Mars in fiction from his home planet, often invading Earth, but sometimes simply a lonely character representing alienness from his surroundings. Martians, other than human beings transplanted to Mars, became rare in fiction after Mariner, except in exercises of deliberate nostalgia – more frequently in some genres, such as comics and animation, than in written literature. Mars in fiction Fictional representations of Mars have been popular for over a century. Interest in Mars has been stimulated by the planet's dramatic red color, by early scientific speculations that its surface conditions might be capable of supporting life, and by the possibility that Mars could
Earthling English "yrþling", in the meaning "ploughman". The sense of "inhabitant of earth" is first attested in the 1590s. Its use in science fiction dates to 1949, in "Red Planet" by Robert A. Heinlein. The word "Human" has the same imposed meaning, since it originates from a PIE word "*ǵʰmṓ" "earthling" < "*dʰéǵʰōm" "earth". Compare Latin "homo" "human" and "humus" "earth, soil". Its modern use in science fiction literature contrasts "Earth" (the planet) with outer space or hypothetical other planets with sapient life. The term was often used in 1950s science fiction film and novels by aliens to express a disdainful