LITMIR.BIZ

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and was familiar with, the letters, the essays, the pictures, the old copies of “the Martian News Letter,” the assorted documents, the scribbled notes, the obscure messages written in Martian script, and so on, but I did not know exactly how it had all come to be in the first place; and I did not have a mental model of what all the parts were suppose to add up to. And, The Files did not help in this; they were diffuse:

      The files were a way of storing bits and pieces for recovery, but they did not tell a connected tale, or even relate things to one another so I chose to do two things: (1) to put the events of the Epic into a chronological narrative order, and (2) to make a sort of encyclopedia of the facts, figures, characters, and events. Encyclopedia’s I understood — I had read most of the two sets our family owned, and much out of The World Book of our neighbor, Mrs. Peggy Easley, as well, by the time I was seven. Thus, the form of an encyclopedia, as a repository of knowledge, made sense to me.

      I set to work then culling The Files for data, extracting information from letters, and asking James questions in our extended correspondence. I began to type up some of the papers that were inscribed un James almost indecipherable hand writing, and started writing little transitions that linked some of the material together. I also made various inventories of different areas (music, publications and such) and tried to establish dates for items. I even started a cross-referencing card file that made it easier to find things in The Files.

      When James returned from active service in February of 1946, my task had been completed, and in any case, my interests were largely turning in other directions. By 1947, in my sophomore year at East High School, I was even leaving Science Fiction itself behind and was now involved in art and literature. But then that is another story.

      In the Following seven Chapters, Lee Streiff describes in his “Guide to the Epic of the Martian Empire” of how the tales and creation of the Epic… all came about.

      CHAPTER 1 The Basics: The Files, the Cosmology, and the gods.

      The Epic of the Martian Empire began in the fertile imagination of James Streiff somewhere around 1937’ when he was in the 8^th grade at Robinson Junior High School. Partially put together from the stories, pictures and characters in the Science Fiction magazines of the day that he read; partially invented out of what he knew of history and science; and greatly elaborated in conversations with his friends, the Epic grew over the next six years as James moved on to East High School and later to the University of Wichita. As time went on, ever more people became involved in the Epic, until something like fifteen similarly minded friends were all picking up and enlarging on it.

      Figure 1.1 James Streiff and Robert Parks, at fifteen, circa 1939

      As far as the influence of science-fiction was concerned, originally E.E. Smith’s “Gray Lensman,” series in Astounding Science Fiction was probably one of the most influential works in shaping the tone of the Epic although, “The Cosmic Engineers” by Clifford Simak, and stories by Isaac Azimov and A.E. Van Vogt also played an important role as well as those other authors. In terms of the historical background that James had, much of it was centered on a study of the Roman Empire.

      Drawing on this study, James modeled many parts of the historical development of the Martian Empire on that of the Roman Empire.

      1: The Files of the Parks, Streiff Construction Co.

      The Files of the Parks, Streiff Construction Co. were the heart of the Martian Epic. Very early James had purchased a cardboard alphabetical accordion file, and this became the repository of all the documents that went to make up the written record of the Empire. Within each pocket of the file there were folders that held the collected material on various subjects. Many folder titles were obscure, and might contain seemingly unrelated letters or sheets of paper with notes or drawings. Others were clear: “Parks” “Gods” and MNL (for the Martian News Letter). Basically, the files were organized according to James’ mental picture of the Epic’s constituent elements. That this system was too idiosyncratic and did not entirely work for others was clear when it later became necessary to add a card file with cross reference to subject explaining where certain documents might be found.

      Although my first organizations of the material that went to make up the Epic were chronological and “encyclopedic” — or topical — I later structured an outline that arranged the information into the following categories:

      I. Martian Studies

      A.Studies in Martian History

      1.The Historic Period

      2.The Exile

      B.Studies in Martian Culture

      1.The Martian Life before the Exil2

      2.Life in Andromeda

      3.An Historic Martian City

      4.The Parks, Streiff Construction Co.

      5.Martian Mythology

      6.The Martian Union

      7.Shultz’s Beer Parlor

      C.The Eich

      D.Accouterments

      1.The Sledgehammer

      2.Varnish

      3.The Space Cruiser

      E.Studies in Martian Geography

      1.Geographical History

      2.Syrtis Major

      3.Trivium Charontis

      4.Elysium

      5.Thyle I and II

      6.Tempe

      F.Martian Etiquette

      1.General Principals

      2.Greetings

      3.Rules in Organizations

      4.Female companions

      G.Population Figures

      1.Cities

      2.Through out the Universe

      II. Cosmology

      A.The Legends of prehistory

      B.The Galactic Map

      III. Contemporary Events

      A.The Martian News Letter

      B.Paul Carter and the Statosians

      C.The Vortex

      IV. The Martian Language

      V. The Arts

      A.Artwork

      B.Music

      VI. Plays, Stories and Opera

      VII. The University of Trivium Charontis

      VII. Tests

      IX. Left-Overs

      A.Dimensions

      B.Multi-dimensional Chess

      C.People, Places, and things

      D.The Martian Calendar

      It is basically this organization that will be used in the present work to examine the material, though not necessarily in the order of the outline.

      2: Cosmology

      Perhaps the best place to begin, in fact, is with the Cosmology of the Empire.

      Taking his cue from earthly cosmological legends, James visualized how the universe would have been expressed in mythic terms by the early Martians. A drawing

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