Red Mars Allusions and Cultural References

Literary and Philosophical References

• Albert Camus (1.2.53)
• Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil (1.2.65)
• Machiavelli (1.2.29; 3.5.136; 6.4.51)
• David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (2.3.15)
• Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit (2.4.145)
• Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Yevtushenko (3.4.68-69)
• William Topaz McGonagall (3.4.70)
• Edgar Rice Burroughs, A Princess of Mars (3.7.50-51; 5.8.145)
• Ralph Waldo Emerson (4.2.43)
• Aristotle (4.2.51)
• Hermes Trismegistus (4.2.51)
• William Shakespeare, Hamlet (5.4.1)
• Pantheism (5.7.82)
• Existentialism (5.7.82)
• Rumi Jalaluddin, "I Died as a Mineral" (5.7.109)
• Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels (6.2.42)
• P.G. Wodehouse, Reginald Jeeves (6.4.4)
• Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols, or, How to Philosophize with a Hammer (6.5.75)
• Arthur C. Clarke (6.4.77-79; 6.5.7)
• George Orwell (7.1.16)
• Thomas Paine, The American Crisis (8.2.50)

Religious and Mythological References

• Book of Luke 9:10-17 (1.2.4)
• The Koran (1.2.53)
• Book of Jeremiah 5:1-2 (1.2.116)
• The Land of Nod (1.2.176)
• Pandora's Box (2.4.113)
• Mars/Ares (3.5.132)
• Neptune/Poseidon (3.5.133)
• Book of Genesis 1:27 (3.6.75)
• Rusalka [sic. Rusalki] (4.2.3)
• Baba Yaga (4.2.3)
• Adam and Eve (5.6.58)
• Persephone (5.8.143; 5.10.105)
• Shintoism (5.9.45)
• Zen Buddhism (5.9.45)
• Om Mani Padme Hum, Sanskrit Mantra (5.10.6)
• Lot's wife (6.2.91)
• The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (6.4.9)
• Zeno's Paradox (6.4.68)
• Athena/Minerva (6.4.8)
• Gospel of John 1:1 (7.3.50)
• Judgment Day (8.2.30)
• 1 Peter 4:3-5 (8.2.30)

Historical References

• Percival Lowell (1.1.3)
• Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1.2.31)
• Persepolis (1.2.53)
• The Peacock Throne (1.2.53)
• Reinhold Messner (1.2.107)
• Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova (2.2.21)
• Veni, Vidi, Vici (2.2.44)
• "I Have a Dream" speech (2.2.9)
• Sigmund Freud (2.4.55)
• Outer Space Treaty (2.4.125; 5.9.18)
• Alea iacta est (2.4.150)
• Chernobyl (3.2.29; 3.3.4)
• Joseph Stalin (3.6.1)
• Manifest Destiny (3.6.74)
• Hildegard of Bingen (4.2.17)
• Hippocrates of Cos (4.2.51)
• Galen or Aelius Galenus (4.2.51)
• Wilhelm Wundt (4.2.51)
• Carl Jung (4.2.51)
• Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus (5.6.42)
• The Great Frontier (5.9.57)
• The American Revolution (5.9.57; 6.5.149; 7.4.6)
• Bayeux Tapestry (5.10.98)
• Constitutional Congress (5.10.106; 6.2.52)
• Abraham Maslow (5.10.109)
• The Battle of Waterloo (6.2.18-19)
• James Madison (6.2.52)
• Statue of Liberty (6.2.62)
• La Violencia, Colombia 1948-1958 (6.3.15)
• Fredrick Winslow Taylor (6.5.53)
• Rosicrucianism (6.5.90)
• Karl Marx/Marxism (6.5.109, 6.5.113-116)
• Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (6.5.115-116)
• Jansenism (6.5.115)
• Zoroastrianism (6.5.115)
• George Washington (6.5.150)
• Thomas Jefferson (6.5.150)
• Thomas Paine (6.5.150)
• Andrew Jackson (6.5.150)
• Forrest Moseby (6.5.150)
• Abraham Lincoln (6.5.154-155)
• Fidel Castro (6.5.172)
• Pompeii (6.5.190; 7.3.159)
• Iraqi Red Crescent Society (7.2.6)
• Bombing of Hiroshima (7.3.156, 7.3.159)
• Apollo 1 (7.3.156)

Some Choice (Not All) Science References

• Mariner and Viking Mars Orbiters (1.1.4)
• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (2.3.95)
• Coriolis force (2.3.116)
• Selfish Gene theory (2.3.160)
• Phlogiston theory (2.4.56)
• Lamarckism (2.4.134)
• SETI program (3.6.123; 7.3.56)
• Gaussian Curve (4.2.45)
• Greimas semantic (or semiotic) rectangle (4.2.47)
• Sublimation (5.8.7)
• Occam's Razor (5.8.93, 5.8.180)
• Panspermia theory (5.8.123)—called the space-spore theory in the novel
• Roche Limit or Roche Radius (7.4.78, 7.4.93)
• Aerobraking (7.4.94)

Place References

• Mauna Loa (1.2.15)
• Mojave Desert (2.2.52; 5.2.73)
• McMurdo Station (2.1.6)
• McMurdo Dry Valley (2.2.52)
• Aptera, Greece (3.3.49)
• The Roman cisterns (3.3.49)
• Sahara Desert (3.5.23)
• Gobi Desert (3.5.23)
• Ayers Rock (3.5.49)
• The Urals (3.6.1; 3.7.4)
• Karakoram Mountain Range (3.7.30)
• The Himalayas (3.7.30; 8.2.66)
• Mt. Fuji (3.7.30, 3.7.32, 3.7.33)
• Villefranche-sur-Mar (4.2.1, 4.2.64, 4.2.68)
• Pont du Gard (4.2.23)
• Lascaux (4.2.63)
• Avignon (4.2.62, 4.2.64)
• Côte-d'Or (4.2.69)
• Golden Gate Bridge (5.7.69)
• Chryse (5.8.145)
• Lake Missoula and the Washington scablands (5.8.9)
• Calcutta (6.2.45)
• Limestone Caves of Luray (6.3.30)
• Mecca (6.3.82)
• Havana (6.5.172)
• Barcelona (7.1.16)
• Straits of Gibraltar (7.2.18)
• The Amazon River (8.2.38, 8.2.62)
• The Grand Canyon (8.2.66)
• The Arctic Sea (8.2.107)
• Stonehenge (8.2.141)

Pop Culture References

• Fauvist/Fauvism (1.2.7; 5.9.135)
• Mardi Gras (1.2.65, 1.2.95)
• Comedy and Tragedy masks (1.2.93)
• Toots & the Maytals, "Pressure Drop" (2.2.73)
• Sherlock Holmes (2.3.13; 5.5.26)
• Lone Ranger (2.3.13)
• Beethoven, Pastoral Symphony (2.3.59, 2.3.111)
• Buster Keaton (2.3.94)
• Clarence and Spencer Williams, "Royal Garden Blues" (3.2.7)
• King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band (3.2.30)
• Bessie Smith (3.2.39)
• Louis Armstrong (3.3.51, 3.3.57; 3.4.68)
• The Hot Five (3.3.55)
• Jimmy McHugh and Dorthy Fields, "I Can't Give You Anything but Love" (3.3.56)
• Fats Waller, Harry Brooks, and Andy Razaf, "Ain't Misbehavin'" (3.3.59)
• Harry B. Smith, Francis Wheeler, and Ted Snyder, "The Sheik of Araby" (3.5.27)
• Rene Magritte (3.5.100)
• Johnny Appleseed (3.7.90)
• Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox (3.7.93-94; 6.1.12)
• Frankenstein's monster (4.1.4; 6.5.146)
• Sami Claus and Böögen (5.3.9; 5.3.19)
• Tibetan mandalas (5.9.34)
• M.C. Escher (5.10.6)
• "Carrying coals to Newcastle" (5.10.8)—an idiom
• Mona Lisa (5.10.85)
• Superman (6.4.35)
• The Wizard of Oz movie (7.1.19; 7.3.101)
• "Like the cat that ate the canary" (7.3.75)—an idiom
• Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields, "On the Sunny Side of the Street" (7.3.41)
• Arthur Johnston and Jonny Burke, "Pennies from Heaven" (7.3.41)
• Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby, and Oscar Hammerstein II, "A Kiss to Build a Dream On" (7.3.41)
• Sergei Prokofiev, Peter and the Wolf (7.4.150)