Deal Me In Lite, Week 14: "February 1999: Ylla" by Ray Bradbury
Another visit to the Ray Bradbury anthology this week, courtesy of the Ace of Spades, and I must say this story was much more satisfying than the one last week.
"February 1999: Ylla" is an interesting little story that focuses on a Martian couple, Mr. and Mrs. K, otherwise known as Yll (the husband) and Ylla (the wife). They live a calm, and I suppose typical, existence on the Red Planet. However, they are not happy. They become unhappier when Ylla starts having strange dreams about men arriving in a strange silver object. In her dreams, they state that they come from the third planet. This is, of course, is impossible according to Yll -- he reminds Ylla that their scientists have determined there is too much oxygen in the atmosphere of Earth to support life ("Earth" is what the men in Ylla's dream call their planet).
Still, Ylla keeps dreaming about the arrival of the spacemen, and her dreams become much more vivid. She even dreams about falling in love with one of the spacemen, which of course doesn't sit too well with Yll. He begins a series of ploys to keep Ylla's mind off the spacemen, but nothing seems to work. Soon, there comes a day when Ylla is convinced, through her dreams, that the spacemen are arriving that day, and she can't wait to meet them. The events of that day are surprising and tragic -- I won't spoil the story for you, but suffice it to say that Ylla never gets to meet her spaceman.
One of the things that I liked about this story is the way in which Bradbury almost effortlessly paints a picture of a Martian couple and Martian existence that is immediately believable and realistic in the mind's eye of the reader. It's quite a feat.
This story was originally included in the short story collection/pseudo-novel The Martian Chronicles, which I have never read. However, after having read and enjoyed this story, I am thinking the stories in this collection might be suitable fodder for a future Deal Me In sequence.
I, shamefacedly, have never read the Martian Chronicles either. My favorite Bradbury story featuring Mars is The Exiles. Great concept for a story. I think I have Ylla in one of my anthologies somewhere now that I think of it. "To the Bat Cave!"
ReplyDeleteI see more Bradbury Mars stories in my future, too! :-)
DeleteAs much as I've enjoyed Bradbury's stories over the years, I've never read The Martian Chronicles, either. This story sounds very good.
ReplyDeleteI've enjoyed many Bradbury stories, but my only exposure to The Martian Chronicles was a decade or so ago when my son chose the collection as a summer reading choice for school. He shared his thoughts on a few of the stories with me. I really should read them all myself!
ReplyDeleteI bought The Martian Chronicles this week and have begun reading, including this story. It felt odd to me that it would be presented as a stand alone story, as there seem to be so many things unanswered at the end. Iloved the mood of the story, though.
ReplyDeleteInteresting observation. My understanding is that these were originally independent stories that Bradbury cobbled together into The Martian Chronicles. Maybe he wrote some additional filler to help tie them together when he did that?
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