowledge’s sake and Ann’s intrinsic belief that science is a human construction with human values (Robinson, “Green Mars”, 126). While bias in research does naturally exist, Ann’s inability to maintain objectivity clouds her perspective, pushing her to see a slow destruction of the Red Planet. While both positions may be correct, the appearance of Reds escalates the identity question about humanity’s future, giving it a more serious and dangerous quality than the previous internal bickering of scientists in the lab. Just like how the pro-terraforming argument had been mainly Sax and then the corporations, the anti-terraforming argument condescends from intellectual to the physical—metaphorical inner voices manifesting to affect the physical body through physical action in Red spaces. Ann meets her followers, positioning herself as the caretaker and advocate of pure Mars (117). This meeting and the arrival of Reds has two functions: first, Ann silently appoints herself as the queen of Mars, competing with Nadia’s role as queen. Second, Ann comes to the mystical belief that she in some way has been granted authority by the land, the air, and the presence of the primal Mars to safeguard it. This marks a turning point for Ann. No longer will she be pent up in her rover as a solitary advocate, but her philosophies have spread from scientific to the political with her followers. The figurative future (generations), in the form of the Reds, has come back to affect the past, embodied as Ann, which starts the paradox of future/past/future (Red/Ann/Red) relationship she engages with from this point in the story. 32 This point is where Ann begins to be a major player (instead of an internal voice) in the fate of the dystopia at the juncture that is Green Mars. She is intent on keep the otherness, such as described by Heise, but Heise also puts forward the idea of otherness erased, “In Robinson’s trilogy, even more starkly, the very moment when humans encounter Martian nature in its full authenticity and Otherness is also the moment when they erase it” (462). The forever fleeting present transitory moment (existing in the present tense of space-time) in which Ann exists on the eternal trajectory towards loving the Martian nature, but in Heise’s point of view, erases its authenticity as soon as she engages with it in her journies—an irony Ann never picks up on. Conversely, Sax Russell falls even further away at this point in the text when he starts his new job at Biotique in the town of Burroughs, becoming the active scientist again while gathering information on the current status of bioengineers and terraforming (Robinson, “Green Mars”, 123). He is eager to participate in the terraforming, but also is interested in gaining information for the group back at the South Pole. The entire section of the book is named “The Scientist as Hero,” implying that he has taken over for the long dead John Boone (119), becoming the new living brain of the operations like John once was. By using the scientific method and knowledge, Sax can be a shaper of the political arena and move political pawns in his efforts to promote the agenda of Mars futurism as envisioned by the First Hundred (their “values,” as Ann would call it). Unbeknownst to Ann, this is a turning point in the narrative, the outcomes in which the pro-terraforming dialogue wins. Terraforming was already dominating the landscape through the corporations, but the representative components of Sax and Ann were balanced until Sax was chosen to reintegrate into society and makes moves in favor of the majority of First Hundred. Through these political mechanisms, Sax is unknowingly shaping human identity. It is safe to assume that, based in the text, that Sax, Ann, and the others have 33 good perspectives on the types of outcomes they want, but nothing leading up to this point in their argument can predict with sufficient probability how humanity will evolve and utopia/dystopia will unfold. Sax takes on the project of engineering second and third generation plants designed for glaciated regions of the northern hemisphere (Robinson, “Green Mars”, 132). He is also aware of the teams working at Biotique on insects able to withstand high CO2 levels. Sax pushes himself to gather information when not working, discovering that “Burroughs was the de facto capital of Mars and that the transnats were the effective rulers” (133) The U.N.’s control had been shattered during the first revolution in 2061, and the new Earth-based authority, the United Nations Transitional Authority, is staffed by transnat executives. This places Sax squarely in a position to covertly operate as a subversive power, to undo some of the strings the transnats had pinned into Mars over the forty years since the revolution. As Sax works, he finds that, in his absence, the terraforming had advanced enough for the formation of fellfield soil as found in Alpine tundra slopes. He begins and maintains a courtship with Phyllis Boyle, the symbolic evil empress in her tower (asteroid), untouchable except by corporate hands. This relationship is a source for further information gathering, since Phyllis is still a powerful figure on the recaptured man-made moon Clarke (with its new space elevator). Sax manages to keep his identity hidden, even as he attends the annual conference on the terraforming project (172), which is a big academic conference debating the future of Mars by examining the studies, reports, and peer-reviewed papers up to that point in the narrative. The debate is metacritical and crucial to the utopian democratic process as, William Burling would call it, to tnderstanding the place of humanity’s effect on the underlining politics currently building in Green Mars (up to a second revolution). The debates include whether terraforming 34 should continue, should be slowed, or stopped all together (Robinson, “Green Mars”, 184). The goal and ends of terraforming are being called into question, which aggravates Sax Russell and his end goal to create an Earth-like biosphere. Robinson is doing as Elizabeth Leane questions, “…where will we go next? how can we free ourselves from the destructive patterns of history? what forms might utopia take?...” (n.p.). Some of the questions at the meeting can be answered and some continue by default, (such as global biosphere development) (Robinson, “Green Mars”, 186). To Sax’s dismay, the transnats decide to speed up the terraforming timeline by introducing more CO2 into the atmosphere to achieve their profit margins and increase human occupation (185). One interesting point by Atkinson makes is the possible destruction of delicate ecologies due to the uncategorical guerrilla “othering” of the spaces as a global garden. Her essay discusses the spaces as gardens, but on the small scale, such as when Sax is out looking at the new growing trees and planets with Phyllis, it invokes this guerrilla energy that is prevalent through green Mars, “They reintroduce unquantifiables such as access to nature; arenas for self-determined productions of space; focal points for community revitalization; fresh produce and flowers; non-commercial public and leisure space; biodiversity, and the right to the city” (253). Sax is undeniably engaged in the covert, information gathering, which is a type and process in guerrilla fighting. His placement at the center of biodesign is meant to be that, information and possible subterfuge if given the opportunity. Sax’s journey as hero comes to an end when Phyllis recognizes him. Sax is seized by authorities (Robinson, “Green Mars”, 209) and is tortured for information, which causes him to have a stroke (230). This torture midway through the novel is the first known example of such practice; a step in the devolution of identity. Textually, “Mars identity” under the dystopian 35 definition is challenged, opening the path for the spaces to become much like old Earth feudal forms as chaotic, uncivilized places in which humanity can engage in the most gruesome and abhorrent tendencies it has practiced throughout Earth-based history. The identities based around torture, with power structured as master/giver and victim/receiver, are representative of the abuse Ann fears—the abuse of Mars as a whole by humans—but embodied as the hand in her view scientist/transnat-enforcer and the body-planet that is the receiver. Even so, it is generally understood that torture, as an information- gathering method, does not really produce accurate information (Stone). The torturing of Sax seems to be a pleasure device by the transnats rather than an information gather session. Phyllis is killed during Sax’s rescue and the hero is exiled once again. The First Hundred in Zygote spend their time instructing the Nisei to their pedagogical disciplines, framing the world of Mars from their standpoint as the original colonists. This gives the Nisei time to take on a more direct active roles as shapers. Following their story through towns and cities, encountering the new University of Mars started by the Japanese (Robison, “Green Mars”, 256), Nirgal (of the second generation), promotes a moderate green Mars, “moderate green assimilationist—Booneans, Nadia called it.” (279) Nirgal’s discussion with Nadia and Art (a recently arrived character) moves the plot into developing political agendas. Specifically, Nirgal wants to meet with a radical group—the Bogdanovists—who are followers of Arkady. These Bogdanovists intend to retake the surface from their location in hidden caves underground (280). All of the parties are directly influenced by the Martian philosophers, such as Hiroko and John Boone. Circling around the underground are the parties of the Greens, the Reds, Free Mars, Mars First, and the Bogdanovists. This illustrates the tendency of humanity to break up into 36 varying political groups, rejecting Robinson’s initial aspirations of multiculturalism, and regressing into an early Earth tribal system. Operating out of what they feel as necessity, these underground parties recycle underground subversive guerilla tactics—usually displayed by groups working in the shadows against oppressive or unpopular governments—as a means of handling the ongoing conversation of pro/anti terraform. With their extended lifespan, many of the First Hundred are already well beyond the average human life, into their 120s (Robinson, “Green Mars”, 277). Even with the best lifespans, without the treatment many should have died long ago due to the harsh conditions of space, Mars, and cosmic radiation, but the treatments slowed the aging process and repaired the damages which allows for the continued presence of the First Hundred. Rather than having to consult written text or read the First Hundred’s essays, the younger generations have direct contact to understand the original source philosophies and primary ideas for Mars, allowing for the shaping of the younger generation directly by the original group. This serves to keep the scientific knowledge intact and promote the use of lived experience as a continuity, sustaining as a culturally intact community, passing down knowledge in a semi-tribal oral tradition, reinforcing the tribal dynamics of the current parties. The leaders such as Ann, Sax, and Nadia (in place of Arkady) become figurative tribal elders, further complicating the internal conversation on terraforming and human evolution. Carol Abott comments that this longevity medicine is something designed to fill a plot device rather than a natural occurrence in the story arch, “In the Mars Trilogy, Robinson uses the science fiction gimmick of longevity treatments to maintain the members of the first-hundred settlers through two centuries of Martian history…Robinson models the problems and selectivity of historical memory and history writing in the memories of these characters” (33-34). While 37 possible, there is not textual evidence to suggest the use of the treatment is out of context with the timeline of technological advancement or with the ability of the scientist to formulate and carry out advanced research. Abott’s point is necessary in the discussion of the novels, promoting a discussion on how the story in the novels could have otherwise ended or developed without the treatments, but such discussion is speculation outside the narrative instead of cemented in textual evidence. If naturally evolving in a storyline, then speculative fiction allows for such developments with no reason to suspect contrivance, such as an injection to extend human life, is out of the range of technological capabilities of the society in question. Living relics due to their age and important statures, the extended lifespan functions as a magical realist literary device, imbedding itself in the background (like Hiroko) similar to a mystical subplot. This fact can be considered magical realist because of the acceptance that two hundred plus years of age humans becomes an unremarkable ordinary fact—the new standard of life spans in the trilogy’s universe—not even provoking consideration. This technique is found in some other science fiction, such as the books and television shows Star Trek, Altered Carbon (moving consciousness between bodies), and Futurama. Notwithstanding the aforementioned, it is generally accepted that in science fiction the human body will die off between 100-200 years unless otherwise aided by advanced technologies or with the extreme exception, the evolution to another plane of existence as exhibited in Stargate Atlantis with the Ancients who evolve from corporeal beings to non-corporeal immortals. In general, science fiction does not concern itself so much with moving humans beyond mortality as it does with exploration of alien words, technology, space, or other science-based derivatives. Conversely, the other speculative genres of fantasy and horror are more inclined to produce immortal beings, using unknown sources of energy or magic to exist 38 forever, as seen in such popular series like the Doctor Strange comics with the ageless character The Ancient One (Huntley and Lee), six hundred and sixty-five-year-old Nicolas Flamel in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Rowling, 220), and the immortal alien Pennywise the Dancing Clown from Stephen King’s It. The First Hundred become permanent fixtures, interweaving with other threads to support the structure, yet provide continuing influence through the physical presence, but their effect is as much spatial as it is mystical—conjoining the spaces of political and scientific endeavor— which will prove valuable at the First Martian conference for keeping the planet on track for being retaken and reformed. This collective wisdom and presence is an important determining factor at the conference in which the government is initially outlined and the society on Mars shaped. Instead of debating over the original intentions of the parties’ founders, Ann gives direct advice for the Reds. Likewise, Nadia gives direct firsthand accounts and describes the direction Arkady intended for Mars (even though the party sprung up after his death). These voices, crossing space and time, allow for corrections in Mars’ sociological development and underpins the Second Revolution, demonstrating active utopia building and forming roots for a global rhizome to keep humanity out of the cradle indefinitely. With Nadia and Arkady’s influence being a strong presence at the conference, it is no mystery that Robinson aptly names this section of Green Mars, “What is to be Done?” (Robinson, “Green Mars”, 301)—the utopian question as Franko calls it (60). This section introduces the main points and arguments as seen from both parties (Red and Green— Slavophiles vs Westernizer—in 18th and 19th intellectual Russian history) [Gagaev, 64-64]), but more so the section directly invokes the political history of 19th and 20th century Russia, being a direct take from “What is to be Done?” (1901) by Vladimir Lenin, who wrote the pamphlet to 39 sway the masses toward communism. Lenin borrowed this phrase from Nicolai Chernyshevsky (also no coincidence that Nadia shares the same name) with his book What is to be Done? (1863), a novel which advocates for the elite to educate the poor village masses. Chernyshevsky was responding to Ivan Turgenev’s novel Fathers and Sons (1862) in which Turgenev tried to tackle the growing divide between the pro-western intellectuals of the 1830s and the younger generation who were (thanks to Turgenev for inventing the word) nihilists (Johannes Kepler University). Robinson’s use of the Russian history parallels strong feelings between the Reds of Mars and the historical Bolsheviks of Russia, who are both pushing for equitable laws and a new balanced society away from the former bourgeoisies (transnat) /tsarist (Earth) structure that precedes it. The use of the historical device foreshadows the future eco-Marxist government that evolves in Blue Mars. This divide between parties is a subtheme. The Reds as anti-terraforming nihilists or “Slavophiles” and the Greens as pro-terraforming intellectuals or “Westernizers”. The subtle impulse of nihilism, the nothingness or return to it, brings the impulse to destroy seen in Ann, “[She] clearly saw the revolt as a chance to wreck all the terraforming efforts and to remove as many cities and people as possible from the planet, by direct assault if necessary” (Robinson, “Green Mars”, 499). Ann is the ultimate nihilist, who at every turn attempts to destroy the supposed violations she sees being carried out. The use of the Russian pedagogy further highlights the struggles of the binary conversation between Ann and Sax. Considering that Nadia represents the body, it is in line with the logical flow of the story that some elements of Russian pedagogy would weave itself into the expanded conversations between parties and Mars futurism. The questions surrounding the emerging Martian society at the end of Green Mars though centers on the two core beliefs by the Reds and Greens about the future human utopia, 40 human-Martian identities, and how such identities will be shaped by the active participants. Whether Slavophiles vs Westernizers, Earth vs Mars, or lab science vs active science, there remains the dynamic energy of the original pro vs anti terraforming argument. The use Russian pedagogy informs the participants, allowing for a natural flow in the conversations of the future with the possible resolution of the internal dialogue of humanity’s future as represented by Ann and Sax. Ann’s Red Party is against mass immigration from Earth (whose population is reaching 10 billion), and holds the central ideology, the untouchable belief that habitable land would open up mass immigration and destroy the chances of a future independent Mars (Robinson, “Green Mars”, 311). Conversely, the Green Party has the assumption that it is the unquestionable human right to assert itself on the alien world (since it was devoid of life) with human values of ecology, changing the space as shapers to suit humanity’s will. Both Reds and Greens have extreme views right and left politically, but there is a compromise between the two parties in the form of a Martian government. They cooperate to regulate, control, and attempt to impose order on a planet that would descend again to chaos by the novel’s end. Ideas are put forth about regulation, land sharing, economics, environmental development, and terraforming, with most ideas being in the middle rather than on the two extremes of complete isolation or complete human control. These compromises, laid out during the conference (301), gives a chance for a new political realm to be explored, with options to start a society from scratch, integrating humanity spatially as co-existers with the ecosystem, rather than overlords as seen in classical Earth. No longer is land seen as a pure economic source. It is in this process that the redefined utopia emerges, “Robinson uses his Mars trilogy not to advance a cynical view of humanity and of humanity's inability to improve the conditions 41 of life, but to show us the difficulties inherent in any attempt to do so and to model ways of moving closer to a critical utopian society” (Otto, 119). The importance of these pages in which the conference unfolds display those attempts, the difficulties in understanding egalitarian and equitable structures in a new society based on unequitable and unequal histories of people born into such systems of unequal power. This is part of the change required, which is supported by Otto quoting Leopold “To arrive at such an ethic involves fundamental changes in the way we view the land, for ‘No important change in ethics was ever accomplished without an internal change in our intellectual emphasis, loyalties, affections, and convictions’ (246)” (120). Blue Mars and Utopic Restitution Book three opens with the statement, “Mars is free now. We’re on our own. No one tells us what to do” (Robinson, “Blue Mars”, 3). The previous two books had been about struggle, the struggle of what it means to call oneself Martian. Through the struggle of shaping the biosphere and the influence of politics on the people, the opening in the final volume in the trilogy sets the tone for development of individuality within the cyclical sphere of planet—identity—planet. Robinson states that you can have a “restitution of utopia if it falls apart” (Ford, 1). Blue Mars follows in this cycle of utopia/dystopia/restitution. The atmospheric pressure reaches 340 millibars by the end of the novel (Robinson, “Blue Mars”, 515), which is enough for people to walk on the surface with a CO2 mask and warm clothes at night. The genetic engineering of plants continues unabated throughout the series. Blue Mars signs a treaty with Earth recognizing Mars as an independent, multi-state planet, in which Mars agrees to help take the burden off Earth’s population crisis (15 billion) by allowing 10% new immigration per year, a number based on the annual population of Mars (195). 42 A change of identity, in conjunction with the changing planet, is forced on Ann (Robinson, “Blue Mars”, 85). Sax does not want her to die from not taking another longevity treatment, so he forces a treatment on her against her will, which is reflective of her sentiments about the rape/abuse of Mars and her role as figurative queen of the planet. Sax pushes the boundary of her identity by forcing her to live longer to see the end of her political and ideological movements of the Red faction. Much in the same way as the environment is changing, Ann will too change in ways that she is unable to conceive. These forced identity changes represent the context of human-over-nature and how, with the progress of time, some identities are changed for people, without their control due to the power dynamic and ability of the majority to suppress the minority. This woman-planet identity is especially clear midway on page 210 of Blue Mars, “The woman as planet,” which is deemed absurd by Ann, but the textual evidence supports the position throughout the trilogy as she pins herself as the savior of red (color and ecology). Her inability to see the idea as other than absurd comes from its simplicity, which she ignored for the previous 140 or so years, campaigning against everyone else and isolating herself from the collective group. Finally, from the supposedly objective brain of the enemy Sax comes a simple thought that explains her being, yet she refutes it as simple feminism, understating her struggles. The narrator even states that the new Martian arctic ocean is “Like a world covered in semen”, cementing the dichotomy of Mars as the masculine acting through Ann (210). The semen is the symbolic life-giving liquid, spewed out onto Mars as if it was the literal body of the Roman God, now ejaculated onto itself. The phrase also evokes notions of the early paleobiological “primordial ooze” from early Earth, paralleling the image of life arising from the ooze on Earth and repeating the process again on Mars in the arctic ocean. 43 The new Oceanus Borealis in Blue Mars is made from melted ice (not semen) that had been drilled or and let out of underground basins, encircling the North Pole. With the increasing heat and atmospheric pressure, liquid water and a planetary water cycle developed. Plankton, krill, fish, and squid populate the ocean and birds are seen circling over a dead seal at this stage (Robinson, “Blue Mars”, 209). Ann stands on the precipice of the ooze/ocean in this scene, where she examines it, taking in the full impact. A polar bear chases her back to her vehicle (211); symbolic irony of her fear of terraforming, now having risen up to kill her in the form of a polar bear. Even so, she stands on the edge as a goddess creator, the divine feminine looking at her unwanted creation, born in opposition to her. Like a goddess outcast from Olympia, it is undeniable that Ann is a part of the ocean as a creator-deity. The human grasp through scientific knowledge has become godlike (402). Contextually the two spaces meet and it is as if Ann sees herself—the movements and the connections—all pushing her to that point in time. She finally can embrace the reality of Mars, after being pulled down into it from her fantasy realms (213). The polar bear, the birds, the krill, and other life are the manifestation of the spatial and ecological success in those new spaces. Thanks to genetic engineering, the scientific community can directly shape the biome, which in turn rises to shape the identity of the people—cycling and effecting change on itself as a closed system—creating an integrated evolutionary system reflective of Earth biospheres. The cyclical relationships are strongest between the Ann/nature dynamics being that she is also the representative character of the Martian environment. Further textual support of her changing identity comes when Ann stops a group of Reds from blowing up a facility, “It’s pointless to achieve a red Mars by pouring blood over the planet. We have to find another way” (220). Stunning the naïve group of young Martians, Ann realizes she is powerless to go against 44 the now unstoppable tidal force of life emerging. She projects her changing views onto a group of believers who are following the old Ann, one that had not met herself by peering into the arctic sea (she peered into the void and the void looked back). Life has firmly taken root soon after the scene with Ann, as the description in Blue Mars states, “The atmosphere finally becomes 500 millibars, which is similar to 5,000 ft. in the mountains of Earth…allowing towering trees upwards of 150 meters to thrive.” (Robinson, “Blue Mars”, 333, 378). Ann’s influence for nihilism is seen in the outer solar system near the end of Blue Mars. The Uranian system, which unlike the Jovian and Saturn systems, has no plans to terraform their moons (433). The full implications of genetic engineering are displayed on the outer moons of the solar system. To adapt to the new environments, genetic engineering is used by the inhabitants of Mars to become better suited to the new terraformed environment. Sax Russell is injected with crocodile hemoglobin DNA to be able to breathe the CO2 in the atmosphere (333). Zo, a minor character who is the daughter of one of the Nisei, has the tiger purr gene injected (418), harkening back to an earlier state of a more primal form of humanity. Young citizens on Lake Geneva on Calisto, a moon of Jupiter, alter their eyes to adapt to the lower light (though gas lanterns were installed in the atmospheres of the gas giants to increase luminosity [396]) and some of the citizens took to growing gills to swim in the water and ice (427), harkening even further back in time to the origins of humanity in the primal oceans of Earth. Mercury and the asteroid belt are also colonized, with cities in domes and various levels of technology used to improve the environments (389-442). These are attempts to relieve the swollen population of Earth, which by the end of Blue Mars has reached 20 billion, thanks to widespread use of the longevity treatments extending human life span beyond 200 years and possibly up to 1,000 (“Red Mars”, 263). With the invention of an extremely fast pulsed fusion 45 engine (Robinson “Blue Mars”, 366), trips to Earth become only three days long instead of six months, opening the way for colonization of other star systems (511). Even with all the different colonies in the solar system, Earth and Mars are considered the dominant planets and have considerable sway over the developing allegiances and cultures in the new settlements (396, 433). The genetic changes play on the potential and origins of humanity at a basic, animal level. It tests the assumptions that humans are, at their base without alteration, prepared for the various environments outside Earth. For humanity to survive and adapt during the colonization and further terraforming processes, humans will have to acknowledge that the various environments in exoplanets will not be perfectly suited to their needs. Small changes in DNA may be necessary to survive in the new worlds, in extended periods of space, or for the continued success of the species as a whole. All these possibilities (like Matthias Lieven’s article) reevaluate humanity’s place in nature (the cosmos), in the environment, and push the debate of forced evolution by genetic engineering vs natural selection. These changes question the ethics of applying scientific knowledge in genetics and eugenics but leave open the speculative aspects for anyone to consider what may or may not be necessary adaptations in the future of the human species. This old argument has been given new life through Mars. Many parties and organizations arise that represent Mars ecology, social, to career oriented—another display of humanity’s preference for tribes, groups, or natural tendency to associate with people with similar ideas (Robinson, “Blue Mars”, 100). Eco-economics, initially included in the new Martian constitution, officially becomes a reality with the passing of laws by Nadia. As official law, the environment would stand equal with humans by being represented within the structures of law and order on a daily scale, diffused into the systems that dictate their 46 economics (240). With the newly adopted constitution and formation of the global Martian government, all businesses are owned by a co-op (Robinson, “Blue Mars”, 240). Eco-Marxist theory advocates for this type of relationship, one that reexamines the structural conflict of workers and the owners’ means of production (Greg, 32). In the story of Blue Mars, the proletariat worker becomes owner, partially fulfilling communist economic theory. This position of governor of Mars for Nadia is fitting since she is the pragmatic engineer, the logical thinker, the queen of Mars, who can bring about order and structure. In the span of about 180 years Nadia has circled back to this identity. Even though a child of another character is dubbed princess of Mars by Nirgal (Robinson, “Blue Mars”, 289), Nadia maintains the title given to her by Arkady in the early 2020s, coming back around to fulfill it, not just in form, but also in function, in the 2100s. She successfully displaces her competitor, the metaphorical queen, Ann, as almost literal queen; the representative body (Nadia) has followed the pro-terraforming (Sax) half of the mind. Nadia is cemented in her place as ruler of Mars, fully displacing Ann as queen when the Sax thinks to himself “Thank God for Nadia, the anchor holding them all to reality,” (568) representative of her being the archetype physical body of humanity. For without her, it may have all only been a dream of humanity to be on Mars, rather than a reality. The allusions to The Princess of Mars bridges the two literary space-times as Robinson connects his work to that of his literary forbears. The new Martian government mandates that there is no private property, but leases the land with tenure rights administered through the land commission (126). Abolishment of private property was one of the points advocated by Karl Marx in The Communist Manifesto, which was implemented during the Soviet Union and Communist China (Engels and Marx, 22). Though not purely communal, the idea of abolishment of private property is necessary in Blue Mars to create 47 a more equal and just society, as well as to keep some of the land uninhabited to please the Reds. In doing so, this pushes the new Martian society to always redevelop the resources they have in their current city-states instead of developing unused land like Earth had done. Various branches of the government are set up: a legislative with a duma, a criminal court, and an environmental court; all these have rotating elected seats (Robinson, “Blue Mars”, 126). The story here pulls directly from the communist sources to create the final version of its Marian society, economics, and culture, which are centered on the environment and ecology. The Reds and Greens come to a party compromise and are later described as Brown (524). Free Mars, a powerful political party that controls the new government set up in Blue Mars, bans immigration from Earth, which breaks the protocols of the treaty. This ban originated out of fear that the fragile Martian culture, only a century old, would be overrun by new immigrants who would bring old Earth problems and social structures. Earth’s response to the ban was to organize secret shuttles drops, releasing immigrants like paratroopers down to the surface, which begins another revolution and overthrow of the government by the remnants of the First Hundred to prevent a war with the U.N. The settlers are declared legal, since Mars had violated the treaty with their ban, and the total numbers dropped were no more than what had been prevented from immigrating previously (596). Some humans, especially those of the Jovian system, choose to terraform their new worlds (which would be a 5,000-year process) and engineer themselves to fit their environment in the meantime. Colonization and terraforming open the way for future human subspecies. The new Jovians, “Believe in water, in swimming and flying”, had lived in .1 g most of their lives, and as Zo states, “They’re the next step in evolution” (427). With the development of the gills, the future subhuman semi-aquatic species will potentially have no need to have a moon with an 48 Earth biosphere, but a mix of a water and tree world as they’ll most likely to be able to leap from the water to the air because of the low gravity, fulfilling the Rumi prayer said to John Boone in Red Mars (285). In the distant future these changes may lead to further changes or mutations, creating sub-species or near-human species. By the time the 5,000-year terraforming finishes, it is implied that, paired with the ships leaving near the end of Blue Mars to colonize a nearby star, humans will spread to the stars and have colonized the galaxy in the various human/subhuman/species forms. As William Burling might argue, the celebration, the merging, the investment of characters in the system creates their stake for change, with utopia unfolding through the democratic conversations. Their performances have been ones that has led to the restored utopia and the movement beyond base human form, allowing structured, controlled evolution through technology. Thus, colonization and terraforming open the door to unlimited human evolution, promoting a permanence of utopia through a forever dynamic, intersectional platform of identity. Conclusion Red/Green mixing of colors is symbolic of the Red and Green parties mixing to becoming a brown, which supposedly should have led to war, “Free Mars got the Reds on board to stop immigration, that’s why they’re having such success. They’re teaming up and closing down Mars to Earth, and soon after that we’ll be at war with them again” (Robinson, “Blue Mars”, 524). The mixing of an old Earth political socioeconomic system is an interesting creation that perhaps could have only been done on Mars. This merging of communism with environmental politics would be possible on Earth but may unfold differently because Earth has almost no untouched land spaces. Allowing for spaces to remain intact indefinitely, and for 49 humans to explore the relationship with those spaces, allows the humans outside those spaces to think critically about ecology and a land untouched by human presence, inviting renegotiation of the human/environment dynamic. Mars furthers this dialogue within the structures of spatial theory by having the embodiment of those spaces in the two main characters Ann and Sax as active participants (Mitchell, 563). The unification of Red/Green completes what Eric Otto had stated about land at the center of community “the Red/Green debate—the debate over land-use also involves finding an economic system that stresses not the monetary value of the land, as does capitalism, but the importance of a land-human community” (124). The moderate mixing of colors expresses itself by shifting to the personal space while even allowing the natural evolution of fluid queer relationships. Specifically, with Marina and Ursula after death of Vlad (their trio relationship), which opens a dynamic sexual theme of identity, with same-sex couples in Odessa, “men arm in arm on the street (a comforting sight), women hand in hand” (Robinson, “Blue Mars”, 503), which completes the expression of gender and form from locational feminism’s attempt to deconstruct constructed expectations of gender, sexuality, and identity based on spaces. It is fitting that such relationships, or another expression of the mixing of colors, would produce queer identities in Mars spaces, suggesting that such relationships will be naturally evolving in humanity’s future. Ann and Sax eventually come to a compromise after a lengthy, chaotic, nonromantic relationship. These two spend a good deal arguing until the middle of Blue Mars, when Sax adopts a more moderate approach, which opens the door in their relationship to rekindle an old romance. By the end, the two are seen in a romantic relationship, symbolic of the compromise between the two parties and humanity’s struggle to renegotiate with nature and natural spaces— 50 the compromise of terraforming and of untouched Mars. Sax and Ann are together in the end, “Sax stirred in her arms. She looked at his face,” but really this is a merging of Earth and Mars, “So she was a new Ann now. Not the Counter-Ann, not even that shadowy third person who had haunted her for so long. A new Ann. A fully Martian Ann at last. On brown Mars of some new kind, red, green, blue, all swirled together” (Robinson, “Blue Mars”, 604). Ann’s meta-identity conflict is resolved and Walsh’s feminism supports the intersectional evolutionary place Ann now occupies. Cho gives direct explanation on the use of revolutions in the novels, “Robinson’s repetitive technique can be seen with great effectiveness toward this end as each recurrence of revolution can be seen as a kind of controlled test run that reveals design flaws that are then corrected in subsequent designs” (67). By having the various revolutions, humanity refines the design of society and understands the errors in operation from pervious systems of power and influence. The third revolution was peaceful, which allowed for equal systems of power to be maintained and for the integration of immigrants without the hostilities of the previous centuries—allowing the newly formed government to stay intact, approaching it even closer to a utopic state. Now the two representative characters have merged, reflecting humanities’ merger with the land, in what Otto calls Blue ethic, which is the redefined nature of human/land as a community the “biological and abiological-together as necessary components of living ecology” (132). A definition that is an interesting dichotomy to human/land interaction, but one not far from how the trilogy could be interpreted. Otto does make a good point that the trilogy seems to be more about Earth than Mars. Seeing the how the trilogy is tending along same lines of future 51 Earth viewed through the lens of another world, it is textually evident that the ethics of Mars lessened the issues plaguing Earth. In respect to the summation of the trilogy being a discourse of future Earth, one interpretation that is a valid is how Earth could achieve a utopian state while colonizing other planets. This is a diverging point in the scholarship, with blue representing to Otto a redefined human/nature community, but to some such as White with the structural alchemical essay, blue is considered the utopian color, evoking a sense of blue Earth utopia instead of the red Mars being the place of utopia born by evolution. Heise also agrees with Otto “if, as a utopian work, Robinson’s mars Trilogy is intended to function as a blueprint for rethinking Earth on part of the reader, this paradigm change on the basis of Martian models here becomes part of the fictional universe itself” (468). It is understandable in that context of the need to shift the paradigm, the conversation about Earth, to help undo patriarchal and historical structures perpetuated. Abbotts supports Heise and Otto’s stance that the trilogy is a future primer for Earth that could be. That is not to say that White is arguing against Mars as utopia, but the difference in ontology of intertextual/contextual “blue” representation diverge the scholars. In reference to Abbott’s “Falling into History” article, “Robinson aligns himself with hard science fiction writers who have grafted explicit future histories such as Robert Heinlein, David Brin, and Ken MacLeod and with so-called cyberpunk writers like William Gibson and Bruce Sterling who, project the near future of an electronically linked and mediated society” (31-32). But K. Daniel Cho agrees with Robinson that it was not the attempt to weave a narrative about Earth, but Mars, “The most utopian of these projects understands that the ‘point is not to make another Earth. Not another Alaska, or Tibet, not a Vermont nor a Venice, not even an Antarctica. The point is to make 52 something new and strange, something Martian’ (Robinson, 1994, 2)” (66). This does follow Marx’s original intent, as quoted by Cho though “not the improvement of existing society, but the foundation of a new one.” Being removed from Earth caused different evolutionary developments and technological changes than would have not otherwise been present. Only if the Earth is seen from the lens of a prison, necessary to escape, would the freedom brought by Red spaces be more applicable, but this dystopic view does not occur till Green Mars. By the end of Blue Mars, humanity has colonized the solar system and set out to reach the stars, “Quite a few starships had already left, off to other likely planets. The step had been taken…the new diaspora, of humanity across the stars…The end of prehistory” (510). Robinson in 2017 gave another interview discussing the possibilities of Mars, “a planet like Earth, but it’s empty. Nothing there, possibly dead, possibly bacteria living underground there, we don’t know that; and now that’s an open question. But the fascination comes from this combination of real but empty” (Financial Times). Robinson’s description can be considered an expansion of Carl Sagan’s idea for Mars, “Mars has become a kind of mythic arena onto which we have projected our Earthly hopes and fears” (Sagan, 107). An allegory of survival on our own planet Earth, Robinson acknowledges that Mars isn’t the place to solve Earth issues and restart human society, but a place in which to work them out, If people are thinking of going to space as an escape hatch from problems on Earth, they’re making a bad mistake. There is no planet B. Earth is our only home…[escaping] that’s a bad fantasy, sort of let’s start over somewhere else kind of moral hazard you create for yourself where it’s ok to trash this planet or to kill ourselves because if 5,000 humans were alive on Mars that would make it ok” (Financial Times). 53 While being a real process, the terraforming act itself stands as the figurative allegory of rebirth, through the slow transformative process of building and reshaping the energy and effort required by humanity to solve its problems, working for a common goal. As Atkinson wrote, “Robinson’s gardens are utopian insofar as they offer a figuration for what it would mean to have a productive relation our environment as opposed to an accumulative or extractive relationship” (243). If humanity takes a look at how to integrate, then a utopian state could be built, in turn shaping the Earth or Mars, which can then in turn shape human evolution of the future. The newly emergent human society in The Mars Trilogy wants to avoid the old systems, the fears, placing its hopes onto Mars to reinvent old Earth ideas, like communism, into true new Martian political systems that are environmentally sustainable. That is what is uniquely Martian in the concept of eco-economics and eco-Marxism: the explorations of new ways of being, new ways of thinking, new ideas, new philosophies, and critical learning from the past mistakes of humanity. Mars is the initial proving ground to determine humanity’s capability to sustain itself beyond the evolutionary cradle. The Mars Trilogy encourages humans to look past their nose and consider the greater spectrum of beings around them on all levels, from the microscopic to the planetary. Mars helps humanity sort out it issues by pushing ideas such as spatial theory and environmental politics, gender fluidity and genetic engineering, giving humans a second chance to reinvent themselves, evolve to higher states of being out of greed, and supersede our primal and national boundaries. Warnke’s pedagogical interpretation applies itself to Robinson’s understanding of Earth, “If we are to understand a text, we must understand or come to understand the shape of the situations or topics it treats; we must be affected by its concerns and engaged in trying to answer the questions and problems it raises for us” (Warnke, 432). These 54 words ring true in speculative fiction and now in the cultural mind of contemporary society as we aspire to race to Mars in the 2020s. 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