Go to Mars and then， Come Back

Abstract： Tracy K. Smith innovatively applies a sci-fi lens in her 2011 poetry collection Life on Mars， in which the poet successfully combines the perspective of Sci-Fi and the form of poetry through her excellent command of literary imagination and unique sense of space.

Keywords： Tracy K. Smith； sci-fi perspective； poetry； universe； life.

The literary imagination of literary creations relies heavily upon the creators sense of space. In poetic creations， the poet expresses as much contemplative thoughts in depth within the very limited literary space in highly condensed poetic language， so that each word contributes to different angles of the main motif； while in science fictions， the writer needs to satisfy readers expectation of realizing all the impossibilities in vast limitless world created from an objective physical space of very limited possibilities and ordinary routine life. Focusing on the scientific astronomy motif in Life on Mars， Smith has constructed a unique space where the chance for vast impossibilities comes into the condensed poetic language and the deep thought-provoking meditations shine for the mundane life.

The common space for poetry and sci-fi in Smiths poems is represented by the juxtaposition of the grand and tiny objects from two different layers of her unique sense of literary space： broad universal space and ordinary living space. For instance， Smith writes in the poem “Sci-Fi” that “History， with its hard spines & dog-eared / Corners， will be replaced with nuance， / Just like the dinosaurs gave way / To mounds and mounds of ice.” The notion of “history，” a grand concept of human knowledge for the origin and the development of the world， is juxtaposed with the notion of tiny detailed “nuance” just as how the huge sized animal， the dinosaurs， have been compared with the little cubic sized water， the ice. Another poem “The Universe Is A House Party” starts with the sentence that “The universe is expanding，” giving the readers a natural expectation of the images of the vast universal space， faraway planets and strange unknown beings， while the following images are all unimpressive items such as “postcards and panties， bottles with lipstick on the rim， orphan socks and napkins dried into knots.” The boundless universe has been “whisked into file” with the radio waves from the past and the limited amount of the “air inside a balloon.” Moreover， the metaphor that Smith uses in the title has indicated her connection between the two spaces.

The extension of space is the base for all literary creations， as Smith states that “when a poet steps out of him- or herself， I believe he steps into something with the potential to be truer， larger， more perceptive and empathetic” （134）. The act of stepping out of oneself is the premise for the creator to direct the sight toward the larger world and ponder the relationships around him/her， and it is through this act that the literary space begins to grow. For Smith， the act of stepping out of herself is realized not through a single expansion or compression of the literary space， it is not a one-way journey from the real world to the imagination and literary creation but the two layers of her literary space， the broad universal space and the ordinary living space， are well connected and integrated through careful literary design of juxtaposing the contrasting images of the extremely opposite size. Smiths unique sci-fi perspective has provided her readers with their own “Hubble Telescope” to re-examine the common life， with the faraway， vast， strange and unknown universe as foreground. The integration of the universal and living space through Smiths sci-fi perspective and “the trope of ‘life on Mars，” according to Ange Mlinko， “make us see our present world anew， and end up at every turn affirming an anthropic universe” （422）.

Through the juxtaposition of the grand and tiny images， Smith has brought the faraway universe nearer to the readers through her sci-fi telescope， while at the same time， the juxtaposed tiny common items have also been elevated to a larger scope. Moreover， as stated above that when the universe becomes a house party， all the tiny items in the household of the postcards and panties， bottles and socks have become the planets in the universe， just like Mars. The elevation of the ordinary life with its ordinary items is what Smith intends to bring to her readers through her Hubble Telescope. Just as what Smith has stated that “I wanted to write dystopic poems as a way of thinking about America and the future that America is laying the tracks for” （174）， her unique use of sci-fi perspective in creating poetry， besides serving as the lens to extend her modern readers sight outward to the vast universe， more importantly， serves as the lens to direct the straightforward sight from a faraway unknown future back to the present， which， after all， decides what a future is waiting ahead. Therefore， the lesson that the life on Mars teaches is： Go to Mars and then， come back.

Works Cited

[1]Mlinko， Ange. "The Lyric Project： On Tracy K. Smith and Cathy Park Hong." Parnassus： Poetry in Review， vol. 33， no. 1-2， 2012， pp. 417-426.

[2]Schwartz， Claire. ""Moving Toward what I Don't Know"： An Interview with Tracy K. Smith." Iowa Review， vol. 46， no. 2， 2016， pp. 173-203.

[3]Smith， Tracy K. "My Stevens： Believing as if." Wallace Stevens Journal， vol. 35， no. 1， 2011， pp. 133-136.

作者簡介：冯颖，1993年10月10日出生，女，汉族，现就读于西安外国语大学英文学院2015级英语语言文学专业，主要研究方向：美国文学。