“A Martian Sends a Postcard Home” is a poem written by Craig Raine. It’s a unique and imaginative piece that presents the perspective of a Martian trying to make sense of life on Earth. The poem uses vivid and surreal imagery to describe everyday objects and experiences in a way that would be unfamiliar to someone from another planet. It’s a fascinating exploration of language, perception, and the differences between cultures.
The poem uses defamiliarization technique which comes from Russian Formalism. It is a technique where certain ordinary objects are made to become unfamiliar in literary language. In the poem, the lines “Caxtons are mechanical birds with many wings” is a clear example of defamiliarization technique. The word “Caxtons” refers to William Caxton and he symbolically represents books. From the perspective of Martians, the earthly books are similar to the birds with many “wings” or pages. The image of a book and the pages have been made strange and unfamiliar to the reader in the poem and it is compared to a bird that also gives an element of surprise and surrealistic imagination.
However, the image of a bird and the way it rests on the bark of a tree has been made estrange in the poem. It is reflected when the speaker compares the books to a bird resting on the hands of the readers. It is similar to the image of a bird resting on the tree. The speaker also tries to explain the image of an earth from the lens of Martians which seems to be complex and estrange. It appears strange and the image of earth is simply described as stationary object covered with “mist” as if it is tired of revolving around as well as the engraving of earth under the “tissue paper”. The image that the Martian describes is estranged and it is the technique of defamiliarization that helps to navigate the image of earth and its cloud that may have appeared stationary to the Martians.
The other instance of defamiliarization is evident when the image of a television and the screen is defamiliarise. According to Martians, the television appears to be like a rain where it has the potential to make the screen appear darker meaning the black and white appearance of television. The other ordinary image that has been defamiliarise is the image of a car. The car which is probably a “Model T” is describe strangely in comparison to a “room” having the “lock inside” and the “key” which is used for the starting of the car. The image of a car window is also defamiliarise and estrange in a way that the Martians could see the flow of a movie film in it which is quick for anything to be missed. Clearly, the speaker is just observing the image of a car window where the reflection of earthly images quickly moves as soon as the car is in a state of motion.
The image of a watch and a wall clock is also defamiliarise in the poem with an element of surprise. The watch is defamiliarise with “time tied to wrist” and o “kept in a box”. It is projected in a way that there involves an element of surprise and a surreal glow of imagination as if it is something new. The other instance of defamiliarisation that can be seen in the poem is the ordinary image of a telephone. The image of a telephone has been made strange and unfamiliar in the poem where the Martian states that it is an “haunted apparatus sleep” that “snores” when one picks it up. The image is made estrange in a way that the description of people using a telephone is described in an element of surprise. The people from earth uses telephone for communication which is invisible to the naked eye. This invisibility is compared to a “ghost” that cries or communicates or carry it through the voice of a person “lips”. The Martian also highlights how people intentionally makes the telephone ring and it is made estrange where he states that they “tickling with a finger” which gives an image of dialling a phone number.
The other instance of defamiliarisation is the image of a toilet in the poem. The lines “Only the young are allowed to suffer/ openly” means the children who uses toilet or their potties openly outside. The other instance is of the “adults” and the toilet is made estrange and unfamiliar describing it as a “punishment room” perhaps because of the privacy concerns. There is an addition of element of surprise because the Martian states that there is only water but there is a lack of food inside. Clearly, the image of a toilet and a water drainage is being highlighted in the poem.
The other example is the image of a bedroom. It is stated when the people from earth at night hide themselves in “pairs” meaning husband and wife with their room locked inside. The image of a dream is also highlighted where it is made estrange to “eyelids shut” which is the imagery of a sleep.
The poem can also be read from a postmodern perspective. Since the postmodern believes in subjective and multiple truths or ideas , the poem expresses the multiplicity of perspectives of earth and the human behaviour in the poem. From the perspective of Martians, the books are just like the birds having plurality of wings and it is simply a book from the perspective of earth containing many pages. This element of multiplicity of perspective shows the poem is open to multiple interpretations.
As a postmodern poem, it also contains a playful style of language. The language is playful and it also consists of humour as well as an element of surprise in it. The surrealistic flow of imagination and thought adds an element of astonishment to Martians that humans on earth behave strange and mysteriously. It is the language which is playful and adds a layer of richness to meanings and different contexts to interpret the poem from a different set of angles and ideas.
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