Eaton Conference 2008: Chronicling Mars

From 16th to 18th May 2008, I attended the J.Lloyd Eaton Conference at the University of California, Riverside. I presented a paper entitled "Re-Presenting Mars: Ray Bradbury's Martian Stories in Media Adaptation".

On the panel with me were two Bradbury-related speakers. The noted SF editor, publisher and anthologist David Hartwell spoke on "The Non-Scientific Mars from Burroughs, Brackett & Bradbury to Today". And from Collin College (McKinney, Texas), Eric Palfreyman spoke on "Mars is Heaven: Ray Bradbury's Martian Landscape as a Mythological Setting for his Philosophical and Religious Ideas".

Our panel chair was USC's Paul Alkon, who gave each of us a Mars bar. Highly appropriate!

The panel was privileged in being scheduled immediately before the star attractions: a talk by leading author Kim Stanley Robinson, and a special presentation by Ray Bradbury himself. The conference chairs had warned delegates that if they weren't in the conference hall early, they may not get a seat for the Bradbury talk. And so it was that David, Eric and I were blessed (or cursed) with having the largest audience of the entire conference.

Stan Robinson - with whom I had I very brief chat while looking at old astronomical images of Mars - gave a fascinating account of his dealings with the planet Mars (through his terraforming novel trilogy Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars). He made it clear how indebted he is, and other Mars writers are, to Ray Bradbury for his master work The Martian Chronicles (1950).

Bradbury's talk covered his life and career, and his involvement with Mars. It was followed by a question and answer session, and a mammoth book-signing session.

In attendance for the Bradbury presentation were fellow raybradbury.com Message Board members Nard, Doug Spaulding, and jkt. When added to conference delegates philnic, Mr Dark and PatR, this probably made the biggest Board gathering of recent times.

Following the Bradbury talk, a select few (self-selected for the most part) retired to a buffet with Mr B. Much talk and photo-taking followed.

To see my photos of the conference, click on the image below:

Bradbury's Dublin

I recently took a brief trip to Dublin. While I was there I dashed about with a camera trying to grab some pictures of places with a Ray Bradbury connection.

Click on any of these pictures to view larger versions.

It is an oft-told tale that Bradbury stayed in Dublin in 1953-54, when he was writing the screenplay for Moby Dick for director John Huston. This relatively short visit - a mere few months out of Bradbury's nearly 88 years on the planet to date - provided an incredible amount of inspiration. Not only did he complete the screenplay, he left Ireland with material for a number of short plays, short stories, the play (and later novella) Leviathan '99 and eventually the partly autobiographical novel Green Shadows, White Whale.

My first priority in Dublin was to get to O'Connell Bridge. Not only is this the only major bridge in Europe to be wider than it is long, it was the location for Bradbury's finest Irish story, "The Beggar on O'Connell Bridge". First published as "The Beggar on the Dublin Bridge" in the Saturday Evening Post in June 1961, the story is an account of Bradbury's experiences of being accosted by beggars whenever he left his hotel. The story can be found in Bradbury's short story collections The Machineries of Joy and Bradbury Stories. It can also be found, slightly modified, as a chapter in Green Shadows, White Whale - where John Huston strangely takes the place of Bradbury's wife.

O'Connell Bridge isn't difficult to find. Nor is it difficult to find a beggar on O'Connell Bridge. There always seems to be one right in the middle, exactly where Bradbury says. Unfortunately, however, none of the real modern day beggars are as colourful or as entertaining as Bradbury's concertina playing, possibly blind (or possibly not), sweet voiced beggar:

For a moment, while we had been talking in the cold rain, the beggar had been silent. Now, as if the weather had freshened him to life, he gave his concertina a great mash. From the folding, unfolding snake box he squeezed a series of asthmatic notes which were no preparation for what followed.

He opened his mouth. He sang.

The sweet clear baritone voice which rang over O'Connell Bridge, steady and sure, was beautifully shaped and controlled, not a quiver, not a flaw, anywhere. The man just opened his mouth, which meant that all kinds of secret doors in his body gave way. He did not sing so much as let his soul free.

When he arrived in Dublin in October 1953, Bradbury stayed in the Royal Hibernian Hotel, which can be seen in this old postcard of Dawson Street. Here is how Sam Weller describes it in The Bradbury Chronicles:

In Dublin, the Bradburys checked into the old yet opulent Royal Hibernian Hotel on Dawson Street and were given two rooms. Ray and Maggie's room - number 77 - had a fireplace, and in this room Ray would do much of his work on the screenplay. Regina [the Bradburys' nanny]and the girls were placed in a separate room, with a coin-operated heater into which Regina continually fed money to keep the room warm.

Alas, the Royal Hibernian is no more, torn down for redevelopment in the 1970s. In its place today stands a small shopping mall, the Royal Hibernian Way.

Not far from the Royal Hibernian site is St Stephen's Green, a park where Bradbury would occasionally take his children for a walk. This gets several mentions in Green Shadows, White Whale as the narrator desperately tries to solve the mystery of the beggar-woman:

God, how that woman could race.
She put a block between her backside and me while I gathered breath to yell: "Stop, thief!"
It seemed an appropriate yell. The baby was a mystery I wished to solve. And there she vaulted off with it, a wild thief.
So I dashed after, crying. "Stop! Help! You there!"
She kept a hundred yards between us for the first half mile, up over bridges across the Liffey and finally up Grafton Street, where I jogged into St. Stephen's Green, to find it ... empty.
She had absolutely vanished.
Unless, of course, I thought, turning in all directions, letting my gaze idle, it's into The Four Provinces pub she's gone . . .

The entrance to the park closest to Grafton Street is Fusilier's Arch, a memorial erected after the Boer War. In this photo, the arch is flanked by the St Stephen's Green Shopping Centre. Although constructed in the 1980s, this Centre looks rather Victorian with its conservatory-style domed glass roof, which was suposedly design to complement the architecture of the Gaiety Theatre opposite. (After Ray's family left for Italy in 1954, he attended the ballet season at the Gaeity.)

Speaking of theatres, legend has it that on Bradbury's first day in Dublin he saw a newspaper ad which said "Laurel & Hardy - Live - For One Night Only". He promptly dashed down to the Olympia Theatre and bought the last remaining ticket. The Olympia still stands in the Temple Bar area of Dublin, and remains a popular venue for drama, comedy and music.

If the legend is accurate, Ray must have arrived in Dublin on Sunday 11 October 1953, as it was on that night that Stan and Ollie had decided to give a single charity performance of a show they had been preparing for touring in Belfast and London. The picture here shows them outside the Royal Marine Hotel where they stayed throughout their time in the city. A detailed account of Laurel and Hardy in Dublin can be found in this programme for a recent Sons of the Desert convention.

It's impossible to be in Dublin without noticing the references to the great literary figures all around, in statues, museums, public art. You can find out more than you would ever want to know at the fascinating (but small) Writer's Museum where you will find this fellow, hero of Ray Bradbury and immortalised in the story "GBS - Mark V" (1976).

Oh, and the wee fellow in the background? That's Oscar Wilde!

Apart from Shaw, Bradbury was also greatly influenced by another Dublin writer, W.B.Yeats. It is Yeats, of course, who provided Bradbury with the title for his short story "The Golden Apples of the Sun." Joe Mugnaini's line art for this story is shown here.

Halloween!

The folks at Colonial Radio Theater have released a trailer for The Halloween Tree, their latest Bradbury audio adaptation. This one has apparently been over a year in the making, and is due for release in time for Halloween 2008.

Regular readers will know that I rate Colonial's Productions very highly, and so I am greatly looking forward to hearing this latest production.

Incidentally, the forthcoming inaugural issue of The New Ray Bradbury Review will contain an extended version of my review of Colonial's Dandelion Wine.

The Golden Apples of the Sun

I received my copy of Subterranean Press's new hardcover of The Golden Apples of the Sun recently. At the current dollar/sterling exchange rate, it was quite cheap (as limited editions go).

I was disappointed to discover that Joe Mugnaini's original art is limited to the cover, and isn't continued inside the book. His line drawings have always been synonymous with The Golden Apples of the Sun, and I was hoping to see them in this edition.

The main reason I was persuaded to buy this edition is the inclusion of a couple of bonuses: two plays by Ray, based on stories in the book, and published here for the first time. And while these are good, I would have liked some contextual information.

For example, when were they written? Were they ever performed, in this form or any other? Is "The Fog Horn" a RADIO treatment (because it certainly reads like one)? And why is the play of "En La Noche" so excessive in stage/actor directions? Had Ray never seen a play written down?

At the very least, they should have given an explanation of why "The Fog Horn" is incomplete. (The dust jacket says the book includes two plays, not one play and one fragment of a play.)

So, while it's a handsome enough volume in its own right, it could have been so much better if they had thought it through.

I have since found out that "The Fog Horn" is indeed a radio treatment. However, I remain somewhat mystified about "En La Noche" - it apparently dates from 1960, and while it is one of Bradbury's earliest stage plays, he was certainly an experienced dramatist by this point.

All Summer in a Day

One of the most asked-about Bradbury stories is "All Summer in a Day". Barely a day goes by without someone posting to the Bradbury message boards enquiring about their vague memory of a short film they were once shown at school.

I was quite amused to discover this web page from the Chicago Tribune about "seasonal affective disorder," which refers to Bradbury's story. The page also has a direct link to the full text of the story.

As for the film, it occasionally appears on YouTube and elsewhere, no doubt without permission of the copyright holders. Its latest appearance is here.

In case you were wondering, the image on the left is the cover of the March 1954 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction which contained the first appearance of "All Summer in a Day".

Fahrenheit 451 - Moscow style. Herman Melville - Bradbury style.

The Moscow Times has published a review of a new Russian stage adaptation of Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. It's not clear whether this is a translation of Bradbury's own play, or a completely new adaptation. Read John Freedman's review here.

Subterranean Press, which has produced some excellent limited edition versions of Bradbury books, has announced the first book publication of Moby Dick - Ray Bradbury's original screenplay for the 1956 feature film directed by John Huston. This is an important publication, since it finally gives us a chance to see what Bradbury brought to the adaptation, without the distortions imposed by Huston, Huston's friends, and others such as Orson Welles.

Why does it matter? For at least three reasons. First, Huston grabbed co-script credit from Bradbury, and somehow managed to overturn a Writer's Guild of America ruling on script credit which had gone in Bradbury's favour. Second, because the innovations in Bradbury's version of Moby Dick are so powerful that many of them have been carried over into more recent adaptations of Melville's novel, as if Bradbury's text were superior to Melville's. Third, because (as I have argued elsewhere) Bradbury's experience on the Moby Dick project had a major influence on the next fifty years of his development as a writer: through his Irish stories and plays, his endless wrestling with the Melville tribute Leviathan '99, his novel Green Shadow, White Whale, and much else.

More decline and decay...

Further to my previous blog mentioning the remains of the Fahrenheit 451 monorail, some more ruins to ponder. This time, the remains of Venice, California, which have had a considerable impact on Ray Bradbury.

As far I am aware, the first declared influence was on Bradbury's short story "The Fog Horn", the 1951 tale of a lighthouse destroyed by a lonely dinosaur. The story was the basis of the 1950s monster movie The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. So where is the Venice influence? The dinosaur itself! In a frequently recounted anecdote, Bradbury tells how he saw the remains of the Venice Pier rollecrcoaster, and imagined it to be the skeletal remains of a dinosaur. Freewheeling from there, he asked what would lure such a creature to such a place. A lighthouse, of course!

But Venice has had more than one story's worth of influence on Bradbury. Much of the carnival imagery of his early stories is likely to have been influenced by the carnival-like Venice, California, which Bradbury probably first visited in the late 1930s when he was in his teens.

Later in life, Bradbury makes explicit use of Venice, its pier and derelict canals in his 1985 novel Death is a Lonely Business. Indeed, his depiction of the town influenced the cover art of several editions of the novel - there are some examples here.

There are more images of Venice in its prime and in decline in the online photo collection of the Los Angeles Public library. Click here to see a selection.

New Findings: Old Stuff

I've been making new finds of old stuff on the web, most of them thanks to Google Alerts. Here are some curios that have just come to my attention.

Ever wondered what happened to the monorail Montag used to get home in Truffaut's film of Fahrenheit 451? It was a real monorail in France, built as a protoype, and Truffaut chose it because of its futuristic appearance.

The monorail is no longer in existence, but a few years ago some monorail enthusiasts tracked down what remains of the system, including the vandalised car and some sections of track. Find out more by visiting Randy Lambertus's page from 1999.

Going back to 1993, we find Ray Bradbury being interviewed about his alleged total recall. This unlikely gift is what allows him to remember the moment of his own birth. No one really believes this claim, but his belief in it led him to write one of his classic short stories, "The Small Assassin". Bradbury has discussed this in many interviews, but this one from YouTube is one I hadn't seen before. It's from a Canadian TV show called Prisoners of Gravity.

Exclusive! Preview of the new journal

Courtesy of William Touponce, director of the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies at Indiana University, comes this exclusive sneak preview of the forthcoming new journal The New Ray Bradbury Review:


The cover artwork (click on it to enlarge) is by Bradbury himself. Inside is a collection of articles by various Bradbury scholars, most focusing on this issue's topic of "adaptation". Here's the table of contents:

Among the contributors (click to enlarge) you may notice Profs Eller and Touponce (co-authors of Ray Bradbury: The Life of Fiction), David Mogen (author of Ray Bradbury), Terry Pace (who has long been associated with Bradbury's work in theatre), and film scholar John C. Tibbetts. Oh, and yours truly has managed to sneak in there with some material on Bradbury's work in the audio media.

The eagle-eyed reader may notice that, although this is a brand new journal, the cover indicates it as "Volume 2". This, says Bill Touponce, is a nod to William F.Nolan, who published the pioneering original Ray Bradbury Review some years ago, and who contributes the preface to this new journal.

As yet, there is no information on how to obtain the journal. As soon as this is decided, I will post the information here.

Exclusive! New Movie in Production

Urban Archipelago Films, producers of 2005's short film A Piece of Wood, have announced their new feature film, Ray Bradbury's Chrysalis. Producer Roger Lay Jr kindly supplied this behind-the-scenes photo (click to enlarge) from the first days of shooting. It tantalisingly gives a glimpse of the special effects which will be key to the concept of the movie. To the right of the photo is director Tony Baez Milan, with producer Lay next to him.

Roger recently spent some time with Ray Bradbury, showing him the work on the movie so far. Both Roger and Ray seem pleased with the movie thus far:


"Chrysalis" was first published in Amazing Stories in 1946, and has appeared in only one of Bradbury's books to date, S is for Space (1966). Back in '46, the story didn't even make the cover of Amazing Stories...


...and it must be one of Bradbury's least re-printed stories. It's pleasing to see a lesser-known piece being filmed, instead of further attempts to film already familiar tales.

Urban Archipelago have a web site for documenting Chrysalis, which you can view here. The most interesting content on the site so far is the conceptual art by D. Hirajeta (click on "gallery" to view).

Here is what Urban Archipelago have to say about the new production in their official press release:

A compelling thriller that transcends both time and space, RAY BRADBURY’S CHRYSALIS is based on the short story written by BRADBURY, the acclaimed writer of such literary classics as FAHRENHEIT 451, THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES and THE ILUSTRATED MAN. The short story was originally published in 1966 as part of the science fiction anthology titled S IS FOR SPACE.

It is precisely Mr. Bradbury's legendary body of work and his numerous contributions to the literary and film industries that solidifies the world-wide appeal for this project.

The script for CHRYSALIS has been developed under the master's guidance and it is the second collaboration between Urban Archipelago Films and this legendary author.

The first product to come out of the filmmakers and Bradbury's joint forces was the critically acclaimed short film A PIECE OF WOOD. The short film has been playing in film festivals nation wide since its Premiere in November of 2005 and is currently available ON DEMAND through AT&T Digital Cable via ILLUSION TV.

About The Film

In the great tradition of past works of literature from one of America’s most revered storytellers, CHRYSALIS presents a compelling exploration into human nature.

In the future: The world is ravaged, a third world war has left our planet in a state of decay. In a research facility a handful of scientists research ways to sustain plant life. Scientist Benjamin Rockwell has been called to this decaying research facility. One of the scientists there, Smith, apparently has died. Smith lies on a table, his body transformed, his eyes and mouth grown shut. After getting over the shock, and completing an examination, Rockwell realizes that there is still a pulse within Smith...

His body continues changing...a Chrysalis has grown around Smith in order to protect him.

Now in earth’s darkest hours these scientists must figure out what mysteries lay inside the CHRYSALIS.

CHRYSALIS is a thriller with a science fictional background and glimmers of hope from the beginning. There is action, as the characters turn against each other’s beliefs at the edge of a world that slowly disappears before they can discover ways to stop or prolong the planet’s demise. Are they struggling hopelessly, trying to reach goals that may be unattainable?

The debate of science vs. faith is explored as the characters struggle with their beliefs, their doubts, their dreams, and their fears. Can human beings change the course of nature? Could nature intervene as the world is effectively destroyed? Is the world worthwhile? In the darkest hours, would humans deserve another chance?

RAY BRADBURY’S CHRYSALIS features an impressive cast including John Klemantaski (VIVA), Darren Kendrick (DISORDER), Corey Landis (THAT 70’S SHOW), Elina Madison (BROTHERS AND SISTERS), Glen Vaughan (JESSE JAMES: LEGEND, OUTLAW, TERRORIST), and Larry Dirk (DR. QUINN, MEDICINE WOMAN)

The film is produced by Roger Lay, Jr. and directed by Tony Báez Milán. Cheyenne Pesko is the editor and post-production supervisor. Gabriel Diniz serves as director of photography with production design by Gladys Rodriguez. Music is composed and conducted by Brandon Moore

The film features special creature effects by Romaire Studios, the Emmy Award winning FX facility founded by Lee Romaire.

Some of Romaire's recent credits include the TNT series NIGHTMARES AND DREAMSCAPES, based on the short stories of Stephen King as well as the HBO hit Drama series SIX FEET UNDER, for which the team was awarded an Emmy award for outstanding make up effects (prosthethics).

Principal photography on RAY BRADBURY’S CHRYSALIS is set to take place on multiple sets at the Broadcast Production Services Stages in Hollywood with second unit photography in the northern California dessert and the rainforest of El Yunque in Puerto Rico.