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Falling Into History: The Imagined Wests Of Kim Stanley Robinson In The "Three Californias" And Mars Trilogies, Carl Abbott

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Analyzes Kim Stanley Robinson's two science fiction trilogies, the "Three Californias" trilogy '(Wild Shore, Gold Coast,' and 'Pacific Edge),' published during 1984 - 1990, and the Mars trilogy '(Red Mars, Green Mars,' and 'Blue Mars),' published during 1993 - 1996, to show how they incorporate themes of the complexity and contingency involved in settlement of the frontier associated with the "new Western history" of the 1980's - 1990's. The Mars trilogy co-opts the American West's status as a place of resource development when Robinson narrates the conquest of nature through technology. The Orange County trilogy explores, inter alia, intentional communities, …