{"id":8909,"date":"2025-08-25T00:03:26","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T05:03:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/?p=8909"},"modified":"2025-06-21T23:09:33","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T04:09:33","slug":"the-ray-bradbury-interview-part-2-how-the-master-of-the-magical-and-mysterious-developed-his-writing-craft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/the-ray-bradbury-interview-part-2-how-the-master-of-the-magical-and-mysterious-developed-his-writing-craft\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ray Bradbury interview, part 2: How the master of the magical and mysterious developed his writing craft\u2028"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael Grossberg<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Here is part two of my feature profile of the late great Ray Bradbury, first published in 1985 and based on my interview and conversations with the Prometheus-winning author:
\n<\/b>
\nBradbury\u2019s playful spirit and suspenseful stories have endeared him to legions of fans.<\/p>\n

Next fall (1986), over the Labor Day weekend, an estimated 6,000 fans will gather in Atlanta during the 44th annual World Science Fiction Convention to personally thank the sprightly 65-year-old man who has always remained a child at heart.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s about time, because Bradbury\u2019s recognition as a Worldcon\u2019s Guest of Honor was long overdue.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Considering Bradbury\u2019s large body of work and vast appeal, it would not be much of an exaggeration to say that Bradbury owns the \u201cB\u201d in science fiction\u2019s classic alphabet of first-rank authors. (For those not in the know, the \u201cA\u201d is owned by Isaac Asimov and the \u201cC\u201d by Arthur Clarke.)<\/p>\n

Think of science fiction\u2019s Golden Age, and one immediately thinks of the author of The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, The Golden Apples of the Sun, The Halloween Tree, I Sing the Body Electric! <\/i>and, his acknowledged masterpiece, Fahrenheit 451.<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

BRADBURY\u2019S PROMETHEUS-WINNING FAHRENHEIT 451
\n<\/b>
\n<\/i>Last year Bradbury\u2019s masterpiece was inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame honoring outstanding fiction with civil liberties and individual rights themes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Angry and upset by the book-burning tactics of the McCarthy era in the early 1950s, Bradbury got the idea for a cautionary fable about\u00a0 <\/span>future dictatorship in which \u201cfiremen\u201d start fires in books in order to stamp out dissenting ideas.<\/p>\n

Energized by his sense of moral outrage at attempted censorship, Bradbury created Fahrenheit 451,<\/i><\/a> whose title refers to the temperature at which books burn, in just nine frenzied days. Then he spent another two weeks revising it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a sprinter,\u201d Bradbury acknowledged.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the sort of person I am and the way I work. I don\u2019t let my work own me. If it doesn\u2019t behave, I turn my back on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

GOING TO THE MOVIES
\n<\/b>
\nBradbury is always probing, as one of the stories about that glittery make-believe and might-have-been, Hollywood, illustrates.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve all had the same experience,\u201d Bradbury said.
\n\u201cYou go to the movies. Halfway through the movie, you think you know what the ending is going to be, and then the damn fools go on with the film and come up with a dreadful ending\u2026 And you walk out of the theater disgruntled with these non-creative people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>That happened to Bradbury about 10 years ago, when he saw Network<\/i> for the first time.<\/p>\n

Directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Peter Finch, William Holden and Faye Dunaway, Network<\/em> is a delightful, cynical black comedy about the ratings war between the TV networks.
\nOn a deeper level, the Oscar-winning film takes a subversive look at the media\u2019s powerful influence on American society.<\/p>\n

In the film, Finch played a network TV commentator who went \u201cmad as hell\u201d and became \u201cthe prophet of the airwaves.\u201d His ratings skyrocketed.<\/p>\n

But when Finch got too preachy about the evils of TV, his ratings plummeted again, prompting ratings-conscious network executives to have him assassinated.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sat there, holding on to my stomach, and wailing, \u2018Oh No,\u201d Bradbury recalled.
\n\u201cThey showed him lying on the TV studio floor, riddled with bullet holes, dead. And then it said: The End. Well, I\u2019m sorry, that doesn\u2019t make me th ink, when I walk out of the movie theater. It made me depressed.”<\/p>\n

REIMAGINING \u2018NETWORK’
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Ray Bradbury (Creative Commons license)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So Bradbury recreated his own movie ending, \u201cwhich was 10 times better.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his revised version of Network,<\/i> later published in the Los Angeles Times,<\/i> the movie doesn\u2019t end with the assassination.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re going to kill the poor (man), then let everybody in the country know that you\u2019re going to kill him on a certain night,\u201d Bradbury suggested.
\n\u201cAnd the ratings go up again, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter you kill him, two nights later you hold his funeral, televised with Walter Cronkite. And the ratings go up again.<\/p>\n

“Then you go to Forest Lawn and you buy the most expensive tomb you could possibly buy and put his body in the tomb, and roll a large rock in front of it. You come back a week later, and roll the rock aside.
\n\u201cThe tomb is empty – and you\u2019ve got a series.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Bradbury mailed his proposed ending to Lumet, Lumet wrote back: \u201cWhere were you when we needed you?\u201d<\/p>\n

An easy question to answer.<\/p>\n

As usual, Bradbury was sitting at his typewriter.
\nHe wasn\u2019t worrying. He wasn\u2019t \u201cthinking.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was simply getting done what he\u2019s always done best: writing imaginatively and playfully, about everything imaginable.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Read Part One of the Bradbury interview, reposted from its December 1985 publication in The Columbus Dispatch.<\/em><\/p>\n

Note: This feature profile is based mostly on an extensive phone interview with Bradbury. Yet, it also incorporates conversations I had with him at the Future of Freedom Conference in 1985 in Southern California.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

ABOUT THE PROMETHEUS AWARDS AND THE LFS:<\/b><\/p>\n

*\u00a0Join us!<\/b> To help sustain the Prometheus Awards and support a cultural and literary strategy to appreciate and honor freedom-loving fiction, \u00a0join<\/a> the Libertarian Futurist Society, a non-profit all-volunteer association of freedom-loving sf\/fantasy fans.<\/p>\n

Libertarian futurists understand that culture matters. We believe that literature and the arts can be vital in envisioning a freer and better future.<\/p>\n

In some ways, culture can be even more influential and powerful than politics in the long run, by imagining better visions of the future incorporating peace, prosperity, progress, tolerance, justice, positive social change, and mutual respect for each other\u2019s rights, human dignity, individuality and peaceful choices.<\/p>\n

* Prometheus winners:\u00a0<\/b>For the full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees \u2013 including the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards \u2013 visit the enhanced\u00a0Prometheus Awards page<\/a>\u00a0on the LFS website, which now includes convenient links to all published essay-reviews in our Appreciation series explaining why each of more than 100 past winners since 1979 fits the awards\u2019 distinctive dual focus on both quality and liberty.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Watch videos of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies, Libertarian Futurist Society panel discussions with noted sf authors and leading libertarian writers, and other LFS programs on the Prometheus Blog\u2019s\u00a0Video page.<\/a><\/p>\n

* Read \u201cThe Libertarian History of Science Fiction,\u201d<\/a> an essay in the international magazine\u00a0Quillette<\/i>\u00a0that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant element of libertarian sf\/fantasy in the evolution of the modern genre.<\/p>\n

* Check out the Libertarian Futurist Society\u2019s Facebook page<\/a> for comments, updates and links to Prometheus Blog posts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michael Grossberg Here is part two of my feature profile of the late great Ray Bradbury, first published in 1985 and based on my interview and conversations with the Prometheus-winning author: Bradbury\u2019s playful spirit and suspenseful stories have endeared him to legions of fans. Next fall (1986), over the Labor Day weekend, an estimated … Continue reading The Ray Bradbury interview, part 2: How the master of the magical and mysterious developed his writing craft\u2028<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[36,2201],"tags":[641,2594,268,68,2593],"class_list":["post-8909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","category-ray-bradbury","tag-fahrenheit-451","tag-future-of-freedom-conference","tag-prometheus-hall-of-fame","tag-ray-bradbury","tag-something-wicked-this-way-comes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe8nGl-2jH","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8909"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9446,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8909\/revisions\/9446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}