Why Is the Moon So Boring
Excerpts from an NBC panel (moderated by John Chancellor and Edwin Newman, with Arthur C. Clarke, James Dickey, and Alan Shepard), in which Mailer argues Apollo 11 failed to excite because no one explored 'the sensuous properties of the moon.'
“Why Is the Moon So Boring,” a panel discussion excerpted in the National Observer (May 1972) from an NBC program moderated by John Chancellor and Edwin Newman. Alongside Mailer the panelists were Arthur C. Clarke, James Dickey, and Rear Admiral Alan B. Shepard Jr. Mailer dominates the discussion of why the Apollo 11 mission failed to excite the public imagination: “One of the reasons it didn’t is there was no attempt made to explore the sensuous properties of the moon.” See Of a Fire on the Moon (71.1), 72.24, 73.1.