Ray Bradbury Biography

The World of Ray Bradbury Now remembered as a legend in the world of literature, Ray Bradbury found inspiration for his works from almost everything he saw in the world around him. Some might be surprised to hear him claim that he never worked a day in his life (Bradbury, “Ray Bradbury”). Writing was simply an outlet with which he passionately, eagerly explored his mind. Bradbury did not attend college, but instead learned about writing through observation (Bradbury, “Ray Bradbury”). He considered himself a “child of the library,” and was influenced by a range of stories he discovered there, from fairytales and children’s books to works of authors such as William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe and Dylan Thomas (Weller 41). Exposure to a variety …show more content…
He was on a calm walk with a friend when a suspicious police officer pulled over to reprimand him. As the officer spoke, Bradbury looked around and realized that the neighborhood was silent, and that he, his friend, and the angry officer were the only ones outside. The eerie isolation he felt inspired “The Pedestrian,” in which a man named Leonard Mead experiences a similar situation in a futuristic world (Bradbury, “The Pedestrian”). It becomes clear in the story that Leonard is the only person left in this cold, “metallic” world who feels truly, emotionally alive. To Bradbury, the emotionlessness of this alternate universe represented the worst that could become of humankind, because he believed that life is not “worth living unless you are doing something that you love completely” (Bradbury, “Ray Bradbury”). He believed in living through passions and instincts. “Dial Double Zero,” another short story written by Bradbury, followed a similar eerie, futuristic theme (The Story of a Writer). Inspired by how life is mysteriously created in oceans, “Dial Double Zero” mysteriously creates life in a telephone pole’s transformer. The lifeform born in the wiring uses the telephone conversations to learn how to communicate. It slowly becomes more and more intelligent until it strategically outsmarts the protagonist, Tom, and then the White …show more content…
In it, parents gift their children with a virtual reality nursery that allows them to go on any adventures they choose (Bradbury, The Illustrated Man). The children fall in love with the virtual reality and begin to talk back to their parents (Bradbury, The Illustrated Man). Afraid that they have spoiled their children too much, the parents tell them that they will be permanently turning off the virtual reality room, but will allow them to go on one more adventure (Bradbury, The Illustrated Man). The angry children lock their parents in a virtual safari with lions (Bradbury, The Illustrated Man). Despite the assumption that nothing can hurt one in virtual reality, when the children open the door, their parents are gone, and they see the lions chewing on something (Bradbury, The Illustrated Man). Although Bradbury loved technology, his stories involving it tended to end darkly. Bradbury believed that one key to creativity was to avoid overthinking. He kept a sign over his typewriter that read, “Don’t think,” in order to remind himself of this (Reid 30). To think is to rationalize, and rationalizations kill fantasy. He told aspiring writers not to try to invent stories that were logical, but to instead “[stay] with your own basic truth: who you are, what you are, what you want to be” (Bradbury, “Ray Bradbury”). Everything