(C) F Newsmagine
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Stranded, Sort of [1]
['Alex Lee', 'Bfa', 'Any', 'All Pronouns', 'Started Writing For Fnewsmagazine In He Mostly Copyedits Now', 'So Watch Out For Her Rare Articles', 'Please Enter Your Name Here']
Date: 2025-07-26 23:13:02+00:00
The Martian, Andy Weir’s self published debut, was released in 2011. I’ve read it 14 times.
The book has a simple premise – Mark Watney, an astronaut on Mars, becomes stranded on the planet in the midst of a windstorm that created mission-abort conditions. Presumed dead, Watney is abandoned, and he spends the rest of the novel endeavoring to get home.
I read the novel for the first time just after the movie adaptation came out in 2015. I was a tiny neurodivergent person who clung to reading as an escapist coping mechanism, and plowed through the 387 page book in two days (I had the paperback with Matt Damon on the cover – in retrospect, by far the worse cover.)
After reading a bajillion generic YA fantasy novels, I fell in love with the Martian. It’s this little realistic sci-fi novel that takes the time to explain how one could create water on Mars with hydrogen, oxygen, and fire – yet also in which the protagonist dubbed a unit of measurement “pirate-ninjas.” I was struck by Mark Watney himself, a male character who wasn’t emo, angsty, or in love with anyone. He was just a guy, who was funny and good at solving problems. I was shocked by Andy Weir, who trusted his readers – trusted me! – enough to explain the minutiae of botany, microbiology, physics, chemistry, and the inherent nature of humanity.
“The Martian” is told in short chapters, labelled ‘logs,’ and organized by sol – martian days. Therefore, if someone did the math, it’s possible to send out logs on the day in which they were fictionally written by Watney.
“Martian Messages” is a tumblr and a substack that — similar to “Dracula Daily” – delivers the book in real-time — one log at a time, on the day Watney ‘wrote’ it.
In November of 2023, “Martian Messages” sent out its first message.
In September of 2023, I began my first day of college.
As I slept in my one-room dorm with two other people, both of whom were still effectively strangers to me, I read how Watney struggled with constant loneliness as he took stock of his surroundings. As he counted how many days he could survive with the food left behind, I was doing mental math on how many meals I could stretch out of an Aldi bag. Watney was counting sols. I was counting weeks until the next break.
I struggled to make new friends in Chicago. The safest thing felt like staying in my dorm while State street wailed outside. Instead of floating in a vacuum of strangers and unfamiliarity, I could read how Watney struggled to make choices without being able to contact NASA, as the storm that stranded him took out all communication technology.
Eventually Watney was able to journey to Pathfinder, a non-fiction Mars lander built by NASA. He used its satellite technology to reconnect with NASA on Earth. He sent messages confirming he was alive, and began coordinating how he could get home. That night, I called my two best friends back home, something I hadn’t done since I moved to Chicago. It had felt too hard – they were too far away. But if Watney could drive hundreds of miles in a rover that topped out at 25 kph, I could pick up my phone and dial two numbers.
Watney starts solving problems by taking one small step – space pun intended. Running diagnostics on the water reclaimer, jerry-rigging a wheelbarrow to bring martian sand into the HAB. Eventually he’s taken a leap — not for mankind, but for martian survival. Eventually, with the power of botany, (and poop fertilizer) Watney grows potatoes on Mars — simultaneously doing what no man has done before, increasing his chances of survival, and (definitionally) colonizing Mars!
This strategy was applicable to my own life — I felt lonely, so I applied for a job at F Newsmagazine. Then I hung out with my coworkers. I went to editorial meetings, and wrote an article. F News is now one of the most fulfilling things I do.
As I began my sophomore year, his logs became less and less frequent as there were more periods of long waiting or intense grunt work – waiting for NASA to respond, or transforming both the rovers into the finest macgyvered RV that Mars has and will-ever see. His last log was sent in May, as his crew picked him up and began their flight home. As I took stock of the end of my sophomore year, I suddenly felt immense achievement. My second year was much better than my first. I had real friendships, and the bus routes finally made sense. I didn’t feel like I was just surviving anymore.
And more than that – Chicago finally felt like home. Leaving Minnesota was one of the hardest things I’d ever done. I was leaving everything behind — comfort, friends, family, memories — in favor of a city I’d only been to once before. But this past May, May 22, the day I was able to go back to Minnesota, was the same day Watney boarded the Hermes, the spaceship that would take them back to earth, back home. We both made it.
Watney’s story isn’t about space, really. It’s not even about Mars. It’s about tenacity, and problem solving, and fighting because what you’re fighting for is worth everything you have in the moment. You have to keep surviving. There’s nothing else to do.
If you’d like to join in reading Watney’s logs, subscribe to the Martian Messages Substack. The messages will begin again in November 2025.
Fun fact: Watney is also canonically from Chicago. Go Bears!
[END]
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