Orbiting Ray Bradbury's Mars

Gloria McMillan is a research associate at the University of Arizona and teaches English and literature at Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona. She lives in Tucson.

“a fresh, wide-ranging investigation...interdisciplinary approach is brilliant...a most worthy addition to the library of any reader or institution...engaging and interesting. McMillan has collected a refreshing wide variety of essays addressing previously unexplored topics of Bradbury, place, race, and even the actual Mars itself from disparate and enlightening perspectives”—SFRA Review; “McMillan has curated what are important contributions in Bradbury studies, partially filling a gap while crafting a cross-disciplinary love letter to Bradbury's memory”—Journal of American Culture; “a distinguished cast of scholars contributes to this powerful and intricately knit exploration...a valuable academic resource...each essay is packed with astute analysis and extensive research...the book provides a lasting contribution to Bradburry studies”—Science Fiction Studies; “a fine addition to the literature of Bradbury analysis, this book will appeal to scientists and non-scientists alike, and all those who have a fascination with Mars”—Sun News Miami.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsForeword (Peter Smith)Preface (Gloria McMillan)Introduction: Landing on Bradbury’s Western Mars (Gloria McMillan)Part One: Biographical LensMiracles of Rare Device: Bradbury and the American Southwest (Jonathan R. Eller)The Sorcerer’s Apprentices: How the Lives of Three Regional “Weird Fiction” Writers Became Creatively Entangled (Wolf Forrest)Part Two: Anthropological LensPrescient Border Crossing: “I See You Never” and the Undocumented Mexicans Americans Prefer Not to See (Marleen S. Barr)Bradbury’s Survivance Stories (Grace L. Dillon)A “Night Meeting” in the Southwest: Hospitality in Martian Chronicles (Adam Lawrence)Illustrating Otherness: Crossing Frontiers in The Illustrated Man (Francisco Laguna-Correa) Part Three: Literary LensLoss in the Language of Tomorrow: Journeying Through Tucson on the Way to “Usher II” (Aaron Barlow)Bradbury’s Mars: Pathway to Reinvention and Redemption (Kimberly Fain)The Desert Is Earth and Mars: An Ecocritical, Bachelardian Exploration of “And the Moon Be Still as Bright” and It Came from Outer Space (Christopher Cokinos)Part Four: Scientific LensWhy Does Mars Beckon Us? (Espinoza)The Exploration of Mars: An Unintentional Invasion? (David M. Acklam)A Martian Chronicle (Charles L. Dugan, Jr.)The Naming of Names (Christopher P. McKay and Carol Stoker)Part Five: Media LensDe-Alienating the Alien: The Limits of Empathy in NBC’s The Martian Chronicles Miniseries (Paul Cote)The Illustrated Man Illustrates Our Future (Howard Allen)Silver Locusts on the Silver Screen: Bradbury’s Western Mars Confronts 1960s British Art-Cinema (Martin R. Hall)Part Six: Educational LensTeaching Martians in Tucson (Gloria McMillan)About the Contributors