Ray Bradbury - Happy 101!

Yesterday would have been Ray Bradbury’s 101st birthday. It somehow would have been appropriate for one of the masters of fantasy had he made it that long. Alas, he died nine years ago (22 August 1920 – 5 June 2012).

Often called a science fiction writer, Bradbury rather thought of himself as a writer of fantasy. He said, “First of all, I don’t write science fiction. I’ve only done one science fiction book and that’s Fahrenheit 451, based on reality. Science fiction is a depiction of the real. Fantasy is a depiction of the unreal. So Martian Chronicles is not science fiction, it’s fantasy. It couldn’t happen, you see? That’s the reason it’s going to be around a long time – because it’s a Greek myth, and myths have staying power.”

Bradbury wrote novels, short stories (over 600), plays, and film scripts. Many of his short stories were adapted for radio and television, including Suspense, Lights Out, CBS Television Workshop, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and Twilight Zone. He was the host of The Ray Bradbury Theater, which adapted 65 of his stories. He even wrote plays and acted in them in a number of different theater companies.

How did he have such a huge output? From a young age he wrote every day. Every day. He read every day too. He once said that “Libraries raised me.” Not having the money to go to college during the Depression he spent three days a week at the library for ten years. He read everything from science fiction to classic novels to poetry. This may be where he developed his lyrical style.

One of my favorite Bradbury books is Fahrenheit 451, a story of a world where media is all-invasive, individual thought is crushed, and books are burned as subversive. It’s as relevant now as it was when it was written in 1953. In a 1994 interview Bradbury was asked how the story holds up. He answered, “It works even better because we have political correctness now. Political correctness is the real enemy these days…It’s thought control and freedom of speech control.”

Like Edgar Allan Poe and Raymond Chandler, Ray Bradbury transcends a particular genre. They are just good writers. To be educated, or to become a good writer, read good writers of many genres. This will teach you more than any writing or literature class can. In our own library we have copies of Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, I Sing the Body Electric, The October Country, The Illustrated Man, and The Machineries of Joy. Until we find more in our used book hunts.