In The Martian Chronicles, which Ray Bradbury wrote in inspired vignettes over several years and assembled into a novel, the tenuous perception of the Martian civilization and its liminal survivors is expressed through fairy tale prose.

At the end of The Martian Chronicles, after that civilization has been wiped out by contact with the invading earth settlers, a father promises his children to take them to see actual Martians. And this seems like a fairy tale promise, by a father, to his imaginative children. But, like in a magician’s trick, he brings them into the ruins of a Martian city, and shows them — in their own reflections.

The Martians were there–in the canal–reflected in the water. Timothy and Michael and Robert and Mom and Dad.

The Martians stared back up at them for a long, long silent time from the rippling water….”

Perhaps one day we too may see ourselves at home in dreamtime, like these children saw themselves, finally, at home on Mars.