Ray Bradbury

Como asume Borges, el emperador Shih Huang Ti mandó quemar todas las bibliotecas para que se desconociese el pasado y él fuese para el futuro –artificiosamente, forzosamente– el principio de la historia. Con otros métodos pero con idénticas intenciones de persuadirse únicos, primeros y últimos, certeros biblios (cada cual llamado El Libro) se autoproclamaron sagrados e inmutables 1, en donde añadir una coma haría estragos en el andamiaje del universo, en donde cualquier otra obra sería una ofensa a sí mismos.
Todos y cada uno de ellos, por lo tanto, se empujan, se expelen mutuamente, se refutan, se ofenden (profetizando así, aún antes de declararse, las guerras y enconos).
Por este camino anduvieron los metarrelatos y cosmogonías posteriores hasta nuestros días –religiosos, escolásticos, sincréticos, seculares; inspiraciones divinas, híbridas o humanas– que invitan de igual modo a abandonar la búsqueda de la verdad más allá de sus páginas, a contentarnos con el paraíso perdido o el materialismo histórico, o la ineludible influencia de los astros.

In Fahrenheit 451's protagonist Guy Montag, author Ray Bradbury gives a human face to the internal and external conflict inherent in his themes of a world consumed by censorship, superficial removal from reality, and the hedonistic violence of an unquestioning populace.

“Anthony Burgess and Science Fiction”, Jim Clarke, SFRA Review 313, Summer 2015, pp. 28-35. Anthony Burgess was a reluctant writer of SF, but a highly influential one. This article, for the SFRA Review, introduces the author and his SF work and seeks to explain the reason behind his sudden reversal of attitude towards SF in mid-career.

Many studies have investigated the notion of utopia in history, philosophy and literature. However, little attention has been devoted to its negative counterpart. Dystopia is the “utopia’s twentieth-century doppelgänger” (Gordin et al., 2010:1). This essay claims the deconstruction of traditional opposites by using Dystopology. This multifocal literary theory expands the dystopian analysis to other genres. Additionally, this paper will provide a dystopological overview of literature to better understand the pure dystopias of the era of social deception, conceiving not only the genesis of a new literature, but also another way of perceiving reality, through comics, cinema and other arts. The new millennium secured the fears of the dystopian trilogy ‒Huxley, Orwell and Bradbury. Therefore, when dystopia turns into reality, the only solution for contemporary authors is apocalypse. Following anarchic ideals, the coming generations see the destruction of society as the only opportunity for humanity to be reborn again.

The year 1950 marked Ray Bradbury's first mainstream success with the publication of a collection of his short stories titled The Martian Chronicles (Associated Press). These stories collectively describe Bradbury's notion of a post-apocalyptic world in which humans have colonized Mars. Two stories in this collection, "There Will Come Soft Rains" and "Usher II" take place in 2005 and 2026 respectively-after nuclear war has destroyed earth. Both stories also incorporate works from different authors within the narrative. In his short stories "There Will Come Soft Rains" and "Usher II," Ray Bradbury utilizes a dystopian setting and outside works, to assert that while technology advances humanity, it also diminishes art and nature.

Ray Bradbury’s literary dystopia, Fahrenheit 451 has attracted international attention since its publication with its rich content, subject matter, characterization, and thematization. Relevant critical scholarship on the novella has increased in number radically over the years, but an article discussing the concept of happiness and its controversial nature does not exist yet. This article will therefore discuss how happiness and hedonism are perceived in Fahrenheit 451 and will argue that it is not possible to reach one fixed definition; instead, it will be claimed that there exist different versions of happiness in Bradbury’s narrative with specific references to the key figures: Montag, Clarisse, Mildred and Beatty.

Si bien podríamos considerar que la idea del uso de la
memoria como sitio intangible para ocultar volúmenes o
los riesgos tomados por bibliófilos para salvarlos de las llamas han sido pergeñadas por el autor de Fahrenheit 451, muchos ensayos y biografías aparecidos en los últimos años en
torno a las experiencias de sobrevivientes de la Shoah, a los
usos de la memoria y la destrucción de libros, arrojan luz al
respecto, evidenciando que no se trata de meras fantasías,
sino que la realidad a veces las supera.

In Fahrenheit 451 (1953), Ray Bradbury portrays an authoritarian social formation in which reading and keeping books are strictly forbidden. The protagonist Montag who works as a fireman charged for burning books happens to question both his job and the dominant anti-intellectual ideology. Following a crisis of conscience period, Montag challenges the function of repressive state apparatus and manages to flee to wilderness where he meets a group of men who are willing to reconstruct society by enabling people to learn about their cultural heritage through the books they have secretly memorized. Using Althusser’s theory on ideology, this paper reinterprets Bradbury’s imaginative society scrutinizing the use of state apparatuses
to interpellate subjects by the ruling ideology and the motif of resistance to such a powerful disseminating ideological call.

The article discusses how the emerging genre of American and British science fiction symbolised and expressed Cold War anxieties after 1949. 
It begins by briefly showing how a popular Western symbolised the Berlin Airlift, then considers how several new Sci Fi novels, including "The Martian Chronicles," "The Day of the Triffids," "I am Legend," and "The Bodysnatchers" each respond more precisely to changing Soviet aggression. 
The chief writers explored are Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, John Wyndham, Richard Matheson, Jack Finney, and the television writer Terry Nation.  Connections are drawn between key science fiction novels and public concerns about possible atomic war, espionage fears, future Soviet invasion, and the Cuban Missile Crisis.
It then suggests a shift in meaning affecting British science fiction from the mid-1950s, with rising fears about the demise of empire, and concerns that European civilisation is waning.  The chief writers discussed in this regard are John Christopher, whose work is linked with the Suez Crisis, & J.G. Ballard's "The Drowned World."  Strong links are also established between several British science fiction novels and William Golding's "Lord of the Flies."
9pp.

EES N° 5 5°2° Ciencias sociales. "El peatón", Ray Bradbury 1) ¿Por qué el cuento se titula "El peatón"? 2) ¿Qué actitudes de Leonard Mead lo transforman ante el resto de la sociedad en la que vive, en un ser excéntrico o anormal? 3) ¿Cómo es la vida de las otras personas? 4) En este cuento se trabajan diversas oposiciones: la casa de Leonard / la casa de los otros; las calles durante el día/ las calles durante la noche, etc. Reconocer al menos dos oposiciones más en el texto e indicar qué función cumplen. 5) ¿Qué modificaciones sufrió la sociedad donde habita Mead en el último año? ¿Son positivas o negativas? Fundamentar tu respuesta. 6) Reflexionar y redactar un texto donde describan cómo son las relaciones interpersonales en la sociedad que el texto de Bradbury presenta. Agregar, además, en dicho texto sus apreciaciones personales acerca de esa sociedad. 1) El cuento se titula "El peatón" ya que su protagonista es un hombre que transita por las calles de la ciudad caminando. 2) A Leonard le gusta permanecer alejado de las tecnologías, solía ser escritor. Lo que más resalta de él en esta sociedad es que no posee una televisión; en la hora donde todos miran los típicos programas nocturnos, Leonard prefiere salir a caminar para despejarse. 3) La sociedad de 2052 se presenta en este cuento como dominada por la tecnología, las personas salen de su casa lo mínimo e indispensable, la delincuencia ya casi no existe, la policía fue reemplazada por simples autos donde alguien puede dirigirlos desde su casa; se marca mucho la presencia de la televisión ya que, ésta "consumió" a las personas y no son capaces de despegarse de ella. 4)

“Anthony Burgess and Science Fiction”, Jim Clarke, SFRA Review 313, Summer 2015, pp. 28-35.

Anthony Burgess was a reluctant writer of SF, but a highly influential one. This article, for the SFRA Review, introduces the author and his SF work and seeks to explain the reason behind his sudden reversal of attitude towards SF in mid-career.

Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 is a classic dystopian novel dealing with myriad themes, including the issue of censorship, a much controversial one pertinent even in the 21st century. Bradbury wrote quite presciently about a future where the culture Industry has taken control over our lives. The futuristic (24th century) world of Fahrenheit 451 is marked by a strong animosity towards learning; to quote Gray's prophetic (nonetheless, unintentional) lines 'Where ignorance is bliss'. Unlike the Orwellian world, the forbidden fruit here is the book. Reading is tantamount to sedition. One becomes a threat to the status quo of the society by imbibing knowledge; by becoming a deviant, one ruptures the carefully woven fabric of homogeneity, which makes sure that mass deception or something vaguely similar to Arendt's 'Banality of Evil'(Here, Ignorance) prevails. We find the characters in the novel blindly adhering to a totalitarian regime, one which is reminiscent of the deeds of the Nazi officers. When they were put on trial for the atrocities they had meted out to 6 million innocent Jews, they came up with a justification. They were just following orders from superior officers. The characters of the novel, especially the ones who assume a position in the vanguard of book burners are no less innocent. The protagonist, Guy Montag for example, before starting to develop dissenting views, mindlessly burns a plethora of valuable tomes including classics, for reasons he is not cognizant of. Nor does he feel any compunction for the same as Beatty, the leader of the firemen.

This paper attempts to look into " Technoculture " as a postmodern trend in science fiction; how it originated and evolved over the years. The study is conducted by situating texts of this category in their relative socio-political context. Starting from the 1700's, the current paper traces how technology made its way into major works of fiction, especially those belonging to the speculative category including dystopian works, uptil the Postmodern age i.e. 1945 onwards. The study is based on the theories of Fredric Jameson and Jean Baudrillard, and includes a close reading of four short stories of Ray Bradbury, which have explicitly dealt with " technoculture ". The selected fiction being set in postwar America shows how technology changed the way humans lived and interacted, and the discontents resulting from excessive dependence on machines. This paper also elaborates how the speculative genre and its content made a perfect match for writers who struggled to portray the mechanical life of the technology-driven society. Apocalypse, cyber wars, and inter-planetary travel seemed probable with many inventions of the 1900's and the public's interest in science fiction works reflected this fascination with futurism. It was for this readership, that " technocultural reality " seeped into Postmodern literature and portrayed dystopian visions of our world in order to caution us about preventing destruction.

Resumen: En este trabajo proponemos una reconsideración de una de las historias distópicas más populares y discutidas desde mediados del siglo XX, Fahrenheit 451, del escritor y ensayista estadounidense Ray Bradbury. Aunque esta historia ha atraído desde su publicación la atención del pensamiento político y social, creemos que ha sido ampliamente simplificada. A diferencia de ciertos críticos, no creemos que la fábula política de Bradbury fomente, como muchas otras distopías, una falta de perspectiva histórica o una insuficiente comprensión del presente. Si la visión política y cultural de Bradbury es criticable no lo es por su evasión de la historia, sino más bien por una visión histórica demasiado optimista. También queremos mostrar que Bradbury no fue un humanista enemigo de la cultura de masas, ni de la tecnología. El examen en profundidad de su novela y de numeroso material complementario (otros escritos, entrevistas y documentos) permitirá explicar porqué su historia sobre el sombrío futuro de la sociedad industrial también contenía elementos para imaginar un futuro alternativo. Gracias a ese examen, finalmente, concluiremos que en el caso de Bradbury la ciencia-ficción no solo sirve para imaginar un futuro indeseable, sino, sobre todo, para mantener vivas y transformar tradiciones con las que fabricar un futuro deseable.


Abstract: In this paper we propose a reconsideration of one of the most popular and discussed dystopian stories since the mid-20th century, Fahrenheit 451, by the American writer and essayist Ray Bradbury. Although this novel attracted the attention of political and social thought since its publication, we think that it has been largely simplified. Unlike some critics, we do not consider that Bradbury's political fable, like many other dystopias, fosters a lack of historical perspective or an insufficient understanding of the present. If Bradbury's political and cultural vision is open to criticism, it is not only for his evasion of history, but rather for an overly optimistic historical vision. We also make clear that Bradbury was not a humanist enemy of mass culture and technology. A close reading of his novel and numerous supplementary material (other writings, interviews and documents) make us to elucidate why his story about the bleak future of industrial society also contains elements to envisage an alternative future. Thanks to this examination we will conclude that, in the case of Bradbury, science-fiction does not serve just to foretell an undesirable future, but it significantly helps to keep alive and to transform traditions with which to manufacture a desirable future.

Courtesy of Living Time™ Media International this complete publication is available to download from Academia.Edu until 31st December 2019. This short story anthology contains thirteen complete tales of horror by the following authors: Saki (H.H. Munro), W.W. Jacobs, Sir Osbert Sitwell, Washington Irving, H.G. Wells, H.P. Lovecraft, Guy de Maupassant, Leonid Andreyev, Jakob Sandman, Ray Bradbury, Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce and Dylan Thomas. The collection of stories ranges over all territories of horror - the uncanny, the gruesome, the supernatural, the unexplainable and the simply scream-out-loud terrifying. All of the stories are presented in their re-edited formats by LTMI™ and the collection is opened by a short introduction by Alderson Smith, Head of Publishing for Living Time™ Media International.

Through an examination of some of the science-fiction stories published in Playboy magazine from 1953 to 1973, this essay shows that futuristic narratives were integral to the magazine’s editorial sensibility, which suggested that intimate life should be governed by the cool rationality of scientific management. In addition to offering close readings of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and “The Fly” by George Langelaan, this essay demonstrates that Playboy editor and publisher Hugh Hefner himself was a science-fictional figure, representing the fantasy of a human merging with a media network. During this period, Hefner purported to be the living embodiment of the Playboy enterprise, as well as its target audience. This claim allowed the magazine to manage public and legal perceptions of its readership, a move that helped Playboy skirt censorship while courting advertisers. Women and other supposedly vulnerable readers were excluded from its audience, appearing instead as instruments for masculine self-contemplation. Thus, the magazine describes female characters such as Clarisse, the “girl next door” in Fahrenheit 451, and Janet Pilgrim, the first girl-next-door Playmate, as media technologies operated by men. Drawing on Michel Foucault and the history of the book, this article uses the example of Hefner to theorize the editorial subject. Like Foucault’s author function, the editor function represents a position of legal, moral, and authorial responsibility that binds together disparate elements into a single, legible identity. Threats to this identity reemerge through science-fiction narratives, which allow readers to obtain a cool and estranged perspective on otherwise disturbing ideas and emotions. Nevertheless, Playboy rejected even speculative short stories that failed to conform to its editorial point of view.

The American Gothic powerfully influenced Ray Bradbury’s writing, and a midwestern carnival inspired him to become a writer. Bradbury’s favorite work of fiction,  and the one that best exemplifies both the Gothic and the carnivalesque qualities of his imagination, is Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962), which tells the story of how the boys Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade, together with Will’s father Charles, confront and defeat Cooger and Dark’s evil carnival. Contrary to scholarly consensus, Something Wicked This Way Comes is a distinctively constructed allegory that represents and critiques American Cold War paranoia in a quintessentially Gothic and carnivalesque fashion, by illustrating how laughter conquers fear. In it, the Gothic and the carnivalesque work together to explore related historical and psychological phenomena.

Distopya kelimesi ilk defa İngiliz John Stuart Mill tarafından 19. yüzyılın başında kullanıldı. Kendisi devlet memuru ve filozoftu. Yalnız kelime kökeni bu yıllarda çıksa da ilk distopik öğeler mitoloji ile baş gösterdi. Uranus yeni doğan çocuklarının hepsini eşi ve annesi Gaia’nın karnına geri iterek yeni gelen potansiyel “baş tanrılar”ın doğmasına izin vermedi. Buna sinirlenen Gaia ise türlü hilelere başvurarak oğlu Kronos’a eşinin hayalarını kestirdi. George Orwell’ın da 1984’teki “… Kimse devrimi korumak için diktatörlük kurmaz; diktatörlük kurmak için devrim yapar.” sözüne paralel olarak Kronos da kendi çocuklarını yedi. Saltanatın yahut kötülüğün isim değiştirdiğini görüyoruz bu gibi örneklerde, ama asla yok olmuyor. Aynı enerjinin korunum yasası gibi, hep vardı. Hep el değiştiriyor. Bu dosyada savaşların, yaşamın içindeki distopyaların sanatçıyı nasıl etkilediğini, sanata yansımalarını çok kısa bir biçimde inceleyeceğiz.

Se aborda en Crónicas Marcianas, diversas cuestiones clave para la teoría política actual, como son la violencia mental y las fantasías políticas; los encuentros coloniales; la resistencia y el papel de una memoria ligada a la narración y a la experiencia; la isegoría arendtiana como fundamento democrático; la crítica al sentido de un progreso científico alejado de la vida; el viaje teórico espacial frente a los viajes persecutorios y forzados y, por último, las relaciones de alteridad y la identidad política. A partir de estas cuestiones, en este trabajo se avanza hacia un re-conocimiento de la pluralidad interna del individuo, que resulta básica para su despliegue en el mundo exterior. El comportamiento democrático en el gobierno del individuo se comprenderá, así, como un poderoso antídoto frente a tiranías de todo tipo.

Reseña: POESÍA COMPLETA, de Ray Bradbury, edición bilingüe de Jesús Isaías Gómez López, Contrapunto. Publicación de Crítica e Información Literaria [2ª etapa de la revista, desde 2014 de periodicidad mensual], nº 12, mayo de 2014, ISSN: 2340-8081, p. 28.

The logic underpinning dystopian fiction is radically different from the logic underpinning utopian fiction and is more similar to the logic that underpins advertising, which also came of age over the course of the twentieth century and whose growth parallels that of dystopian fiction. Such a parallel suggests that the demise of utopian fiction in the twentieth century resulted from the influence of consumer capitalism, which—through advertising’s power—transformed the cultural dominant from community focused and historically grounded to individually centered and historically
unaware. This effect is seen through an examination of three significant American dystopian fictions from the mid-twentieth century and a consideration of their engagement with the advertising industry of that time: Kurt Vonnegut’s Player Piano
(1952), Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 (1953), and Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth’s The Space Merchants (1953). Because these novels fail to recommend collective action or historical consideration of the problems they depict, they cannot provide the same guidance for creating a better life as that offered by More, et al. This essential difference—between these dystopian fictions and earlier utopian fictions—points to the transformation of the utopian legacy within and as a result of the postmodern cultural
dominant.

En el presente trabajo nos dedicaremos a analizar la reescritura televisiva del cuento ´La jarra´, de Ray Bradbury, realizada para la serie The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. En una primera instancia, indagaremos en el proceso de escritura del texto literario. En segundo lugar, estudiaremos el cuento a la luz de la noción de ´lo extraño´ a partir de la explicación por las leyes de la razón de sucesos extraordinarios, el vínculo con experiencias pasadas, la descripción de las reacciones de los personajes y el concepto de cuerpo desintegrado. De igual modo, en el episodio abordaremos la transposición de ´lo extraño´ a través de la manifestación de la anormalidad, el carácter dual del protagonista y la ilustración de las sensaciones de temor. También analizaremos los recursos de la narrativa audiovisual de Hitchcock utilizados en la versión televisiva del cuento. Para ello, concebiremos a la jarra como un Mac Guffin en tanto artificio del guión que constituye el objeto de deseo de los personajes.

Distopijskome romanu Fahrenheit 451 Raya Bradburya kritika je, bez opravdanog razloga, posvetila puno manje pažnje nego Orwellovom romanu 1984, a analiza koju donosi ovaj rad pokušaj je da se ta nepravda donekle ispravi. Obojica autora opisuju totalitarističko društvo u kojemu se različitim represivnim mjerama odgajaju poslušni, "nemisleći" graani, no razlika između ta dva romana jest u činjenici da Orwell u 1984. vrlo kritički progovara o stranci koja je na vlasti i označava političku vlast izvorom nasilja, netolerancije, revizionizma povijesti i amputacije jezika, dok je građanin isključivo žrtva. U ovom će se radu pokazati da, suprotno tome, Bradbury naglasak stavlja na pojednica koji se buni protiv takvog sustava, čime osnažuje pojedinca i kritizira pasivnost građana više negoli represivnost totalitarne države. Iako Bradbury pokazuje kako vladajući aparat oblikuje svoje "vojnike" stvarajući od ljudi poslušna tijela (Foucault) i to pretežito zahvaljujući manipulaciji masovnim medijima (Chomsky), on ipak naglašava nužnost pobune protiv takvih okolnosti, te revoltu daje prednost pred trpljenjem zbog straha za vlastiti život ili straha od potencijalnog materijalnog gubitka. Svojim prihvaćanjem sustava u kojemu se pale knjige i u kojemu pisana riječ nestaje skupa sa svim oblicima humanističkog obrazovanja, pojedinac postaje sukreator takvog sustava i omogućava opstanak totalitarizma. Zbog toga je Bradburyev roman i danas, 60 godina nakon što je napisan, iznimno aktualan i važan za razumijevanje trenutka u kojemu se nalazimo kao pojedinci, znanstvenici i građani.

ABSTRACT
Los Angeles’ 1981 Bicentennial Installation, The City of Our Lady Queen of the Angels Inspires Digitally Filmed Ritual Dance Choreography

By Mark Alan Hunt

This interdisciplinary thesis begins with a 1981 birthday gift of art, music, photography, and words presented to the citizenry of Los Angeles for their bicentennial titled The City of Our Lady Queen of the Angels. The installation was created by Anthony Duquette and Angelino artisans and depicted a court of giant Archangels presided over by their queen, the patron angel of the city. The installation was accompanied by a poem written for Los Angeles by Ray Bradbury, set to music by Garth Hudson, and preserved through photography by James Chen. I reconstruct the fragments of Bradbury's poem and prepare them as spell for transportation as a Los Angeles specific ritual performance. I document and then use the installation and poem as the inspiration for my own reinterpretation of the 1981 work through music, words and choreography titled A Dance in the Green Garden of the Queen of the Angels. My oral interpretation of the poem defines its structure, and composer David Johnson creates a score for the work, which I perform and record with instrumental quartet. I choreograph, cast, and costume the resulting Queen of the Angels Sonata as a ritual dance, and the piece is performed at CSULA’s International Day of Dance Concert, 2016. I then create a film production team to digitally record and edit the entire dance concert as a feature length film, and its seven individual dances as short film excerpts, that are distributed globally on YouTube.



PQDT Thesis -
http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/pqdtopen/doc/1859579132.html?FMT=ABS



FILMS Created for my Degree - Master of Arts Interdisciplinary Studies in Digital Film Exported Globally as Anthropological Lens on Dance:



A Dance in the Green Garden of the Queen of the Angels
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zxv9BsglaCY
In My Skin’s Knowing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-HxI4aXLSs
Green Carnation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmV5LSa2akU
Interrumpere
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufdK8j9cRVM
Ananda
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ts5Z9VRt28
Arirang
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiQxzG8fGas
Hybrids
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvUe86nWCvM
Transversals: A Concert to Celebrate the International Day of Dance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoQGbeceAjk
Queen of the Angels Sonata, a Soundscape
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R9zCvedFy4
A Walk in the Green Garden of the Queen of the Angels by Ray Bradbury
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvZC2oBZ6vw&t=123s
David Johnson Wins Grammy with Partch Ensemble
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqvNKXyrNxk