The Short Stories of Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury is a twisted Isaac Asimov, a literary Dali who painted with his words, a Stephen King before Stephen King was there. If King is the master of the occult, of horror, and of long novels and deep characterizations playing “what if?” with the universe, then one of the wellsprings of his imagination was surely the taut, tightly wound dystopian short stories penned by his prolific predecessor. And indeed, how much of our subterranean mental landscape has been formed by this one man, a contemporary of the early 20th century dime novels and pulp fictions with which I am so in love? In Bradbury we see a Golden Age of horror fiction even before it became respectable, a right turn from the prevailing “hard” sci-fi of the day — and yet, even to use such terms shortens and simplifies an enormous body of work encompassing sci-fi, fantasy, horror, mythology, psychology and fictional futurism. Categorizing the man and his output is like trying to nail down Asimov, or King – it’s too much to encompass into a single sentence. To the extent that there is s cultural mythology of the twentieth century, a sort of inner world of our imaginations, surely Bradbury is one of its creators.
Bradbury – and if any of us do not know his name by now we cannot call ourselves book lovers – is one of the masters of the short form. Few of his short stories exceed fifteen pages in length, and are as tightly wound, as clear of expression and as dense in imagery as anything penned by King in his beginnings, by Asimov, Heinlein, Robert E. Howard, Elmore Leonard, Dashiell Hammett or any of the myriad others who dabbled in the field (even Bradbury’s novels – The Martian Chronicles, or Dandelion Wine, for example – are short story collections in disguise, and Fahrenheit 451 began as The Fireman, a short story). And yet, unlike these straightforward writers who are mostly plot – and I don’t mean this in a bad way – there is always something off-kilter and distorted moving beneath Bradbury’s work…something badly reflected, like a mirror with a flaw one can sense but not always see.
While I have read most of his collected works over the years, long and not-so-long, the ones to which I keep returning in order to sip at the well of his genius, are always the short stories of The Illustrated Man, “100 Celebrated Tales” and The Martian Chronicles. In the best of these, there is always a haunting sense of time and place…of America gone sour, perhaps, or of strange places in our memories, or even places that never were. And that feeling of almost – but not quite – recognition, like acquaintances long-forgotten who we feel we’ve met somewhere before.
Consider “A Sound of Thunder” – it combines time travel, a hunting safari, politics and chaos theory….how stepping on a butterfly irrevocably changes the course of history. Or “I Sing the Body Electric” which is only nominally about how a man brings a robot granny into the house to comfort his grieving children after the death of his wife. Or the creeping sense of horror about “The Playground” (which could have been written by King), where a man who changes places with his son to spare the child the cruelties of childhood, only realizes at the close how cruel childhood really is. There is the depth of psychological suspense in “The Veldt” where kids plot to murder their indifferent parents in a Star-Trek-type holodeck meant as a play area; and one of the most clearly realized, utterly atmospheric alien-worlds stories ever written, “The Long Rain”.
Bradbury’s work in sci-fi seems occasionally dated, but he himself argues that he doesn’t really write science fiction (at least not in the engineering style of “Red Mars”), but fantasy, because his worlds cannot exist, unlike those of the realists like Asimov and Heinlein. The reason his work still resonates, even after more than half a century is less because he wrote about futuristic rockets, robots or machines, than because he described people we can recognize – and how the development of the soul-annhilating techno-society he so clearly foresaw alters the way we think, the way we interact…who we are. He is a mordant ethicist who argues for humanity while pointing out how much more human our creations can become…and how little can be left in us if we are not careful.
Think of how “The Murderer” so acurately predicted our mad “always-connected” culture with his brilliant paragraph: Three phones rang. A duplicate wrist radio in his desk drawer buzzed like a wounded grasshopper. The intercom flashed a pink light and click-clicked. Three phones rang. The drawer buzzed. … The psychiatrist, humming quietly, fitted the new wrist radio to his wrist, flipped the intercom, talked a moment, picked up one telephone, talked, picked up another telephone, talked, picked up the third telephone, talked, touched the wrist-radio button, talked calmly and quietly, his face cool and serene, in the middle of the music and the lights flashing, the phones ringing again … Substitute an i-phone, laptop and TV and you’d have a picture of how my daughter spends time in her room.
And always, coiling underneath the spare plotline, is the dark side of Americana, in stories like the one where a child wishes for everyone in the world to disappear…and they do; of machines that stand around telling stories of the men who made them, now long extinct; of a man hurtling in space to his death, wondering what he can do “to make up for a terrible and empty life” before dying; how the Rocket Man wanted to be with his family when in space, and in space when with his family.
Bradbury is neither a Luddite nor a pessimist. Nor for that matter is he an optimist. He simply invites us to be alert to the consequences of our actions. He is realistic enough to know technology is not the answer simply because it can clean your house and create a robot replacement for you; just twisted enough to see the hope of machines wanting to act like humans will be overhsadowed by humans behaving like machines; and cynical enough to understand – and make us shudder at – the irony of youthful innocence reposing in adults while children are the amoral, devious homicidical crazies we ourselves allowed to be, and which we should fear. In the richness of his storytelling we see all the possible reflections of ourselves, all the permutations and possibilities of our society: we read his terse and evocative prose with appreciation and amazmenet and wonder…his stories take up residence in our minds. We know them, we love them, we dread them.
“There would be no King without Bradbury”, Stephen King once remarked. Maybe so, although he admits elsewhere to being as influenced by Lovecraft and Wheatley and pulp as by that old master. Be that as it may, it is thanks to Bradbury that we have an enriched body of often unappreciated, undeservedly low-rent work without pretensions of grandeur, that will stand the test of time — and which has become, somehow, part of the iconic literature of our age. If I were to think of which short stories out there I’ll be reading in the twilight of my life, when hope, realism and cynicism have taken equal residence in my heart, then I’ll pick Asimov, King, Heinlein, Naipaul, Lahiri, perhaps half a dozen others…and Bradbury for sure.
Short fiction is one of my greatest vices. I adore those tales that, though only a quick snapshot, paint a picture vivid enough to resonate. It is sort of a ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ card for the author in that they do not necessarily need to flesh out back stories or provide all answers. King is a master of this. He drops us into his short tales right in the thick of things and 20 pages later when they end, we’re left feeling like young men after their first…well…you know. Nothing left to do but sit back and say ‘wow’.
I have read “A Sound Of Thunder” and “The Fog Horn”. Both brilliant.
If anyone is at all interested, I like to collect (even if only printoffs and photocopies) the short stories that resonate with me. I am happy to lend some out.
I’ll have to try more Bradbury now.
BTW…Lance name-dropped Lovecraft. If you haven’t read Lovecraft, you have no idea how dark things can get.
Here, fellas:
http://manila.mdihs.u98.k12.me.us/mdihscrush/stories/storyReader$484
This is a link to an online copy of “The Fog Horn”. Will only take you a couple of minutes. Try it.
Halfway through “The Illustrated Man”. Will finish in a day or two. My exposure to Bradbury was somewhat limited, but I am a fan now. Great short fiction. Looking forward to getting my hands on more.
Finished “The Illustrated Man”.
Final thoughts:
Though creative as hell, Bradbury does have a few weaknesses. I won’t point ‘em out here, as he won me over and the positive far outweighs any criticism, and because knowing the crew as I do…I think you’d all like his stuff. Try it.
Highlights in this one for me:
The Veldt
The Highway
The Man
The Long Rain
The Last Night Of The World
Zero Hour
The Rocket
BTW…
The Exiles was an unmitigated disaster. Why that was even published is beyond me. Incoherent and poorly written. Stupid premise. Not enought to mar the book, but…”one of these things just doesn’t belong here…”
Actually, I thought the Exiles was one of the most original pieces of fantasy I’d ever read. Maybe because I read it as a dark fairy tale and a cautionary story on the destruction of art. Interesting that our takes on it are so very different.
Hey just come across your site searching for some short story artwork. I like what you wrote about Bradbury, King, and short fiction. I write short stories myself and I learned from reading the best. I want to read Martian Chronicles, it sounded like a really good book. Take care and keep up the good reviews.
I am a collector of Ray Bradbury Stories, owning most of what he has written. At a time when Heinlein was the undisputed master of the genre, it was a young writer called Ray Bradbury who paved the way out of the pulps and into the slicks (the higher paying magazines with the glossy paper). In those first years when Science Fiction began to be taken seriously by mainstream publishers, it was the writers like Ray Bradbury who could weave literary magic within the tale of Science Fiction who were first recognized by the outside world. (A. E. Von Vogt as well). In a twist of irony,(or perhaps jelousy) the most important Sci Fi critics of the day (Damon Knight, James Blish, and Algis Budrys) chose to build their careers by making it fashionalble to criticize these first tailblazers for exactly the qualities that made the outside world recognize them. The style of writing which chose to embrace the imagination, and burst the soul upon the page, was deemed unscientific and to be writing of poor quality. The hard Science Fiction of Heinlein, Asimove and Clark was seen to be the true path for serious writing. Over time it became fashionable to criticize Bradbury and his style without even reading it.
What has this wrought? Go into any bookstore and you will see… a shrunken down Science Fiction section of sterile stories superimposed upon a burgeoning Fantasy section where imagination and stories which capture the soul are still being written. (just my opinion)
Great Article on Bradbury, and if any of you have a spare copy of “R is for Space” or “S is for Rocket” please let me know.
I might…have to check the basement. If I do, I’ll pop it by, the next time I’m in your neighborhood.
Just for fun a countdown of 25 of my favourite short Stories of Science fiction (Bradbury figures Prominently)
25) A Can of Paint – (A. E Van Vogt) – My skin crawls every time I spill a little paint on me
24) A Martian Odyssey – (Stanley G. Weinbaum) – great fun on Mars
23) The Star Mouse – Fredric Brown – A story I can read to the kids
22) Nine Billion Names of God – Arthur C. Clark – Just for the ending
21) Quietus – Ross Rocklynne – A very well written tale about prejudice
20) Black Destroyer – A.E. Van Vogt – This is the story that is universally agreed upon to have ushered in the Golden era of Sci Fi (And probably the unofficial inspiration for Star trek)
19) That Only a Mother – Judith Merril – Anything I say would give it away
18) Make Mine Homogenized – Rick Raphael – Cows and nuclear bombs make a great story
17) Arena – Frederic Brown – Captain Kirk versus the Gorn – (Not really, this was written two decades earlier)
16) Horror Howse – Margaret St. Clair – Classic Sci Fi Horror
15) A Sound of Thunder – Ray Bradbury – Considered by many to be hist best tale (I like two others better)
14) The Marching Morons – The Simpsons did a clever Halloween Episode based on this one
13) Process – A.E. Van Vogt – Trees at War, ending in a totally unexpected fashion
12) The Father Thing – Philip k. Dick – I love reading this one to my kids
11) Microcosmic God – Theodore Sturgeon – Sturgeon at his best
10) Mars is Heaven – Ray Bradbury – A little Heaven… a little horror
9) Time Wants a Skeleton – Ross Rocklynne – Isaac Asimov said of this story “They don’t write stories like that anymore”
8) The Veil of Astellor – Leigh Brackett – When Lucas needed a Screen writer who could write Dark Sci Fi for “The Empire Stikes Back” he chose Leigh Brackett. this story is dark.
7) A Rose for Ecclesiates (Roger Zelany)
6) Solution Unsatisfactory – Robert Heinlein – Considered on of the best Sci Fi prophesies of all time
5) The Push of a Finger – Alfred Bester – An ingenious tale of Mathematical Equations
4) The Last Question – Isaac Asimov (Usually I find Isaac to be a little sterile in his writing, but this is sheer brilliance)
3) The Fire Balloons (Ray Bradbury)- An absolutely brilliant story which helped shape my views of both religion and God (They are two separate topisc)
2) The Enchanted Village (A.E Van Vogt) – This is Van Vogt at his best
1) Flowers for Algernon – (Daniel Keyes) – Probably the best story I have ever read in any genre, and amazingly Mr. Keyes had trouble selling it.
Nice list.
I have not read them all but I have good memories if the following:
Flowers for Algernon: read this story obsessively as a kid, and aced my English final in high school by writing about it…even though it wasn’t on the syllabus.
Asimov’s “Final Question” is without doubt one of his best. I’d rank “The Ugly Little Boy” and “Nightfall right up there as well.
If I remember correctly, Bester wrote a story about a future where all cops were psychics…and as a sly wink to this, the PsyCop in “Babylon 5″ was called Bester (Sheldon may hate B5 but he’s wrong)…and played by one of the Original Series Star Trek crew.
Surprised that The Foghorn by Bradbury didn’t make the list…man that one was sad.
truth to tell, there are so many utterly brilliant sci-fi short stories out there, both past and present, I’m amazed you managed to winnow it down to a mere 25!
I started to do a top ten list, but it ballooned to 25 in a hurry. I could easily have done 50 or 100. Gomez by C. M. Kornbluth deserves honourable mentions and so does Pictures Don’t Lie by Katherine Maclean. I love Freddie Pohl and he didn’t make the list, Bester could easily have had more stories, same with Heinlein, As well, I like a lot of obscure stuff, guys like Robert Arthur Jr. who later went on to write “The Three Investigators” who for my money were far more interesting as a kind than the Hardy Boys, John D. MacDonald, The famous mystery writer has some fantastic early sci – fi , Heck even Rudyard Kipling has a sci fy story that could have made a top 100 list (As easy as ABC).
Funny you mention Nightfall. Quite honestly if I was to make a most over-rated story list this would probably be number one. This is just one of those stories which I found far too ‘ gimicky’. Another (IMO) of the more sterile stories of Isaac Asimov. Too me most of his stories read like technical manuals instead of stories. The foundation Trilogy bored me almost to tears.
PS: If you want the original great Robot Story read, I Robot by Eando (Earl and Otto) Binder written in 1939. This is the original sympathetic Robot story which Isaac drew upon heavily for his robot stories. Binder’s story is in my opinion much the superior work.