An Evening on Mars

Abstract

Chapter 35 begins with the Red Planet success of Pathfinder and the Mars rover Sojourner, and continues with Bradbury’s hosting of NASA’s 1998 Thomas O. Paine Memorial Award ceremony under the title “Witness & Celebrate: An Evening on Mars with Ray Bradbury.” Distinguished film actors, including Nichelle Nichols, John Rhys-Davies, and Charlton Heston, read from ten Bradbury works. The chapter also discusses “The Affluence of Despair,” Bradbury’s Jeremiad against America’s obsession with self-performance and extreme media reporting, which he likened to the world he had tried to prevent in Fahrenheit 451. The chapter closes with an analysis of Bradbury’s love for F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night, and what this love reveals about his ability to fend off the worst effects of fame.