Ray Bradbury

[Imaginary Interviewer] Another month and another new author for us. This January, we'll be reading 'The Illustrated Man' by Ray Bradbury. Have you read it before?

[Humble Writer, i.e. me] I haven't. I've read some other Bradbury but not this one.

II: What else have you read?

HW: His most famous novel is 'Fahrenheit 451' and I've read that several times. I don't think I've read any of this other works. He shows up multiple times on our list, though, so we'll cover a number of his works.

II: What else is on there? 

HW: Well, 'Fahrenheit 451' is there, #7 on the list. There is also 'The Martian Chronicles' and 'Something Wicked This Way Comes'. I don't really know much about any of them.

II: Science Fiction or Fantasy writer?

HW: I don't know that he really bothered with that distinction. In what little I've read, he didn't concern himself with scientific fact but he also didn't include magical things. He seemed much more interested in setting up a specific setting or situation, so that he could tell a story about a specific problem. As a reader, I wouldn't spend too much time on questions of realism.

II: What do you mean?

HW: Well, if you concentrate on something like "that's not how conditions on Mars would be!" then you miss out on the point of the story. As a reader, we often have to meet the author midway and accept *something* for the story to work. That's true of Bradbury.

II: Was he well regarded?

HW: Enormously so. Possibly more so than the Big Three of science fiction, because he largely broke away to a larger audience. 'Fahrenheit 451' is universally thought of as one of the best works of American literature. 

II: Anything else we should know?

HW: I feel a little badly that I don't know much about him. If anyone else has something to share here, it would be most welcome!