It was 100 years ago that Ray Bradbury was born in Waukegan, Illinois. This is significant for me as Mr. Bradbury may well be my favourite author of all time. He certainly wrote my favourite novel of all time,
Something Wicked This Way Comes. By no means am I alone in my admiration for Ray Bradbury. He would have a lasting influence on fiction and even film and television. He influenced writers from Stephen King to Neil Gaiman. So great has Ray Bradbury's impact on modern day popular culture been that it would seem immeasurable.
Given Ray Bradbury wrote teleplays as well as short stories and novels, I can't say with any degree of accuracy when I was first exposed to his work. I can say that the first book by Ray Bradbury that I read was
The Martian Chronicles. I read it in grade school and I remember that I thoroughly enjoyed it. The next book by Ray Bradbury that I read was
Fahrenheit 451. While I had enjoyed
The Martian Chronicles,
Fahrenheit 451 really impressed me. This was something different from much of the classic science fiction I had read. It was a work of depth, a criticism of the destruction of literature and the undue influence can have on the individual.
As impressed as I was by
Fahrenheit 451, I was even more impressed by
Something Wicked This Way Comes. It was not simply that the book spoke to me on a personal level, although it certainly did. I grew up on a farm outside a small town, so I could easily identify with the lives of Will Holloway and Jim Nightshade. Indeed, like Will, my father was older when I was born, although I was closer to my father than Will initially was to Charles. Beyond the fact that I could identify with the characters and settings of
Something Wicked This Way Comes, there was also my realization that that it was a work of some depth. Certainly at its most basic
Something Wicked This Way Comes is a story of the battle between good and evil. At the same time, however,
Something Wicked This Way Comes is very much a coming of age story. Will and Jim are about to turn fourteen, and Jim is anxious to become an adult.
Something Wicked This Way Comes also touches heavily upon the power of belief, conveying the idea that the power of a person, idea, or thing has over one depends largely on the power you give them. There is so much more to
Something Wicked This Way Comes. While it is a short novel, it is also a very sophisticated one, so much so that one can come away with something new every time they read it.
Of course, Ray Bradbury was more of a short story writer than a novelist, and over the years I read many anthologies of his work. Mr. Bradbury's short stories were every bit as great as his novels, and equally as sophisticated. It should also come as no surprise that many of Ray Bradbury's short stories would be influential. His short story "A Sound of Thunder" is largely responsible for the popularization of "the butterfly effect." The story centres on a group of time travellers to the Late Cretaceous period who return to the present only to find it has changed dramatically, all due to one of them unknowingly killing a butterfly. Ray Bradbury's short stories often seem prescient. An example of this is "The Veldt," which deals in part with a virtual reality nursery that can produce any setting a child can think of. "The Burning Man" touches once more upon the struggle between good and evil.
If Ray Bradbury is loved among fans of speculative fiction, it is not simply because he was one of the greatest writers of fantasy, horror, and science fiction to ever live, if not the greatest. Ray Bradbury was also known for his great kindness. While I never met him, I know people who have, and every single one of them speak highly of Mr. Bradbury. He always had time for his fans and he always greeted them as friends. Ray Bradbury was known to encourage young writers. Comic book writer and author Martin Powell, who was friends with Mr. Bradbury, attributes his career to him. I think I can speak for many fans when I say that Ray Bradbury felt like a beloved uncle, the one who always told you that you were worthy and that you can do anything you set your mind to.
Indeed, above all else Ray Bradbury was a voice for hope. Hope can be seen even in Mr. Bradbury's darkest works, including
Fahrenheit 451 and
Something This Way Comes. While Mr. Bradbury could portray the darker aspects of human nature, he remained an optimist. Indeed, one of the things that separates
Fahrenheit 451 from other works of dystopic fiction is the hope that pervades the novel, even when things seem darkest. While Ray Bradbury knew all too well the darkness that can reside in the human heart, he also remained enthusiastic about life and even humanity. Ray Bradbury never characterized himself as an optimist, but in his work there seems to be the persistent theme that good will defeat evil if only we recognize the good within ourselves.
Ray Bradbury has had an enormous impact on me well beyond the fact that he is my favourite author. I honestly believe that Mr. Bradbury made me a better person. He taught me that it is always better to look to the good in oneself than to give into one's baser instincts. He taught me that even in the darkest of situation there is hope. I think it is very possible that if it were not for the lessons I learned from Ray Bradbury, that I might have given up long ago. I think that might be the most significant thing about Ray Bradbury, that he could save the lives of people that never even met him.
