The Illustrated Man

Saul Williams wakes up on Mars. He has been quarantined because of a fatal respiratory disease called blood rust, which causes bloody coughing. He tries to imagine being back in New York City but cannot. He unsuccessfully tries to commit suicide by telling his heart to stop, but he does not have “the nerve” to try more drastic means (169).

He starts a conversation with another quarantined man whose illness is farther advanced. The man wants to talk about philosophy with Saul but is too weak. He tells Saul in six months all he will want is sleep. For now, Saul wants only to be back on Earth: “I want it so bad it hurts. I want something I can never have again” (171).

A rocket lands on Mars. Despite his poor condition, Saul runs up to it and meets 18-year-old Leonard Mark. Sensing that Saul wants to see New York, Leonard suddenly creates an exact replica of it around him; Leonard has telepathic powers. Saul is overjoyed to meet him. When he wishes he could swim in a creek he loved as a child, Leonard replicates that for him too. Leonard refuses Saul’s gifts and attempts to pay him: “I’m doing it,” he says, “to make you happy” (174). Saul fantasizes about being able to spend his remaining time talking to famous philosophers through Leonard’s talent, concluding that this is “better than life ever was” (175). He suddenly grows nervous that the other men will try to take Leonard for themselves. Leonard is bemused at Saul’s sudden change of demeanor and refuses to run off with him: “I don’t want to,” he says. “[…] You’re a little too possessive. My life’s my own.” He observes with some surprise “how quickly you change from a friend to an enemy” (176). He tries to distract Saul with another vision of New York, but Saul knocks him out, picks him up, and runs.

Leonard wakes, tied up, in a cave. He tells Saul he is a fool, that the other men will simply pursue them. As they bicker, Leonard calls himself an “intellectual bride of a man insane with loneliness” (177-78). Saul offers to free him if Leonard will not run away, but Leonard reminds him that he belongs to no one. He would have been happy to help everyone, he says, “a god among children, being kind, doing favors” (178-79), if Saul had simply been willing to share. He tricks Saul into thinking the other men are approaching and makes himself invisible, but Saul finds him out. Saul is tempted to kill Leonard for this, then five other men arrive at the cave.

They argue over what to do with Leonard all night, at a conference table Leonard conjures up for them. Leonard suggests they set up appointments to visit him from Monday to Wednesday, then leave him alone the rest of the week. One man, Johnson, suggests they simply force Leonard to perform for them all the time. A fight breaks out—in the ensuing chaos, in a vision of New York City, Leonard is shot and killed. As Saul buries him, he tries to imagine of New York again but cannot. He is overwhelmed with the urge to sleep.