Ray Bradbury Turns 88 194
Lawrence Person writes "Legendary science fiction writer Ray Bradbury turned 88 years old on August 22. Happy Birthday Ray! 'The Illustrated Man' was one of the first science fiction books I ever read, and I've been hooked ever since. I'm sure that's true of a lot of science fiction writers and readers, be it that, or 'The Martian Chronicles,' or 'Fahrenheit 451.' There are also several videos of Ray on that page, including one where he doesn't endorse Sunsweet Prunes." I remember when another student on the bus loaned me "Fahrenheit 451," and my middle-school English teacher Mrs. Young was smart enough to include "All Summer in a Day" in her curriculum.
Happy Birthday Ray!! (Score:5, Funny)
May you never reach 451 degrees.
The Pedestrian (Score:5, Interesting)
I liked the short-story The Pedestrian. From what I hear, it was the basis for Fahrenheit 451, however, I think that one can get some different meanings out of each.
What's interesting about Fahrenheit 451 are some of the parallels that could be drawn to today's society. Guy Montag's wife has a seashell like device that she puts in her ears so she can listen to the radio, much like today we have iPods, where people can seem to be in their own little worlds.
The fascination she has too with the telescreens, and wanting to be involved in one of the, for lack of a better word, "soaps," could tell of our society's own inordinate fascination with the personal lives of the "rich and famous."
Finally, that overwhelming desire for more, another telescreen, even though the last one was put in within a year prior, could speak to our society's want for material goods.
Whether or not Mr. Bradbury believes our society could degenerate to a point where we burn books, I would argue that our society already contains elements of his fictional society.
The Pedestrian is similar in that the everyday man is fascinated with what takes place on his television screen, and cannot be bothered to calmly walk down the street and think.
One connection I believe can be found between the short story and the novel is that in The Pedestrian, the main character is arrested for walking down the street (as nobody does that anymore, he must be suspicious), and in Fahrenheit 451 the girl who talks to Guy Montag mentions that her uncle got arrested once for walking down the street.
Re:The Pedestrian (Score:5, Insightful)
The British and Australian MPs, on the other hand, appear to be using them as a policy guide. We're not too far behind.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:The Pedestrian (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually, in high school we read Animal Farm and 1984, and my middle school's library got kids to read Fahrenheit 451.
Maybe not the norm, but nice anyway. I sped-read through Brave New World. Didn't like it as much.
In one of my high school English classes, we actually discussed how one goes about creating a closed society. Relating it to the reading that we were doing (either 1984 or Animal Farm) gave a whole new dimension to the novel.
Re:The Pedestrian (Score:5, Insightful)
Both are, in fact, commonly found in high school curricula - no reason to get all melodramatic (it takes more than a couple of books, no matter how poignant, to trouble those who "want to hang on to their power").
Re: (Score:2)
It wasn't always like that, but then again, there were fewer books then.
As the value of a bit goes down the signal to noise ratio will decrease and those in power will sleep better.
Re: (Score:2)
Fahrenheit 451 and Orwell's 1984 should be required reading in our schools.
Fahrenheit 451 was required reading when I was in high school, that was 1995 in ... Kansas City of all places. (tee hee!)
Dunno if that matters, but given some of the other things that have happened in Kansas schools in recent years, I thought a couple of you might find that amazing.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Fahrenheit 451 and Orwell's 1984 should be required reading in our schools.
Unfortunately, I suspect too many students associate Bradbury's work with Michael Moore's film.
I remember reading a number of short stories or excerpt from Bradbury. One that still brings goosebumps is "There Will Come Soft Rains" [jerrywbrown.com] about an automated house that carries on, not knowing that the owners have all been killed by a nuclear blast:
"The garden sprinklers whirled up in golden founts, filling the soft morning air with scatterings of brightness. The water pelted windowpanes, running down the charred wes
Re: (Score:2)
Re:The Pedestrian (Score:5, Interesting)
I remember reading an account by Bradbury regarding Farenheit 451, in which he described walking down the street, passing a woman who was listening to a Walkman while walking several dogs, completely oblivious to her surroundings. He then states, "This is not a work of fiction."
It's been a while since I read the book, so while I remember that I enjoyed it, some of the details and even a portion of the main theme escape me. Along the lines of what you mentioned, my favorite passages from the book include the minimum speed limit of 60 mph in Montag's nightmare, and the part where he asks his wife what the play is about and she responds by naming the characters, as the play had absolutely no redeeming content.
So yes, it's a great tale of how we become lost in the more superficial aspects of our lives, but it's not a point that I necessarily agree with. For instance, I don't think that walking your dogs while listening to an audio player, digital or analog, constitutes losing touch with society.
Now that I reread your description of the Pedestrian, I'm fairly certain I have read it (probably in the back of a publication of Jonas and the Giver, back in middle school). Yes, it fits perfectly. What stands out the most is how their techno-skewed culture not only rejects nonconformity - it doesn't even comprehend it.
Of course, Farenheit 451 is also a great story about oppression by government. Not quite as biting and frightening as 1984, but it's up there. You can't control books the way you can televisions. You can't retroactively erase their content to suit your current propaganda or to eliminate inspiring ideas. Of course, more useful then the books themselves was the knowledge of who was harboring books, so you would know who rejected society's mandates and thus who must be destroyed.
Then again, Bradbury wrote a non-canonical passage in which Guy Montag was shocked by his firechief's personal library. The chief responded that it was only reading that was a crime, not possession.
Sigh. It's been a while. I wish I had the time and patience for reading, but since I'm no longer in high school and thus required to read, I just can't find the time, what with.. all these... modern distractions..
Dear God, this is indeed not a work of fiction.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
On the flip side, though, there is in the environment of despair some real hope in the form of the Books. Society may go to hell in a handbasket, but there's always going to be some who find ways to work around that problem.
Re: (Score:2)
The sad thing about Farenheit 451 is that it owes more to the ideology of the likes of Neil Postman [wikipedia.org] and Andrew Keen [wikipedia.org] than any sort of anti-totalitarian sentiment.
But he has a tombstone (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:But he has a tombstone (Score:5, Interesting)
The Cemetery and Funeral businesses call these Pre-need sales and use them to maintain sales numbers.
As you kiddies will find out, when life gets near its end, the idea of selecting the services and memorials you want is very attractive. Pre-need is much less expensive than At Need. The "Death Industry" loves At Need sales. The families are easy marks for higher prices, and expensive, but unneeded services.
For a good book on the subject, try Jessica Mitford's "American Way of Death, revisited" circa 2000.
Re: (Score:2)
The Cemetery and Funeral businesses call these Pre-need sales and use them to maintain sales numbers.
You make it sound dishonest. I assume that when you get a "pre-need" plot you have to actually pay for it? Then it's sold. When you buy a new residence, the sale occurs when you pay your money, not when you move in!
Re: (Score:2)
It's not about self-obsession. It's about not wanting to burden those you leave behind. Kind of like with leaving a will, it's better to have everything worked out in advance so you don't make so much trouble for your loved ones after you are dead.
I remember when Ray Bradbury defended Bob Packwood (Score:5, Interesting)
Ray Bradbury was a good friend of senator Packwood, and when the senator's political career began to unravel amidst allegations of sexual abuse and harassment from his female staffers, Bradbury tried to defend him on an episode of politically incorrect. Among other things, he said something to the effect of "who hasn't slapped a girl on the butt?" and "I sexually harassed my wife until she married me."
A class act, that guy is.
Re:I remember when Ray Bradbury defended Bob Packw (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I remember when Ray Bradbury defended Bob Packw (Score:2)
He and Asimov must've gotten along quite well indeed.
Middle School Sci-Fi (Score:4, Insightful)
By some chance both All Summer in a Day and Sound of Thunder were in my 7th grade lit book, better than the crap my kids are assigned to read.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I see SF as a story where the world, and behaviour, has changed as a result of some technical progress, whether or not that technology is explain
All Summer In A Day (Score:2)
For a (so-called) science fiction writer, Bradbury was an unabashed romantic of the American school. He goes right along Steinbeck in my view.
Bradbury a romantic? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Where, oh where... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
He must have been very famous (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
If you're reading lots of science fiction and you have never read anything by Ray Bradbury then you are reading lots of the wrong science fiction.
Are you by any chance reading the greats of modern sci-fi in inverse alphabetical order, by author's surname?
Bradbury and Bukowski in the same graduating class (Score:3, Informative)
It seems Bradbury and Bukowski were in the same graduating class. According to their respective Wikipedia entries, both were born in 1920, and both graduated from Los Angeles High School.
Interesting bit of trivia if true...
-- anthony
2 degrees of Seperation... (Score:2)
Years ago I hung out a lot in an IRC Channel with one of his nephews.
I always thought 451 was over-rated, my school taught it along-side 1984 and Lost Paradise. I do however enjoy several of his other books.
Greatest SciFi Writer of Our Age. Period. (Score:4, Interesting)
I contend that Bradbury is the single greatest science fiction writer of our age. Period. What he did - his vision - and when he did it was truly remarkable.
I still remember reading the Martian Chronicles and the Illustrated Man. For a kid that didn't like to read for fun it says a lot about books that kept me up 3 nights straight to find out how things ended.
Re: (Score:2)
Asimov may be better at the science part of scifi, but Bradbury is definitely the better writer.
When I was fifteen,... (Score:3, Informative)
I liked Bradbury a lot. And Heinlein. And E.E. Smith.
A few years later, Farmer and Stapledon.
At the age of 25, I discovered two very witty and humourous authors, namely Robert Sheckley
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Sheckley [wikipedia.org]
and R.A. Lafferty
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._A._Lafferty [wikipedia.org]
Not to forget Philip K. Dick, Stanislaw Lem, the Strugatskijs.
And of course, the British Authors: Douglas Adams, and Clarke, Moorcock, Brunner, Ballard, Aldiss,...
Among them, the great but not well-known David I. Masson ("The Caltraps of Time")
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_I._Masson [wikipedia.org]
Somebody just tell me to stop? ;-)
Thanks.
It's perhaps not so science-fictiony... (Score:4, Interesting)
... but "Something Wicked This Way Comes" is one of my favorite, most enjoyed influences in terms of writing style and pure entertainment. I've read many of his other stories (and I agree with some that "Fahrenheit 451" isn't one of his better works, though it's undeniably important), and enjoyed them all.
However---and perhaps it's the time in my life that I read it---for pure *joy* at the written word and how he wields them, "SWTWC" is probably in the top five works which has most affected me (and this post is no, nor is it meant to be, reflection of Ray's abilities).
Categorize it as fantasy without the damned elves. (Score:2)
Something Wicked This Way Comes is nothing short of brilliant. I must have read it half a dozen times. I never saw the movie; I didn't want it to ruin it for me.
"This letter that I am carving into the bullet is not a letter. It is my smile."
Golden age of science fiction (Score:4, Interesting)
What makes these guys cool is that they could have probably just gotten away with writing crap, like so many authors do today, or they could have tried to prove they were smarter than everyone else by writing 'literature'. But they didn't. They wrote stuff that socially relevant and accessible to the people. As a result we have a good history or the social views of technology and cultural issues of the time. As they die we are losing first hand history from people who made living by objectively observing it and then writing it down in entertaining form.
So all these kids that think this is not relevant, well that because we know watch tv instead of read. No one becomes a scientist because of pulp fiction. Now everyone watches TV. Which is no so good because the bandwidth of TV is nowhere near as wide as the bandwidth of pulp fiction, so the vision and opinions tend to be limited and sanitized to what will attract sufficient viewers to pay the 200K it would take to develop a script, instead of the 20K it would take to buy a story. Of course, everyone now wants to be a millionaire overnight, so likely would think it was too much to develop a story and only get 20K.
The legacy of books that these guys left us is awesome. It is techy writing, unabashedly, unapologetically, and willingly. I will take this time to thank bradbury for the writing, be it science fiction, fantasy, or just fiction.
I saw him speak (Score:2)
In 1993, he was the keynote speaker at the Ingres convention in San Jose. Awesome speaker - I still remember the theme of his speech - science fiction to science reality. Very inspiring.
He's the giant... (Score:3, Insightful)
Modern SF Writers all stand on his shoulders when they write.
The Coda (Score:5, Informative)
Fahrenheit 451 itself was censored in exactly the method we wrote about for years, and he didn't know it. When he later discovered it, he wrote this new piece to go in the end of the book. Everyone should read it.
http://members.iquest.net/~jswartz/jks/humor/451.htm [iquest.net]
Re: (Score:2)
Nobody -- NOBODY -- does paranoia better. (Score:3, Informative)
"The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl." He makes it sound so reasonable.
Happy birthday! (and thank you...) (Score:3, Insightful)
Ray Bradbury Loves Bush.... (Score:4, Interesting)
POLITICS:
[George W. Bush is] wonderful. We needed him. Clinton is a s***head and we're glad to be rid of him. And I'm not talking about his sexual exploits. I think we have a chance to do something about education.... It doesn't matter who does it -- Democrats or Republicans -- but it's long overdue. (Salon.com, August 29, 2001)
The great thing is our counter-revolution that occurred in the polls a few weeks ago. I think it's great. All the Democrats are out and the Republicans are going to have a chance in a couple of years. It doesn't make a difference what party you belong to--it's a chance for a fresh start. It's very exciting. (Speaking about the "Republican Revolution" of 1994)
Oh yeah, and he says that Fahrenheit 451 isn't really about censorship or oppressive governments:
http://www.laweekly.com/2007-05-31/news/ray-bradbury-fahrenheit-451-misinterpreted/2 [laweekly.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I think we have a chance to do something about education... (August 29, 2001)
Given that bush's government has been too busy warmongering to do anything about education (other than continuing the "no child left behind" thing, aka "no child allowed ahead"), does he still hold this view?
"Rocket Summer" (Score:2)
A silly little short squib of a thing, part of The Martian Chronicles, yet it has stuck in my mind for over fifty years.
That and The Sound of Thunder--the time travelling tourist steps on a butterfly--but everyone knows that one, of course... ...and the one about the automated house that keeps running, serving meals and scraping the uneaten meals into the dishwasher, reading the housewife her favorite poem (by Sara Teasdale), and so forth, apparently unaware that the family has been vaporized by an atomic b
Me and "The Pedestrian" (Score:2)
Happy birthday, Ray!
I performed a reading of "The Pedestrian" my senior year in high school for the Wisconsin state forensics program. I apparently did well enough with it that I went on to finals, for which I performed a cutting of "A Clockwork Orange" -- complete with the Russian bits -- and won the gold medal! Between that and the antics of my underground newspaper (we printed the notes from the school's meeting about a proposed dress code -- at Middleton High School!!!1!)*, I went from the geeky dweeb w
English teachers and science fiction (Score:2)
"... and my middle-school English teacher Mrs. Young was smart enough to include "All Summer in a Day" in her curriculum."
My last high school English teacher, by contrast, declared that science fiction didn't merit being called literature and refused to even let us submit books reports about any SF novels. Several of us eloquently argued the matter with her, but to no avail. This same teacher gave birth to not one but two thoroughly gifted sons who both scored close to a perfect 1600 on the SAT, and who b
Criminal!! (Score:2)
I remember when another student on the bus loaned me "Fahrenheit 451,"
WHOA. Hold it right there buddy, a student loaned you Ray Bradbury's intellectual property, and you read it without paying the man?! Ray's going to drag his octogenarian ass to your house and give you a good solid SF-writer-caliber whoopin, I tell you what. Look at all the ruckus he caused [agonist.org] just because someone borrowed his title; how do you think he's going to feel when he finds out you borrowed the whole book!
Re:"Slow News Day" tag? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, it should, considering he is one of the most influential SF writers to date. Slashdot loves scifi, so, we love to hear about this stuff.
There's a reason why Foundation and Dune come up a lot.
Re:"Slow News Day" tag? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I have to agree with the grandparent post. Sure, Ray Bradbury is important in the sci-fi world. But is he anymore important than say Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison?
Yes.
The people who shape others thoughts by means of art, culture, analogy and metaphor are and always will be revered. The people who contribute to the economy today are merely remembered, not revered. There is a very good reason for this.
Re: (Score:2)
OK, fine, but are we gonna have the same story every year until he dies? "Ray Bradbury turns 88" "Ray Bradbury turns 89" "Ray Bradbury died today, he was eaten by wolves" "Ray Bradbury is still dead" I mean, how far does it go?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I think we should celebrate his turning 541...
Is that the temprature at which accuracy burns?
Re:"Slow News Day" tag? (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think anyone questions his credentials, but I think it does make for a slow news day to point out his 88th birthday. Is this an annual announcement that is made here? Were there front page stories for his 73rd, 68th, or what about 86th?
For what it is worth, it also was the 91st birthday of John Lee Hooker, the 69th birthday of Carl Yastrzemski, and the 146th birthday of Claude Debussy. If you want to argue that these people don't fit in with the slashdot crowd (and before you do, don't forget that baseball nerds and geeks by far predate computer geeks), shouldn't we have mentioned that the 11th was Steve Wozniak's 58th birthday, the 7th was James Randi's 80th birthday (good lord, I didn't know he was that old, but at least that is one of those decadal numbers people get all worked up about), the 5th was Neil Armstrong's 78th, and the 19th would have been Gene Roddenberry's 87th birthday.
Unless there is some significance to this particular birthday, I would have to agree with the GP that it must be a slow news day for this to make the front page.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't think anyone questions his credentials, but I think it does make for a slow news day to point out his 88th birthday. Is this an annual announcement that is made here? Were there front page stories for his 73rd, 68th, or what about 86th?
Probably a story planted by a marketer wanting to pep up Rad Bradbury book sales. /. would be in their core demographic. Some of the /. posts in this story will be by fraudulent marketers also trying to encourage people to buy. All it takes is a very small percentag
Re: (Score:2)
I wasn't aware Debussy played baseball, but hey... learn a new thing every day.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Is this an annual announcement that is made here? Were there front page stories for his 73rd, 68th, or what about 86th?
Hmm, just how often does Slashdot report on news which happened before Slashdot was started?
Re: (Score:2)
Like the story's poster, The Illustrated Man changed my life. ... as might be calculated from my Nick.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
When the writer is Ray Bradbury, yes, it should.
And isn't 88 a special age for hobbits, or something?
Re:"Slow News Day" tag? (Score:5, Funny)
No, it's the age at which science fiction authors start to travel backwards in time [wikipedia.org].
Hobbits (Score:2, Insightful)
And isn't 88 a special age for hobbits, or something?
You are thinking of "eleventy-one."
Re:"Slow News Day" tag? (Score:5, Insightful)
If you can find me one geek who doesn't list an SF writer as a major influence in their interest in technology, then I'll agree with you.
I have my doubts that you would succeed though. For me it was Douglas Adams.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:"Slow News Day" tag? (Score:4, Interesting)
Those are not geeks.
Because they don't read sci-fi? I never did as a child, yet consider myself a geek. I've always read a lot, but never found any sci-fi books that really dragged me in.
What got me into tech were the movies depicting tech. Star Wars (IV), Tron, Wargames and Back to the Future (I). Playing with Lego and Mechano while watching them blew me away.
All the while I read a huge amount. Mostly fantasy, crime and horror. When I wasn't reading, I was probably either watching sci-fi movies, or playing games or creating text adventures on my Speccy.
As anyone who reads this is probably aware, shit changes - espically in the world of tech. Where we once read, we now may watch or listen instead. In another time slashdot may have been a newspaper with comments fueled by readers snail-mail. But it ain't.
If you don't think viewing sci-fi in other media makes you geeky enough, then start telegramming in your punch-card comments.
Re:"Slow News Day" tag? (Score:4, Interesting)
No, there's somehting special about books. There's just very little actual content in movies and games. A movie has what, a 100 page script? And less than that for games.
In the room with me as I type this are about 40,000 pages of imaginative fiction, and that's the fraction of what I've read that I liked enough to keep through many moves. If your only exposure to other worlds is a few dozen skiffy movies, you've hardly left your head! Heck, you probably think skiffy is SF.
And I don't even consider myself a hardcore fan - I've never gotten drunk with Niven, or punched in the face by Ellison, or watched Asimov put his moves on a young female fan, I just read a bit in my spare time, just a book or two a week.
Re:"Slow News Day" tag? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
In the room with me as I type this are about 40,000 pages of imaginative fiction, and that's the fraction of what I've read that I liked enough to keep through many moves.
Rather than rabidly leaping to the defence of games, as some sibling posters have done, I shall merely point out that you need more books. (Or maybe just more bookshelves, to allow a greater book density. You can do better than 100-200 books per room!)
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, you probably think "Primer" and "Donnie Darko" were mind blowing, or that an RPG with both a "good path" and an "evil path" are deep. Not that these are bad things, of course, but the bar for literature is a bit higher.
But this has been said before [brunching.com] and diagramed in detail. You need to be a published SF author to look down on me, I'm afraid, otherwise I get to look down on you as a movie/game/anime fan - it's right there in the standards document.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Strange you do not associate scifi writers with the films that you enjoy. Do you realise there are many films where the book came first? Ray Bradbury in particular has been the source of many stories that have been adapted for the screen.
cutting for film loses depth and plot and takes away your part in a story, yes your imagination has an important part to play when reading a book.
unfortunately your settling for mcdonalds instead of visiting a real restaurant.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:"Slow News Day" tag? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
"How many of the great Sci-fi authors are left?"
The one and only http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Vance [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Owlbear! Owlbear! Prismatic spray on the Owlbear! ; )
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Worst.
Writer.
Ever.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Orson Scott Card?
Doesn't he right religious stories for the LDS church now?
Re: (Score:2)
No, he writes them, but otherwise you are quite correct ;)
The largest case of astroturfing ever.
Re: (Score:2)
someone here recently pointed out Charles Stross and his stuff is awesome.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I should think not.
Bradbury was one of the first science fiction authors to have a wider cultural impact outside of sci-fi fandom, and is still one of the most important.
Of course, there's no way to precisely rank the importance of writers in a genre; perhaps there were more influential writers within the genre, but clearly he is a writer of the first rank. Within his historical cohort, many have passed away: Poul Anderson, Isaac Asimov, James Blish, Robert Bloch, Arthur Clarke, Philip K. Dick, Gordy
Re:"Slow News Day" tag? (Score:5, Informative)
No SF author has ever creeped me out as much as Bradbury can. He can describe a happy summer day with just a note of ... something ... that makes you think you're in a horror story despite every description being pleasant. "There will come soft rains" from The Martian Chronicles still sticks with me 20 years after reading it for the first time, long after we stopped fearing the bomb. Truely a genius at his craft.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
If you're going to make an exhaustive list of the origins of SF you should include HG Wells and Jules Verne.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Really, the fact that no part really stands out for me probably says something about the book. Reading it was kind of jarring, but I put it off at the 'disturbingness' of the plot/theme/idea. The only thing I remember is how close his wife behaved to stereotyped dumb blonds, NASCAR fans, and
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Your Heinlein paperbacks are sticky, aren't they?
Re:Meh (Score:4, Interesting)
"Your Heinlein paperbacks are sticky, aren't they?"
While Heinlein does tend to be "Ayn Rand in Spaaaaaace!" at least it actually feels like space! Stranger in a Strange Land had flying cars and bounce tubes and stuff. The Martian Chronicles took place on Mars for no other reason than because the author says so.
Jules Verne figured out that Floridian latitudes were convenient, and yet "Rocket Summer" took place in Ohio? And for how many centuries did we know that the surface of Earth was mostly water, and yet he consistently describes Earth as a green dot in the Martian sky? These are things that anybody living after 1750 or so with a globe on their desk could deduce (and they often did), but Bradbury couldn't be bothered to exercise his supposedly vast imagination even that much? Even if it helped immerse the reader just a little bit? No, such things would get in the way of The Point. Instead of creating an imaginative world that was "the same, but different" where he could explore ideas, he created a world that was "the same, only they say they're on Mars."
Agree or disagree with Heinlein, the man could write a good story. Agree or disagree with Ellison, the man could write a good story. Ray Bradbury cannot write.
Re: (Score:2)
"The story that is style and allegory, or the one devotes pages of exposition to laughably wrong predictions of a supposedly realistic future? It all might as well be spaceports in Ohio."
"Predictions?" As I said before, anybody since Sir Isaac Newton could easily see that lower latitudes were beneficial. Jules Verne did figure it out [gutenberg.org]. Better still, Bradbury could have set it in segregated Florida and maybe get away with combining a story or two.
And the image of the destruction of Australia (!!! [qntm.org]) being vi
Re: (Score:2)
"Here's a clue: Moby Dick isn't really about a whale."
And Nathaniel Hawthorne didn't really spend a good deal of time conversing with ghosts, but both he and Melville managed to create something in their readers usually referred to as "suspension of disbelief."
Re:Meh (Score:5, Funny)
Your Heinlein paperbacks are sticky, aren't they?
Some people have time enough for love.
Re:Meh (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
"a superior power invading what was though the premier power with nightmarish force saying 'Mars, bitches!', and a man venturing to different lands where there happens to be a society that resembles what his is like at the extremes in 'teh future!'."
But the key here is that Wells actually worked on the metaphor. Good science fiction tends to be stories of "Let's take contemporary society (or some other meme), but dial up Aspect X a few orders of magnitude and explore what happens." Most of Bradbury's work
Re: (Score:2)
*Chuckles*
Not to be insulting - because I can't remember enough of Farenheit 451 to intelligently defend its worth - I just like your single-quoted summaries of those two books. Someday in the future, if F451's distopia prevails (or more likely, Idiocracy's), 'teh future!' and 'Mars, bitches!' might be labels on the bindings of Bradbury's work in an incredibly dusty library.
Re: (Score:2)
"Someday in the future, if F451's distopia prevails (or more likely, Idiocracy's), 'teh future!' and 'Mars, bitches!' might be labels on the bindings of Bradbury's work in an incredibly dusty library."
Except, even then, George Orwell managed to do a much better job with the theme of a deliberately illiterate state/society four years prior. Orwell thought up Minipax and Minitruth, while Bradbury had "He's called a 'fireman' because he starts fires! I'm so clever!"
(What do you call the guy who shovels the c
Re: (Score:2)
What do you call the guy who shovels the coal into the locomotive and generally tends the fire again?
Mister Tibbs?