Writers Influences 20: PD Alleva on Ray Bradbury

 

Today’s feature is a slightly longer Writers Influences piece (but a very good piece I felt) piece by PD Alleva focusing on a writer I dearly loved when I was younger, Ray Bradbury.

Like PD, my first Ray Bradbury book was Something wicked this way comes also at roughly the same age (I was a massive Science Fiction fan at that age reading dozens of books by Harry Harrison, Clark Ashton Smith, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C Clarke) although I may have seen the film version off Fahrenheit 451 at around the same age and was memorized by what he had wrote.

Like PD in this feature, Fahrenheit 451 possibly his most famous book goes way beyond Science Fiction and is a powerful attack against Censorship with burning of books and attacking everything we can see, read and here – something that will hopefully stay with me beyond the end of this article.

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I was twelve years old when I read my first Ray Bradbury book, Something Wicked This Way Comes. I had no idea who the author was, nor was I privy to the many stories, books, and essays he had written. Nor did I know Ray Bradbury had received his start as a writer while punching keys on a typewriter for what was, at the time, popular pulp fiction magazines. My seventh grade English teacher recommended the book, citing my fantasy and science fiction literary itch along with my love for all things Halloween, as the reasons she thought I would enjoy the story. She was accurate in her assessment of course, and from then on I never looked back- I had become a Ray Bradbury reader.

I remember vividly reading Something Wicked This Way Comes. The story matched me perfectly, considering I was the same age as the main characters and, considering the time of year I was reading the book in also matched the same in the story, as if the universe had opened a window that I graciously jumped through. Halloween season, autumn in a small town, and a wicked carnival arrives with the host Mr. Dark to gather souls in exchange for dreams and youth. I was considerably taken with the friendship between the two protagonists, Will and Jim, their friendship akin to me and my neighbor and best friend at that time. Two unsuspecting kids stumble upon a sinister carnival that arrives in the middle of the night. Fabulous, just writing about it conjures familiar sensations of youth, dreams, and wonder reserved to children and I’m suddenly feeling like a kid again with all the wonder and amazement life will unfold over time. That’s what Ray Bradbury does, transports the reader into the book world while reality melts away into a seemingly meaningless trifle that doesn’t need to exist. Bradbury is escapist literature at its best and truthfully I can’t imagine what my life would be without Ray Bradbury. His influence has been felt through every aspect of my own writing, and in all of the more crucial frames of living, learning, and growing up.

It was soon after Something Wicked This Way Comes that I discovered The Ray Bradbury Theatre, a weekly television show that had premiered a few years before my first reading. I’m aging myself here, I know, but age is just a simple state of mind. Remember, I’m twelve at the moment, watching another episode of what had become my favorite show. I was enthralled with how Mr. Bradbury’s imagination contained neither limits nor boundaries. I remember thinking, “We can write like this? Just let the imagination run amok to the point where the entire universe seems small compared to imagination.” I mean, seriously, what a brain, what a mind, with depths that reach far into the human psyche and screams “There are no limits other than what you choose to place on yourself.” A concept I’ve come to cherish and encapsulate. So, while I was anxiously anticipating each week’s new episode, I dove even further into a few additional Ray Bradbury books. I was enthralled by the story spinning tattoos of The Illustrated Man; trudged through unexpected twists and disappointments in Dandelion Wine; and hung out with Mr. Moundshroud in The Halloween Tree and behold, my mind was filled with wonder once again.

It is true that the above books are filled with the wonder and imagination any pre-teen or teenager would have a field day with, but that’s not where Mr. Bradbury’s literary genius begins nor ends. Ray Bradbury began his literary career as a part of the pulp fiction era that existed from the 1920’s to the 1950’s. He was a stealth and prolific writer from the very beginning of his career-even earlier if you track his entire life-having published numerous short stories for the popular pulp fiction magazine Weird Tales. But there’s more to Ray Bradbury than just weird tales; over his career he’s written more than 400 short stories and close to fifty books across multiple genres including numerous poems, essays, plays, screenplays and also operas. Now that is a true writer. I remember thinking, at some point in my early twenties (while reflecting on the many nuances, themes, plots, and settings Mr. Bradbury has forged into the minds of readers), how diversity lends to a wider range of thinking, belief, compassion, and culture. Ray Bradbury is a shining light on the concept that there are no limits other than what you place on yourself. A writer writes, no matter what the genre or theme may be. There’s a seed of creativity constantly growing and manifesting within every writer, an emotion locked within an idea, a plot within the heart and mind that needs to breathe and live for it to evolve. Should these ideas be stuffed down, shunned, or suppressed, that creative itch loses it power. In short, we write what our hearts and souls need to express in order to reach fulfillment. We are writers, and writers have the ability to transcend genres and tropes, labels and categories, to formulate and construct a truly profound reader experience despite genre- and thank you, Ray Bradbury, for this most important lesson. As you may or may not have guessed, I’m referring to Bradbury’s true masterpiece, Fahrenheit 451.

The irony of Fahrenheit 451 is that the book has been banned in some cultures, cities, and schools. This is ironic because the story is a warning against censorship. Books are burned in the story, while most people sit in front of a large television- does that not fit in with today’s current censoring, glued-to-the-television world we live in? The story is a lesson of the harms of living a life in fear instead of freedom…and that censorship leads to dystopia. Censorship, the suppression and destruction of ideas, concepts, thought processes, and opinions, is detrimental to the human experience. People are intelligent enough to develop their own opinion on subjects, themes, and warnings; they don’t need to be told what is good or bad. They can make that decision by referencing their own beliefs, or research a topic and learn more to make such a decision. Fahrenheit 451 is a mark on Ray Bradbury’s visual genius, a tour de fore of desperation and darkness, with a warning of how devolved society could plummet if we are not careful. When we, as a society, begin to place labels on everyone and everything we see, or when we begin to offer a final conclusion on any particular topic, we set ourselves up for failure by limiting ourselves to these constructs of those who only care to have their opinions heard over anything else. When the few who speak the loudest are allowed to make decisions for all, we’ve reached an unstable state of devolution and we lose our humanity. As you can tell I don’t agree with censorship. When I see books like Fahrenheit 451 have been added to the banned books list, while Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, or even The Satanic Bible, or The Anarchists Cookbook never seem to make that list, something is truly off in the way we view each other and ourselves. Not that I agree with the books listed, however, my view is simple, a person whose education has provided the all-important lesson of critical thinking, we can read just about anything without giving in to the spoils of any book. In short, teach kids critical thinking skills and we should all be fine, anything less is a disservice to the human race.

But enough about censorship! Let’s circle back to Mr. Bradbury, and offer a conclusion to this article. I recently re-read Something Wicked This Way Comes- one of the few books I’ve read more than once- after I hit a point in which my writing career craved a bit of nostalgia, an effort to move and mold creative energy into a fine, razor sharp point before venturing off into a new series that I’m currently writing. It was during the re-read that a thought dawned on me, Ray Bradbury has become a part of me, kind of like a pseudo grandfather or mentor. His books, stories, televisions shows, and movies have had a profound impact on my life and writing career, a kind of shining star to reach for, a north star guiding me to find that home that exists within the mind and heart, something a bit better and a bit more comforting/familiar. This is the essence of Ray Bradbury. His genius and profound story telling races and rages on inside the minds and hearts of his readers, and has been doing so for close to a century (his first story was published in 1938). His stories represent a staple in time, a reflection of imagination and creativity, and a lesson in the limitless depths of the human mind.

To conclude, I extend a major “thank you” to my teacher, Mrs. Wood, for the introduction to this author. You are living proof that teachers can make the difference in every student’s life. And, of course, to Ray Bradbury, wherever you are now, skyrocketing across the cosmos or hanging out in the sand dunes of Mars, thank you for your contribution to my life and to humanity.

As always be bold, be brilliant, and be beautiful.

PD Alleva

Thriller Writer

(Originally slated for publication on the Sunday Tribune on 02 August 2021)