Lane K Maria D
Department of Geography, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station, A3100, Austin, Texas 78712, USA.
Isis. 2005 Dec;96(4):477-506. doi: 10.1086/498590.
Over two decades spanning the turn of the twentieth century, astronomers' claims about the landscape and climate of Mars spurred widespread scientific and popular interest in the possibility that the red planet might be inhabited. This essay offers a new explanation for the power with which the notion of an inhabited Mars gripped noted scholars and everyday citizens on both sides of the Atlantic. Rather than pointing to a rekindling of age-old philosophical interest in the plurality of worlds, it argues that turn-of-the-century scientific narratives about Mars derived much of their power and popularity from ties with the newly established discipline of geography. From mapmaking to travelogue-style writing, astronomers borrowed powerful representational strategies from the discipline of geography to legitimize their claims about the red planet. In making the link between geographical and astronomical science more explicit, the essay further suggests that turn-of-the-century representations of Mars could be productively recontextualized alongside geographical works produced in the same period.
在跨越二十世纪之交的二十多年里，天文学家们关于火星地貌和气候的论断激发了科学界和大众对这颗红色星球可能存在生命的广泛兴趣。本文为“火星存在生命”这一概念为何能吸引大西洋两岸的知名学者和普通民众提供了一种新的解释。该解释并非指向对古老的多元世界哲学兴趣的重新燃起，而是认为世纪之交关于火星的科学叙事，其影响力和受欢迎程度很大程度上源于与新确立的地理学科的联系。从天文学制图到旅行日志式写作，天文学家借鉴了地理学科强大的表现手法，来使他们关于这颗红色星球的论断合法化。通过更清晰地阐述地理科学与天文科学之间的联系，本文进一步表明，世纪之交对火星的描绘可以与同一时期的地理学著作放在一起，进行更有成效的情境再解读。
