Ray Bradbury
by John Sweeney of The News Journal in Wilmington.
I first came across the work of Ray Bradbury when I was 8. Of course, I didn’t know who he was. Nor did I care. But “The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms” made an impression.
It was one of those black-and-white science fiction movies from the 1950s that warned mankind about the evils of nuclear bombs.
Of course, being 8, I didn’t know that either. I just liked the way the Beast climbed out of New York’s harbor, smashed cars and ate a policeman. Great cinema just seems to stay with you forever, I guess.
Bradbury, who died at age 91 this week, wrote the short story “The Beast” was based on.
He later created a lot of other great stories that stayed with me. Some of those really did have warnings for mankind.
“Fahrenheit 451” is the one most people have been talking about this week. Bradbury imagined a world where books were banned and the fireman’s job was to burn books, not put out fires. People rebelled by memorizing books, then sharing those memories with other rebels.
Much of the commentary I have read since the news of Bradbury’s death dealt with haunting images of censorship in “Fahrenheit 451.” Both the political left and right have claimed his warning for their own.
On the one hand, he was warning against exploitation through political and religious censorship. On the other, the message was against “political correctness,” and the subtle conformity that comes from undermining criticism of protected groups.
But one critic, Jeremy Lott, pointed out that Bradbury always claimed that “Fahrenheit 451” was misunderstood.
Bradbury, he said, insisted the book was not about censorship but about “what happens to a society that ceases to care deeply about books. He worried that our obsession with ‘screens’ will undermine the book.”
Bradbury battled the digital world for years. He turned down one offer to produce his work as e-books with: “To hell with you. To hell with you and to hell with the Internet. It’s distracting. It’s meaningless; it’s not real. It’s in the air somewhere.”
In the end though, Bradbury was forced to give in. His publisher, Simon & Schuster, refused to keep “Fahrenheit 451” in print unless its author agreed to a digital version. Finally, last year, Bradbury agreed.
Years from now, when those of us who actually remember books on paper are gone, people will scoff at Luddites like Bradbury. He will be compared to James Thurber’s aunt who was deathly afraid of the electricity “leaking” from the outlets in the walls.
But Bradbury feared the book being “in the air somewhere.” That means the book was less permanent. It was less the work of a specific time and a specific place that can speak to us no matter when or where we live.
Nicholas Carr, the author of “The Shallows,” a critical look at our digital world, warned about this. When, he asked, is a digital book “finished”?
With an e-book, a writer can keep revising without stop. Certainly, there are advantages to this. It can keep what you write up to date. It can add new perspectives or fix old mistakes.
However, Carr wrote: “Once digitalized, a page of words loses its fixity. It can change every time it’s refreshed on a screen.
“A book page turns into something like a Web page, able to be revised endlessly after its initial uploading,” he noted
I first came across the work of Ray Bradbury when I was 8. Of course, I didn’t know who he was. Nor did I care. But “The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms” made an impression.
It was one of those black-and-white science fiction movies from the 1950s that warned mankind about the evils of nuclear bombs.
Of course, being 8, I didn’t know that either. I just liked the way the Beast climbed out of New York’s harbor, smashed cars and ate a policeman. Great cinema just seems to stay with you forever, I guess.
Bradbury, who died at age 91 this week, wrote the short story “The Beast” was based on.
He later created a lot of other great stories that stayed with me. Some of those really did have warnings for mankind.
“Fahrenheit 451” is the one most people have been talking about this week. Bradbury imagined a world where books were banned and the fireman’s job was to burn books, not put out fires. People rebelled by memorizing books, then sharing those memories with other rebels.
Much of the commentary I have read since the news of Bradbury’s death dealt with haunting images of censorship in “Fahrenheit 451.” Both the political left and right have claimed his warning for their own.
On the one hand, he was warning against exploitation through political and religious censorship. On the other, the message was against “political correctness,” and the subtle conformity that comes from undermining criticism of protected groups.
But one critic, Jeremy Lott, pointed out that Bradbury always claimed that “Fahrenheit 451” was misunderstood.
Bradbury, he said, insisted the book was not about censorship but about “what happens to a society that ceases to care deeply about books. He worried that our obsession with ‘screens’ will undermine the book.”
Bradbury battled the digital world for years. He turned down one offer to produce his work as e-books with: “To hell with you. To hell with you and to hell with the Internet. It’s distracting. It’s meaningless; it’s not real. It’s in the air somewhere.”
In the end though, Bradbury was forced to give in. His publisher, Simon & Schuster, refused to keep “Fahrenheit 451” in print unless its author agreed to a digital version. Finally, last year, Bradbury agreed.
“Moveable type,” Carr said, “seems fated to be replaced by moveable text.”
I would add that it can be censored as well.
How will anyone ever know if these are the words the author wrote?
If a book doesn’t sell, change the ending. If some words go out of style, change the words. If an attitude becomes politically incorrect, change the attitude.
“It’s in the air somewhere,” as Bradbury said.
John Sweeney is the editorial page editor of The News Journal in Wilmington. Email him at jsweeney@delawareonline.com.
Reprinted: Delmarvanow 06/09/12
http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20120609/OPINION/120609001
