Abstract

Through a reciprocal writing of Terran and Martian histories, Robinson dismantles ideological frames that shaped the Earth’s failed revolutions of the twentieth century. Rather than succumbing to cynicism, Robinson’s pragmatic work carries an optimism that depends on sharing faith that human evolution will learn from an epic history of the Earth’s ruination. The act of reading Robinson’s trilogy requires continuous engagement in figuring and refiguring scenarios of the future. Through an array of topoi, Robinson shapes motifs that fuse personal histories with historiography. What we may learn from the spoil of the Earth becomes rendered ever more precisely through a history of Mars that we participate in imagining.

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