Today - Tuesday 10th November - I am giving a talk on
Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles at Seventy. It's online, entirely free, and open to all. But you do need to register to receive the link. (The talk will be delivered via a
Zoom webinar.)
It will also be recorded, and made available for future viewing, but this could take a few weeks.
The talk is part of the University of Wolverhampton's annual ArtsFest. Here's the official blurb for the event:
This year saw the widely celebrated one-hundredth anniversary of the
birth of Ray Bradbury (1920-2012), the American author whose best-known
work Fahrenheit 451 stands alongside Brave New World and Nineteen
Eighty-Four as a classic of twentieth-century dystopian fiction, and
still holds relevance today.
But this year also saw the seventieth anniversary of Bradbury’s
earlier The Martian Chronicles, a book which better captures the breadth
and fragmentary nature of Bradbury’s many styles and interests, and one
which more clearly reveals the irony of Bradbury’s association with the
science fiction genre. For all its reliance on science-fictional
tropes, The Martian Chronicles is a work which builds dream-like fantasy
on top of Bradbury’s own fantastical influences. And, while projecting
and warning about our future, it relies heavily on a rear-view mirror to
reflect on colonialism, invasion and occupation.
In this illustrated lecture, Phil Nichols recounts the history of
The Martian Chronicles, and shows how this short-story collection
masquerading as a novel has constantly evolved with our changing times.
He considers the long shadow the book has cast over television, radio
and film science fiction, and shows how Bradbury’s unscientific book has
nevertheless inspired several generations of real-life scientists and
astronauts.
The online lecture will be followed by a question-and-answer session.
Dr Phil Nichols, Course Leader for Film & Television
Production at the University of Wolverhampton, has been called “the
leading scholar on Bradbury's media adaptation history" by Bradbury
biographer Professor Jonathan R. Eller (Bradbury Beyond Apollo,
University of Illinois Press, 2020). Phil has spoken about Bradbury on
the BBC World Service and National Public Radio, and has published and
presented widely on Bradbury’s work in all media. He currently produces
and presents a podcast, Bradbury 100, which explores Bradbury’s
centenary.
Click the link below to sign up for the talk!
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/artsfest-online-ray-bradburys-the-martian-chronicles-at-seventy-tickets-124686527761
