Ray Douglas Bradbury

Ray Bradbury was born on August 22, 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois. The second name - Douglas - he received in honor of the famous actor of that time, Douglas Fairbanks. Father: Brad Leonard Spaulding

In 1934, the Bradbury family moved to Los Angeles, where Ray lived all his life. The writer’s childhood and youth passed during the Great Depression, he had no funds for a university education, however, having decided to become a writer at almost 12 years old, Ray followed him with enviable persistence, never thinking about another profession. As a young man, he sold newspapers, then lived off his wife for several years, until his first major work, The Martian Chronicles, was finally published in 1950. Then, after writing the novel Fahrenheit 451 in 1953 and being published in the first issues of Playboy magazine, his fame grew to worldwide.

Ray Bradbury is often referred to as the master of science fiction, one of the best science fiction writers and the founder of many of the genre's traditions. In fact, Bradbury is not a science fiction writer, since his work should be attributed to "big", non-genre literature, and he has only a small proportion of truly fantastic works.

Young Bradbury in 1938, photograph from the school yearbook

Most of Bradbury's works are short stories of a non-entertaining nature, containing short sketches, reduced to dramatic, psychological moments, built mainly on dialogues, monologues, and reflections of the characters. Despite the obvious talent for inventing various plots, often entertaining and original, the writer often confines himself to plotless sketches, very metaphorical, full of hidden meanings or not carrying a certain semantic load at all. And even in well-tailored works Bradbury can easily break off the story, get away from the details, leaving the action at a moment of acute passions. Also, in almost none of the works of the writer can be convicted of moralizing and imposing his point of view: in 99% of the works, the author remains “behind the scenes”. The situation can develop arbitrarily biased, but Bradbury will never lead the reader to a conclusion. As if he sees his task in exciting the reader, exacerbating the situation and leaving, leaving him to think over the book.

Ray Bradbury in 1959

And if Bradbury departed from his other creative principles, then his “language”, that is, the ways of presenting images, thoughts, almost never changed. The characteristic features of his language are "watercolor", a minimum of details, descriptions, details, actions. There is eve

n not so much fantasticness (lack of realism), but neglect of the value of likelihood. This trait also applies to plots (fantasticity easily coexists with fabulousness, detective story with melodrama, sweeping away the boundaries of genres), and language: Bradbury neglects descriptions of places of action, the appearance of heroes, names, dates, numbers. Naturally, in his works one cannot find technical details and fiction in the technical field.

Bradbury in 1990

Accordingly, without making the plot base absolute, Bradbury easily changes the styles and gen

res of his works. In the stories of the same year of writ

ing, one can easily find science fiction, melodrama, detective, fantasy, historical sketches, etc. As far as one can judge from essays and interviews, Bradbury preaches a literature of feelings, not thoughts. Emotions, not actions. States, not events. As a young man, he once burned all his unfortunate weak stories, arranging a grand bonfire in his area. “I burned two million words,” he said sadly. This spectacle later formed the basis of his debut novel Fahrenheit 451, about the burning of books and a story on the same topic.

Bradbury's work is the opposite of the classic plot short prose with intrigue and a shock ending. If the reader is looking for entertainment and intrigue, he is likely to be disappointed. It is interesting that

such mood stories, feelings-sketches, in which the author himself lives, are closer to a mature reader. Most of Bradbury's fans are middle-aged and elderly people. The master himself is known among his colleagues, American science fiction writers, as a “good old storyteller”, the attitude towards which is very respectful.

Bradbury stands up for spiritual values ​​and, above all, for fantasy and creativity. Almost the highest value Bradbury declares the inner world of man, his worldview, fantasy. The writer recognizes the ability of a person to feel, empathize with the main quality.

Bradbury in 2009

Also, in his works, he sympathizes primarily with people of art (and even more with his connoisseurs), than with everyone else. Often, at the same time, on the pages of his books, Bradbury brutally cracks down on "enemies" - callous people devoid of imagination, philistines, officials, politicians - those who interfere with the normal life of creative people, self-expression, communication, who reduce culture to conventions, mass character, standardization, makes life dry, boring, spiritually poor, insipid.