Bradbury

[j d worthington]

Ah, well... just to show how completely nerdy and geeky I am... I've always been especially fascinated by the odd relationship between the Dust Witch and the Illustrated Man, from the short story of that name, to the "novel" (actually story collection with a very odd sort of framing device that somehow, dammit, works!), to Something Wicked This Way Comes...

As for The Martian Chronicles... Bradbury made it plain long ago he is not a science fiction writer (though he has written some sf), he's a fantasy writer, a fabulist, a teller of parables. And, by God, the man has written some of the most beautiful tales in or out of the genres. (He's also done his own version of mysteries, as well as a lot of other things, including a book called Zen and the Art of Writing, which is one of the most energizing books on the subject I've ever come across.)

And yes, some of Bradbury's work gets very dark indeed... as absurd as the premises often are on examination, he pulls it off because he addresses the nightmarish sort of logic there is in dreams and fears and the things that we feel uncomfortable about in the dead of night, or at those rare moments when the mind suddenly darts off in unexpected directions and we think "I know it's impossible, but what if..." Things like "Skeleton", "The Small Assassin", "Let's Play 'Poison'"... or that poignant, haunting, and very frightening little story "The Lake", the sheer ghastliness of "The Jar", "Cistern", or "The Handler"; classics like "A Sound of Thunder", "Pillar of Fire", "Chrysalis", "Picasso Summer", "I Sing the Body Electric"... Ach, name a Bradbury story, and chances are you've named a genuine piece of magic. Yes, he's had his duds... anyone writing for over 60 years is going to (his first story collection, Dark Carnival, came out in 1947); but just the sheer volume of stories that hit the high-water mark is staggering. Not to mention that he was one of the writers (along with Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke, and Kuttner and Moore) that got attention focused on sf as a field of genuine literary merit rather than something little better than a low-grade comic book (which was the general perception at the time, and not entirely undeserved).

Okay. End of panegyric...

for now.

 

[Urien]

^JD's knowledge continues to astound me. It's total recall.

If you want to see where much of Stephen King's inspiration came from, read Bradbury.

Or alternatively go to a morgue sometime after midnight when the power's out.

Your choice.

 

[HoopyFrood]

^JD's knowledge continues to astound me. It's total recall.

Indeed...there's no stopping him...it's unnatural!

If you want to see where much of Stephen King's inspiration came from, read Bradbury.

Ah, is that so? I shall have to investigate this...thanks, AVS.

 

[Urien]

Read "Something wicked..." especially for King work from a kid's eye view.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Just a general comment, not directed at anyone here: Why is it that the people who go on at great length about how poisonous the tastes and opinions of the general public are, are the very ones who are most easily offended when their own opinions are criticized?

And why, on a forum presumably devoted to the joys of reading, this endless carping about the book industry and the blatant disrespect for everyone involved in it? (Except, of course, one's favorite authors, who are somehow exempt from the taint of commercialism that infects the rest of us.)

I have never, ever, in any discussion of any book said or implied that my opinions were superior to those of anyone else because I am a published author. And yet how quick certain people are to cast that aspersion.

Is it simply that people are against the idea of published authors joining in the discussions here? Are our opinions less valid? Is our presence somehow intimidating? Because if this is the case, I could certainly find other places to be.

 

[Curt Chiarelli]

^JD's knowledge continues to astound me. It's total recall.

If you want to see where much of Stephen King's inspiration came from, read Bradbury.

Or alternatively go to a morgue sometime after midnight when the power's out.

Your choice.

The morgue option being out of the question, I agree with you about King's source of inspiration. Much of the flavour of his short stories comes from the ironic sting in their tail (which is a legacy of the EC comic books he read as a kid - and as you know, Bradbury had written for under a pseudonym!). Many are merely morality fables dressed up in fantasy's guise.

 

[Urien]

I didn't know about the comics. Thanks I'll look into it.

 

[Highlander II]

I've only ever read Fahrenheit 451 - and that was in the 7th grade, so I can't say I remember much beyond 'burn all the books'.

Though, I will say I've been tempted to pick it up and give it a shot again... once I get through all of my OTHER books that I have to read.

 

[j d worthington]

Andrew: Depending on how much you want to spend... The old EC comics have been reprinted in various forms now and again (these were among the comics, for anyone who doesn't know, that so outraged Dr. Frederic Wertham, that he initiated his crusade against the entire medium; his crusade, and that of others, resulted in censorship, banning, and burning). I've seen some in color format, on higher-grade paper (the originals were printed on poor grade paper, and the color reproduction was often very blurry and muddy); I've also seen collector's sets in large hardbound, slipcased format collecting all issues of a single title within the set, but where only the covers were printed in color, the rest used only the original artwork sans coloring. These are not cheap, but they're very well done, and durable. For anyone interested, some of the titles EC put out are still known today: Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, The Haunt of Fear, Weird Science,
etc. Here's a link giving the complete list of their titles:

List of Entertaining Comics publications - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And here are the links on Wertham, and a bit more on the history and controversy surrounding EC:

Seduction of the Innocent and the Attack on Comic Books

EC Comics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There's also a DVD, apparently, featuring a 56-minute discussion with Bradbury and Al Feldstein of EC, though I'm not sure whether or not it's still available (but you may be able to find it online, nonetheless). Here's the site it was originally listed on:

Tales from the Crypt Home Page

(Look under Extras, then third down.)

Taking the thread a leeetle further off-topic for a moment, one thing not mentioned in all the hoopla is the role that old time radio played with these comics (including the ones Bradbury wrote). Again, anyone interested may want to take a look (and a listen) at the following:

First, the article:

The Old Time Radio (OTR) influence on EC Comics

and second, the audio:

Arch Oboler's "Drop Dead! An Exercise In Horror"!

This last is a full recording (though split into individual selections) of an album Arch Oboler did of stories very much in the vein of (at least some of which, I believe, were actually from) his "Lights Out" radio program. If you want to hear just how far radio horror went back in the '30s and '40s, go to this one, and listen to "The Dark". For the sf lovers, there's "The Laughing Man", which is quieter on the surface, but much, much nastier in what it's saying....

Okay... back to Bradbury....

 

[Sibeling]

I have just bought Something Wicked This Way Comes. I can't wait to start reading it And currently I'm reading the collection of Bradbury's stories One More For The Road. Some of the stories leave a deep impression, but others seem to repeat things I have already read..

 

[bruno-1012]

I'll have to admit that I only know two of those. Then again; people in here often refer to authors I don't know. I get the impression that almost all people in here are far more well-read than me. Well - if my to-read pile should ever run low, I can always look for ideas here

I would sometimes feel like that - the truth is that given the wide tastes of the members here I would say differently read.

Everyone will have a selection of authors that they can identify based on their particular tastes and what is sold in their local bookshops.

T'internet may be able to change this for the next generation with a wider availability of smaller print runs.

It does kill the joy of finding an obscure book in a second hand store though.

 

[The Wanderer]

I have just bought Something Wicked This Way Comes. I can't wait to start reading it

I've heard very good things about it, I like Fahrenheit 451, though I found 'The Martian Chronicles' more poetic

 

[j d worthington]

I would sometimes feel like that - the truth is that given the wide tastes of the members here I would say differently read.

Everyone will have a selection of authors that they can identify based on their particular tastes and what is sold in their local bookshops.

T'internet may be able to change this for the next generation with a wider availability of smaller print runs.

It does kill the joy of finding an obscure book in a second hand store though.

I wouldn't be too sure about this, if I were you... I still manage to have that experience when I least expect it... had it several times this last year, as a matter of fact; in some cases something popped up that had me all but dancing in the aisles!

@The Wanderer: Welcome aboard the Chronicles! I've seen your other posts, and glad to see you jumping in... I look forward to seeing more of your comments.

On what you say here... I tend to agree. Something Wicked is a wonderful book, and it certainly has a great deal of poetry to it; so, for that matter, does Fahrenheit 451 -- but The Martian Chronicles, I think, is more concentratedly poetic, much like The Illustrated Man. Each is a wonderful book in its own right (as is one of my personal favorites, Dark Carnival), but Bradbury's voice has a wide range, and that's one the joys of reading his work. There's always a lyricism, but sometimes its lush, sometimes more terse, sometimes elegiac, and sometimes bubbling over with joy and love of humanity.

*ahem* Sorry. I do tend to get a bit carried away where this one's stuff is concerned....

 

[Homer Hoose]

I worship Ray Bradbury. His genius is forever. Whoever fails to recognize this doesn't belong in the 20th Century. What? No, no, not that Ray Bradbury. I'm talking about the writer who wrote those wonderful short stories in The Illustrated Man, The Golden Apples of the Sun, and some of the stories in The Martian Chronicles. Ha! I bet you thought that I was talking about that other Ray Bradbury, the one who went to Hollywood and started writing stories and movie scripts for us, the public, rather than writing for us, of kindred hearts.

But we who met him through his books of the fifties and early sixties were changed -- the world became a better place -- and I guess that this forum is a handy place to thank you, young Ray Bradbury -- thank you from me.

 

[Curt Chiarelli]

Hi Homer:

With all due respect, I feel the need to disagree with you on one point only: the Ray Bradbury who wrote Hollywood scripts like the classic adaptation of Melville's Moby Dick for John Huston is at one with the Ray Bradbury who wrote The Martian Chronicles and Dandelion Wine.

It's a sad commentary on the nature of the arts/entertainment business that much superb work is corrupted and compromised by the morons and mediocrities who run the studios and churn out cut-rate, cookie-cutter product to profit off of the masses' insatiable appetite for dross. But please do not judge artists harshly just because they need to peddle their wares to Philistines to put bread on their table.

 

[Dr. Atomic]

Roy Squires published some fantastic Bradbury material in the Seventies and Eighties.

For those who don't know, Squires was a long-time member of sf fandom who had close relationships with, among others, Bradbury and Clark Ashton Smith. He published zines in the early days, and by the last three or four decades of his life, had moved on to fine quality, hand-made letterpress books -- hand-set type, hand-bound covers, the works. Each was limited to however many he could make before running out of materials, and all are amazing. He passed away about two decades ago, which is really too bad...

Anyway, he published a few different Bradbury stories, some of which appeared in book form for the first time as Squires editions. Two of the best, in my opinion, are "The Pedestrian," which was a precursor to "The Fireman," which in turn became Fahrenheit 451; and "The Aquaduct," which was a "lost" Martian Chronicle. (Squires pulled it out of a file at Bradbury's, and noticed a label on it saying "Martian Chronicle?", or something like that... He asked Bradbury if he could publish it, got an affirmative response, and that was that! It's good to have the right friends!!!)

Squires editions look sort of like pamphlets in their construction, though they're a million times more finely wrought. Any of his publications -- Smith, Bradbury, Lieber, Lovecraft, Borroughs, etc -- are worth getting if you can find them... They've got amazing stories, but they're also objects of art in and of themselves.

 

[j d worthington]

The only problem I have with the Roy Squires editions is ... I can't afford them. But I have had the fortune to at least deal with some of them in my time, and they are indeed beautiful things. He truly cared about the quality of what he did.

And I'll second Curt's comments anent Bradbury. Nor do I think Bradbury has fallen as much as some believe. His work has changed, but any writer who doesn't... is just rehashing the same things. Even if, on the surface, their work remains the same (Lovecraft is often perceived that way), there are changes there, and with a good writer, they're for the better. Bradbury still writes things of considerable worth; I think that a part of the problem with so many of us is that -- especially Ray's work often being somewhat elegiac or nostalgic itself -- we fall into the trap of nostalgia over first impressions, and we expect more of the same from the writer we first discovered, when he has moved on and is doing something else.

I'm probably as guilty of that as anyone; some of Bradbury's later work is not nearly as much to my taste; but, putting on my "critical" cap, I see that it is often quite as good, but the feeling is different (after all, the man has had decades more life experiences, and his views and his feelings about things have changed accordingly). But his work remains rich and rewarding, if only we're able to get past our nostalgia for the Bradbury we remember from our youth....

 

[Homer Hoose]

Wrongo, Worthington, you are giving short shift to readers and giving a pass to Mister Bradbury. A writer who doesn't improve through time is a writer deterioating. Readers become jaded; writers become rock stars.

 

[Curt Chiarelli]

Wrongo, Worthington, you are giving short shift to readers and giving a pass to Mister Bradbury. A writer who doesn't improve through time is a writer deterioating. Readers become jaded; writers become rock stars.

All artists "deteriorate" with time no matter what their hagiographers say. It makes way for fresh visions and new talent. It is the natural cycle of life, of death and re-birth writ larger than life across the stars. Allow me to assure you that Mr. Bradbury will arise from his ashes like a Phoenix long after his carping, mealy-mouthed critics are relegated to the dust bin of history.

And for the record, J.D. is not giving a "pass" to a laggard - he is showing respect and compassion for a great spirit and even greater talent who just so happens to have been plagued by ill-health for many years culminating in several dibilitating strokes. I would suggest to you that his is perhaps an excellent example to follow.

Over the last five decades, Mr. Bradbury has given more of himself than most other authors in his league. Accordingly, if you feel so strongly concerning this matter may I recommend that you roll up your sleeves and begin producing an endless stream of iconic American literature that surpasses the pathetically meagre quantity and declining quality of Mr. Bradbury. We all await the results with eager anticipation and bated breath. . . . I guarantee you.

 

[j d worthington]

Wrongo, Worthington, you are giving short shift to readers and giving a pass to Mister Bradbury. A writer who doesn't improve through time is a writer deterioating. Readers become jaded; writers become rock stars.

Hardly. I've not been particularly impressed with readers (in general) for some time now. The quality of writing these days is all too often rather slipshod, and that's become much too acceptable. Poor sentence construction, poor use of simile, poorly used vocabulary, strained metaphor... it's all quite rife in far too much writing, and readers quite often defend this as good writing. It's not. It's at best mediocre. (There are exceptions, of course; but in general, this is very much the case.) (Incidentally, I'm assuming you mean "short shrift", rather than "short shift", yes?)

Bradbury, whatever faults may be in his more recent work, seldom falls to that level. And to say that his best work was that he turned out before he went to Hollywood is nonsense. I'd suggest you go back and reread that work again. It was a young man's work; brilliant, but with the flaws of a young writer still learning his craft. His work became more restrained in general tone, somewhat less nostalgic, and a bit more bitter. It also matured in other ways.

As anyone here knows, I'm not particularly one to give a pass to someone where writing is concerned. I can be a real devil to please. But I do not believe in freezing any writer at a particular point in their development; especially as any writer worth their salt will not stay within those parameters -- they have to stretch and experiment; which means they will have failures, things we find not as much to our taste, and things that may even alienate readers who used to like their work... but those last are not necessarily bad things. They may objectively be the writer's best work; just not to the taste of those who liked what they did before. In Bradbury's case, having read an enormous amount of his work over the past 40+ years, I'd certainly say his more recent work has no more faulty pieces than his earlier output if taken in general; but it is different. To expect him to be otherwise is very much like expecting a child to never grow up: it does neither the reader nor the writer any service whatsoever.