"The Exiles" is a science fiction short story by
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury (; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of modes, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery fictio ...
. It was originally published as "The Mad Wizards of Mars" in ''
Maclean's
''Maclean's'', founded in 1905, is a Canadian news magazine reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events. Its founder, publisher John Bayne Maclean, established the magazine to provide a uniquely Canadian persp ...
'' on September 15, 1949 and was reprinted, in revised form, the following year by ''
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher ...
''. First collected in ''
The Illustrated Man
''The Illustrated Man'' is a 1951 collection of 18 science fiction short stories by American writer Ray Bradbury. A recurring theme throughout the stories is the conflict of the cold mechanics of technology and the psychology of people. It was ...
'' (1951), it was later included in the collections ''
R Is for Rocket'' (1962), ''
Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales'' (2003), ''
A Sound of Thunder and Other Stories'' (2005) and ''
A Pleasure to Burn'' (2010, under the "Mad Wizards" title and presumably with the ''Maclean's'' text).
Plot summary
Circa the year 2020, the planet Earth contrived to ban and outlaw the books of supernaturalist authors such as
H.P. Lovecraft,
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wid ...
,
Algernon Blackwood
Algernon Henry Blackwood, CBE (14 March 1869 – 10 December 1951) was an English broadcasting narrator, journalist, novelist and short story writer, and among the most prolific ghost story writers in the history of the genre. The literary cri ...
and
Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24, 1842 – ) was an American short story writer, journalist, poet, and American Civil War veteran. His book '' The Devil's Dictionary'' was named as one of "The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature" by ...
. A century later in the year 2120, the dying crew of an interplanetary rocket-ship is headed for the planet
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...
. The crew is plagued by needle-sharp pains and nightmarish visions and dreams, caused by the incantations and magical fires of the martian Exiles -- the banned authors
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
, Blackwood, Bierce, Lovecraft and Poe, and their literary characters -- who are fearfully aware of the approaching rocket. The Exiles are already fading from existence because the people of
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...
have burned nearly all their books. The Exiles soon learn that the rocket captain is carrying away from Earth the very last copies of the forbidden books that survived the conflagration. In desperation, Poe and Bierce attempt to entreat
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
to negotiate with the rocket crew once it arrives, but the pompous Dickens bitterly resents his inclusion among mere fantasy and supernatural writers, and rejects Poe's request. The rocket crew does arrive, but finds only a few flickering signs that Mars might have been inhabited by the Exiles. Seeking to forever banish the 'supernatural' plague before they colonize Mars, the rocket ship's crew burn the books that the captain has brought with him, thus consigning the Exiles to oblivion.
Adaptations
"The Exiles" was adapted to the
Eclipse comic book ''
Alien Encounters ''No. 10 (December 1986) by
Tom Sutton
Thomas F. Sutton (April 15, 1937 – May 1, 2002)
He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force after graduating from high school in 1955, and worked on art projects while stationed at Fort Francis E. Warren, near Laramie, Wyoming. Later, stationed at It ...
.
Reception
Author and
literary critic Gore Vidal
Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his epigrammatic wit, erudition, and patrician manner. Vidal was bisexual, and in his novels and e ...
admired Bradbury and this story in particular, calling it "a good short story" and saying that it represented Bradbury "at his best".
[Vidal, Gore (1977), "The Wizard of the 'Wizard'", '']New York Review of Books
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...
'', Vol. 24, No. 15; September 29, 1977.
Related stories
Bradbury also wrote of similar futures where books were banned, with references to Poe and other authors, in the short stories "Pillar of Fire" and "
Usher II" (1950), and the novel ''
Fahrenheit 451
''Fahrenheit 451'' is a 1953 dystopian novel by American writer Ray Bradbury. Often regarded as one of his best works, ''Fahrenheit 451'' presents an American society where books have been personified and outlawed and "firemen" burn any that ar ...
''.
The
Three Witches
The Three Witches, also known as the Weird Sisters or Wayward Sisters, are characters in William Shakespeare's play ''Macbeth'' (c. 1603–1607). The witches eventually lead Macbeth to his demise, and they hold a striking resemblance to the ...
from Shakespeare's ''
Macbeth'' appear at the beginning of the story. Similar characters reappear in another of Bradbury's short stories, "The Concrete Mixer," also dealing with Mars, and they provided the title of Bradbury's novel, ''
Something Wicked This Way Comes''.
Despite its Martian setting the 1950 version of this Mars tale is set in the year 2167 (later adjusted to 2120, as various story timelines became better aligned). It is thus not a formal part of Bradbury's famous collection ''The Martian Chronicles'' which ends in the year 2057.
References
External links
*
Science fiction short stories
Short stories by Ray Bradbury
1949 short stories
Short stories set on Mars
Works originally published in Maclean's
Cultural depictions of Edgar Allan Poe
Cultural depictions of Charles Dickens
Cultural depictions of William Shakespeare
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