Planting the Sci-Fi Flag on Mars

Catching up with Kim Stanley Robinson's article in yesterday's New York Times about the symbiotic relationship between Mars and science fiction, from Lowell to the present day. Of the era in which Robinson created his own bestselling Martian trilogy, he writes:

Combining Viking's data with terraforming theory created an imaginative space as rich as that of Lowell's Mars, or richer, because with the aliens finally gone, the story became so clearly about us. Humanity on a rocky planet, trying to tend a biosphere. It was not only possible but necessary to consider wilderness, sustainability, ecology, economics, social justice, utopia — in short, all the things novels should talk about, and all laid out with marvelous clarity on the clean slate of Mars. It was a lucky time to be writing science fiction.

Which leads back to a recent post about Heinlein, in which I raised the theory that science fiction has always, at least to some extent, functioned as social criticism--a theory I feel almost silly voicing aloud, as surely somebody must have noticed this long ago, until I read quotes that indicate that even "Heinlein scholars" haven't fully figured this out yet. But Robinson clearly has...and his novels (including the ones not set on Mars) are some of the best implementations of the theory around.