Week Nine: The Martian

The Martian was an incredible fun story to read. Having already watched the movie, I was very curious to see how the book would turn out. Typically I'm the type of person that favors the book over the adaptations, and this case was no different. Although the movie was incredible and very entertaining to watch, the book somehow managed to make it even more entertaining with just words.

It was very incredible to see how much knowledge was put into this book and the explaining of every situation that Mark was in. Even the simple notes made in the very beginning about how the astronauts' vest works left me in awe by the raw and intense research that Andy Weir had to go through to explain that... and he did so in such a hilarious format too. The whole narration being through Mark's perspective in one of his Logs while stranded in space added even more sauce to the story, really making it feel like I was at a bar having a fun conversation with this man that happened to get stranded in Mars.

The novel overall felt like a knowledgeable book that in a way also criticizes the way we live. It brought a bit of hope to this idea that, even in an awful situation you can still make it out alive.

 I also thought it was quite ironic how I ended up choosing this story to read when we are currently undergoing a similar stressful situation with COVID-19: some people are stranded in unknown territory; most are required to be locked inside, and some are facing an incredible stressful situation all alone with the only means of communication being over a screen. And perhaps it was due to this that I also ended up enjoying the book so much, as it felt so real.

Different to most Sci-Fi works that I have read and seen, The Martian felt incredibly realistic in the most odd way. It had no aliens or massive battles, rather the main conflict of the story was Mark trying to figure out ways to survive all alone in this planet that he really only should be visiting for 30 something days. He didn't have to fight giant monsters or encountered an odd-looking green baby that could levitate things with the power of his mind, instead he ends up recording this crazy-funny logs of his experience in Mars including creating an entire vegetable garden with his own ... well, let's call it residues.

In a way Sci-Fi has always seemed to me like works that like to explore the possible outcomes of our future, giving emphasis in the use of technology and the fears and hopes that comes with it. Typically those are works that like to explore the unknown and the questions we have about it, but The Martian felt different in that aspect to me. Rather than trying to create a brand new world, Andy Weir seemed to be actually studying our own in a very unique perspective. Like I mentioned before, Mark's main struggle was quite ordinary in a very extraordinary situation, and his writing seemed to accentuate that even more by making it so entertaining and real. Mark didn't seem like those fantastical heroes that I could only meet in movie screens, but rather an ordinary man with a very nice sense of humor and an extraordinary mind and intelligence.

Overall I had a lot of fun reading this book, and as odd as this may sound, it kinda made me feel better about this entire quarantine situation. Although Mark is not a knight in a shiny armor with a cool gun and a fancy space-ship, he still felt very much like a hero to me.