Ray Bradbury: Writers of the 21st Century

247 Pages·1980·13.762 MB·English

by  Martin Harry Greenberg, Joseph D. Olander

Writers of the
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bradbirry
EDlTED,py JOSEPH D. OLANDER
AND MART1N HARRY GREENBERG
Edited by
MARTIN HARRY GREENBERG
,and
JOSEPH D. OLANDER
ray
bradbury
TAPLINGER PUBLISHING COMPANY I NEW YORK
Writers of the 21st Century
RAY BRADBURY
Also available In the Writers of the 21st Century Series:
ARTHUR C. CLARKE
ISAAC ASIMOV
JACK VANCE (in preparation)
PHILIP K. DICK (in preparation)
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
ROBERT SILVERBERG (in preparation)
STANISLAW LEM (in preparation)
THEODORE STURGEON (in preparation)
URSULA K. LEGUIN
Also co-edited by Martin Harry Greenberg and Joseph D. Olander:
Time of Passage: SF Stories about Death and Dying
Tomorrow, Inc.: SF Stories about Big Business
Run to Starlight: Sports through Science Fiction (with Patricia Warrick)
The City 2000 A.D.: Urban Problems
through Science Fiction (with Ralph Clem)
The New Awareness: Religion
through Science Fiction (with Patricia Warrick)
/
First Edition
Published in the United States in 1980 by
T APLlNGER PUBLl~HING CO .• INC.
New York. New York
Copyright © 1980 by Martin Harry Greenberg and Joseph D. Olander
All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by
any means. electronic or mechanical. including photocopy. recording,
or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be in
vented, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a re
viewer who wishes to Quote brief passages in a magazine, newspaper, or
broadcast.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
Ray Bradbury.
(Writers of the 21st century)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
CONTENTS: McNelly, W. E. and Stupple, A. J. Two views. - Wolfe, G. K. The
frontier myth in Ray Bradbury.-Gallagher, E. J. The thematic structure of The
Martian Chronicles. [etc.]
I. Bradbury, Ray, 1920- -Criticism and interpretation-Essays. 2. Science fic
tion, American - History and criticism - Essays. I. Greenberg, Martin Harry. n.
Olander, Joseph D. III. Series.
PS3503.R167Z85 813'.5'4 77-76721
ISBN 0-8008-6638-X
ISBN 0-8008-6639-8 pbk_
CONTENTS
Introduction
MARTIN HARRY GREENBERG AND
JOSEPH D. OLANDER 9
1. Two Views
WILLIS E. McNELLY AND A. JAMES STUPPLE 17
2. The Frontier Myth in Ray Bradbury
GARY K. WOLFE 33
3. The Thematic Structure of The Martian Chronicles
EDWARD J. GALLAGHER 55
4. The Machineries of Joy and Despair: Bradbury's Attitudes
toward Science and Technology
MARVIN E. MENGELING 83
5. To Fairyland by Rocket: Bnrdbury's The Martian Chronicles
ERIC S. RABKIN ItO
6. Bradbury on Children
LAHNA DISKIN 127
7. Man and Apollo: Religion in Bradbury's Science Fantasies
STEVEN DIMEO 156
8. Ray Bradbury and the Gothic Tradition
HAZEL PIERCE 165
9. Style Is the Man: Imagery in Bradbury's Fiction
SARAH-WARNER J. PELL 186
10. Burning Bright: Fahrenheit 451 as Symbolic Dystopia
DONALD WATT 195
RAY BRADBURY: A BIOGRAPmCAL NOTE 214
CONTRIBUTORS 216
NOTES 219
RAY BRADBURY: A BIBLIOGRAPHY
COMPILED BY MARSHALL B. TYMN 227
INDEX 243
Acknowledgments
Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to quote brief pas
sages from the following works by Ray Bradbury:
Dandelion Wine: passages reprinted by permission of the Harold
Matson Company, Inc. Fahrenheit 451: copyright ©1967 by Ray
Bradbury; reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster, a Division
of Gulf & Western Corporation, and by permission of the Harold
Matson Company, Inc. The Golden Apples oj the Sun: passages re
printed by permission of the Harold Matson Company, Inc. The
Halloween Tree: passages reprinted by permission of the Harold
Matson Company, Inc. I Sing the Body Electric!: passages reprinted
by permission of the Harold Matson Company, Inc. The lIIustra
ted Man: passages reprinted by permission of the Harold Matson
Company, Inc. The Martian Chronicles: passages reprinted by per
mission of the Harold Matson Company, Inc. The October Coun
try: passages reprinted by permission of the Harold Matson Com
pany, Inc. S Isjor Space: passages reprinted by permission of the
Harold Matson Company, Inc. Something Wicked This Way Comes:
Copyright ©1962 by Ray Bradbury; reprinted by permission of Si
mon & Schuster, a Division of Gulf & Western Corporation, and by
permission of the Harold Matson Company, Inc.
Additional copyright dates for above inclusive material, including
short stories, is as follows: Copyright ©1943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947,
1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958,
1960,1962,1964,1965, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1972, 1973 by Ray Brad
bury; Copyright renewed 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976,
1977, 1978, 1979 by Ray Bradbury. Reprinted by permission of the
Harold Matson Company, Inc.
7
Introduction
MARTIN HARRY GREENBERG
and JOSEPH D. OLANDER
IN AN IMPORTANT essay which deserves wide exposure and merits
serious consideration, * Thomas Disch argues that science fiction is
actually a branch of children's literature. He points out that, to use
an old expression, the "Golden Age" of science fiction is 12 to 14, the
age at which most of us discovered the field; and that many of the
acclaimed "classics" of the genre are about children. This observa
tion is germane to the subject of this book, since children hold a par
ticular fascination for Ray Bradbury and he for them, his works
having introduced several generations of young people to the won
ders of science fiction. Many critics feel that Bradbury is, in fact,
writing about his own childhood. Indeed, a number of comments at
tributed to him tend to reinforce this interpretation. He is a powerful
writer because he captures the fears and emotions that all of us have,
but which we usually hide behind a mask of normality and adjust
ment. In stories that are morality tales told by a true moralist, Brad
bury shows us ourselves as we sometimes really are.
Despite the surface simplicity of his major themes, however, Ray
Bradbury has seldom been studied. More often than not, he has been
misunderstood, especially in regard to his attitude toward science
and "progress." One reason may be that he is basically a short-story
writer, and in the United States short-story criticism is still in its in
fancy. In this book we seek to place Bradbury in perspective, both as
a writer and in terms of his place in the history of science fiction. The
latter task is an important one because he is not considered a "science
• "The Embarrassments of Science Fiction," in Science Fiction at Large,
ed. Peter Nicholls, New York: Harper & Row, 1976, pp. 139-56.
9
MARTIN HARRY GREENBERG AND JOSEPH D. OLANDER 10
fiction writer" by many of his contemporaries and critics. Bradbury
has been compared with other hard-to-classify authors, ranging from
Edgar Allan Poe to John Collier and Shirley Jackson. Here is a man
who by his own admission has not set foot in an airplane and who
has never been behind the wheel of an automobile. Indeed, he has
been quoted to the effect that the car is one of the worst catastrophes
to befall mankind. More seriously, he has been castigated as a "reac
tionary," a middle American still living in a world that has long since
passed.
The controversy surrounding Ray Bradbury cannot obscure his
success as a writer, however. At least five of his books - Dandelion
Wine, The Golden Apples of the Sun, The Illustrated Man, The
Martian Chronicles, and A Medicine for Melancholy have sold well
in excess of a million copies in paperback, and have remained in print
for decades. Bradbury has also played an important role in the "legit
imization" of science fiction. He was a pioneer in placing SF stories
outside the genre magazines, selling to such publications as The Sat
urday Evening Post.
Our first chapter has two sections. In the first section, "Ray Brad
bury-Past, Present, and Future," Willis E. McNelly provides a
succinct overview of the major themes in Bradbury's work and how
they have changed during his career. A number of these themes - in
cluding Bradbury's attitudes toward science and technology, his use
of the frontier tradition, his alleged enchantment with the past - and
his poetic use of imagery are treated in more depth in succeeding
chapters.
The second section, "The Past, The Future, and Ray Bradbury,"
by A. James Stupple, analyzes Bradbury's attitudes toward the rela
tionship of past and future and finds, through an examination of
The Martian Chronicles, Dandelion Wine, and I Sing the Body Elec
triel, that he has long been concerned with the attractions of past
and future and with the issue of stasis "ersus change. A. James Stup
pie explains how Bradbury's attitudes toward the past have changed,
from something that traps us to a growing awareness of the com
plexities and ambiguities of past-future relationship.
The next chapter treats an important subject in both American
literature and Bradbury's writing: the frontier. The existence of the
frontier played a crucial role in the history of the United States. Be
cause it provided a "safety valve" for the frustrations and alienation
that increased as the Industrial Revolution progressed in America,
the frontier helped maintain and cultivate democracy. "Go West,