Ray Bradbury: Release of inmortality vacuous

The desire for eternal life and / or to remain forever young has plagued mankind from the time he discovered his status as "perishable". Why does one have to die? No way to live longer or forever? Throughout history, many men and women have tried. To our knowledge, no one has succeeded yet.

A mid-twentieth century, selfish motto "every man for himself" and had become an infamous social theory. Contemporary writers such as Robert Bellah, or as Toqueville once commentators tell us that "individualism" has always dominated the culture of the United States remains at the core of American life, deeply rooted in the social topography of the Union. Personal autonomy is what rules. Autonomous individuals, without commitment to others, have the right to believe and act as they please.

Emmanuel Mounier, contemporary French philosopher, described the effects of individualism on our perception of others with these words: "The mere sight of another somehow deprives me of my universe, its presence restricts my freedom, promotion is my demotion. With regard to love, it is a mutual disease: hell. The other world is not a garden of delight: it is a perpetual provocation decrease or increase self. The need to possess and overcome communication obstructs endlessly. "

A so relentless accusation, open denunciation of one of the most eminent American and incisive social critics of recent decades joins: we refer to Ray Bradbury. In the following lines, a modest analysis of the life and work of this champion who never hesitated to put the finger on it, highlighting a problem that even in these times of globalization continues to concern many intellectuals and the general public.

Imaginative self taught

Ray Douglas Bradbury was born on August 22, 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois. His family moved several times from one place to another, to take root in Los Angeles (California) in 1934. During his youth, Bradbury was a voracious reader, amateur writer besides. For purely economic reasons, could not attend a college that meets your thirst for knowledge: for a living, started selling newspapers. Subsequently, it was proposed to form a self-taught through books, beginning to compose as well, his first stories with a very old typewriter.

Bradbury was, prone to nightmares and terrifying fantasies, extremely imaginative child which exorcised / adapted subsequently in his writings. At twelve she began writing 4 hours a day, selling a story for the first time in 1941. By 1943, fully devoted to literary art, he published his initial work in various magazines (Playboy would be one of them). In 1947, the author contracted marriage with Marguerite McClure, bond born four daughters.

Currently, Bradbury continues to write from his home in California. Among his most notable stories include The Illustrated Man (1950), extraordinary Martian Chronicles(1950), Dandelion Wine (1957), the master story A Sound Of Thunder (1952) and Fahrenheit 451 (1953). Also, Bradbury has also written poetry, plays and screenplays for film.
As in the case of Asimov, there is a cataloged asteroid number 9766 - baptized "Bradbury" in his honor.

A LIBRARY WRITER

In recent years, Ray Bradbury has become an indisputable icon of the defense of the books has made several public appearances to prevent the closing of independent bookstores, and currently has been working to protect a California public library that threatened their existence not pay a large sum. These actions clearly speak of the importance it has had books, bookstores and libraries.

Bradbury asked not to speak to him but university libraries, as they were formed which allowed him via free access to books. "I do not think universities. I believe in libraries because most students do not have any money. I graduated from high school during the Great Depression and we had no money. I could not go to college, so I went to the library three days a week over ten years. "For the author of The Summer Of Goodbye (2006), "Libraries are essential if one wants to become a great student, libraries and universities are free faces."

Bradbury continues: "The year I left high school in Los Angeles, I adopted for the rest of my life the rules of writing a story a week. I knew that no amount could not be quality. Meanwhile, trying to get me in the eyes all possible literary experience: good, bad, indifferent or excellent, that, with a little luck, then came out of my fingers. "When, in 2000, turned 80, the writer said in an interview: "The great fun in my life has been getting up every morning and run to my typewriter because some new idea had occurred to me. The feeling I have every day is more or less the same as when I was twelve. Anyway, here I am to my eighties, lost in the same state. " Certainly, a lifetime dedicated to literature.

Bradbury does not give lessons nor pities himself. Nor reveals inner workings of his scandalous past, but exposes contagious zeal with his love of literature, his unbridled passion in that deal every day at a typewriter, which gets reflected stories that spring from their comments in her memories, their unconscious fears sieved into the light of that sort of catharsis that is the craft of writing. If bicycling only learn bicycling, in short, Bradbury's philosophy is "to write only learn writing."

While Bradbury is known as a science fiction writer, he is not conceived as such, but as fantasy. In fact, once said that the only novel he has written speculative fiction is Fahrenheit 451.

The Unbearable INDIVIDUALITY OF BEING

Bradbury has said that the turning point in his life was a meeting, at the age of 14 years, "Mr. Electrical "a fair magician who revealed the secret of immortality. In a conference via satellite from Los Angeles with the framework of attending the Book Fair in Guadalajara groups, Bradbury has stated that the man had to stay 40 years on the moon, there form a basis for further exploration to Mars and colonize, "to find the immortality of the human race."
"We are the Martians! The man of the future is a space traveler. Only when we live forever Let's water through the universe. For the good of all mankind, we must return to the Moon and then to Mars. We have to. "

In 1950, USamerican teacher gave life to the work that made ​​him internationally recognized Martian Chronicles. Your worth is beyond doubt just remembering that she has said Jorge Luis Borges: "What has this man done to Illinois, I wonder, when you close the pages of your book so episodes of the conquest of another planet filled me with terror and loneliness.
" With Martian Chronicles, which tells the Earthlings to conquer and colonize Mars attempts, and the reactions of the inhabitants of the Red Planet, was born his reputation as a writer of science fiction. The stories woven into the book reviews some of the issues typically Bradbury: its position against racism and xenophobia, fear-especially against the military-technological developments, longing for the simple life, and considerable terror of death.

Bradbury told in novel form, but in reality, it is a set of stories that communicate with each other-the "history" of human colonization of Mars. The writer was not wrong about one thing: the human devastation caused on the Red Planet next falls short of what we are doing to our own world. Bradbury always declared sensitive ecological theme, in times barely beginning to perceive the consequences of this despicable mindless destruction.

Undoubtedly the Bradbury style conveys the tensions of the United States in the first half of the twentieth century, the social and racial issues, the individualist impulse and community dynamics so characteristic of American culture. Mars Colonists move their "American way of life" (extreme pragmatism) to the new floor. His individualism impels them to enrich themselves, to abandon an Earth that does not satisfy their physical and spiritual needs. Van full of messianic spirit of the pioneers, and why they behave in a similar to that of the pioneers of their own story mode.

It is precisely the Martians, with their different spiritual and tragic at the same time nature who "signed" some of the most beautiful stories in the volume. Bradbury used to enter the dream, dramatic and comic passages, since, in a skilled work on a business of this kind, must necessarily have room for almost everything.

ADORABLE VACUUM HORROR

The author considers himself "a storyteller with moral purpose." His works often produce in the reader a metaphysical anguish, puzzling, given that reflect their conviction that the fate of humanity is "go infinite spaces and suffer crippling to conclude overcome suffering, looking to Eternity." Although their songs are inspired by the daily lives of people, a poetic atmosphere and a certain romanticism are other persistent features in the work of Ray Bradbury, who, for its subject and peculiar characteristics, it can be considered as an exponent of realism epic, although it has never been defined in this way.

Is remarkable Bradbury capacity for perception of social facts. Racism, abuse of religion and censorship, despotism, loss of traditions, lack of solidarity and the destruction of nature are recurring topics including his latest narrative experiences, away from the themes of science fiction most popular. Become a classic in life, Bradbury has preferred a more extensive record, which focuses on his vision of the new century, touching various areas of interest, and where certain cultural and social issues that have to do with himself and with his origins predominate . It is no longer a leader in contemporary science fiction.

But Bradbury also visited the tale of horror. His concept of the uncanny is based primarily on the everyday events become unusual, strange, often sinister situations. There are mysterious environments, isolated, dark, gothic tale, nor ghosts and mentally infirm of Edgar Allan Poe. His avowed inspiration was HP Lovecraft and August Derleth was his mentor (disciple of the misanthrope of Providence), who advised the young Ray published in pulp magazines doomed to gender.

Best of Bradbury's narrative emerges era marked by precise, defined: which comes after the Second World War, when the terror of possible nuclear conflagration is concealed by hope / illusion that gives the space race. Travel to other planets, the fascination of the rockets trade with civilizations from other galaxies, finding resources beyond Earth ... In general, this class of subjects fed a work that was inserted beautifully into the collective unconscious . Translations in our country showed how much these problems, seemingly distant, also reached us.

Despite the inevitable anachronisms, Bradbury's legacy has fascinated three generations of readers, and surely others will join the cult later. His books are still read with passion, its 600 stories are still devoured by readers, their stories remain adapted to film. Why? That his ability to excite, disturb, do the mysterious dream of humanity of the twentieth century (and not ghosts in castles). Bradbury is a popular author who enchants: its pages are some timeless, a saudade Paradise, perhaps lost childhood.

In the field of literature in advance, I must say that Bradbury was raised as an innovator of the genre. Introduced a certain formal delicacy and poetic presence that sounded bizarre in a then more inclined to show gender and truculence that delicacy. Although it can sometimes be too sentimental and didactic reading honestly seeks to remove conscience. Sometimes it is something gooey with both lyricism wasted (it should be noted that their approach to technology reveals somewhat antiquated, outdated and superseded).

It is clear that physical immortality is already part of the hypothesis of the human future. It is still a speculation that is supported by the cryogenics and the possibilities of technology and genetics to prolong life indefinitely. His supporters argue that with immortality, much of the vital experience of mankind, so far lost at death would be retained. However, death is still a natural step for some, a release and an escape, so the "immortalists" are still a minority, do not know if, in 100 years, will be considered as visionary as Bradbury.

In any case, now more than ever we have the prerogative to believe in the safety of a more stable future. A future in which the human being is master of his fate. Leveraging the benefits of technology, the man could possibly prolong their own existence. But make no mistake we are not so naive. Only life can create life. Without this divine / spirit spark, we can never make it to Dr. Frankenstein. It should be acknowledged that we are creatures. Perhaps the only way death could be the starting point for a larger and unfathomable fate the same universe: the absoluteness of infinity.

Jorge Antonio Buckingham

TRIVIA "CATHODIC" BURNING RETINA

The first filmmaker to venture into territory Bradbury was the famous François Truffaut. Author of an impressive filmography, the French adapted manage Farenheit 451 in 1966, with the gorgeous Julie Christie under his command and surprising results. Was not so fortunate, however, American Jack Smight, who filmed The Illustrated Man in 1969 based on three stories of the eponymous collection: "The Meadow", "The Long Rain" and "The Last Night Of The World".

For those who do not remember, the Martian Chronicles were brought to the small screen in 1980 by director Michael Anderson, responsible for films such as under Around The World In Eighty Days (1956) and Orca (1977). Originally conceived as a TV movie, had to be issued in miniseries format due to the long duration of the final footage (over 4 hours). Channel 9 went here in the mid-80s, trying to capitalize on the ratings success he had achieved with V: Alien Invasion. The bump was not repeated, since they are two completely different approach to the genre of science fiction forms. Given the notorious indifference "respectable" even came to the pass through. And that, among the cast, containing the veteran Rock Hudson. Not for those.

Much better luck Smight and Anderson had the right Peter Hyams. Seasoned with classic sci fi as Capricorn One (1978), Outland (1981, directed to Sir Sean Connery) and 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984 discreet "then"-with John Lithgow, Roy Scheider and Helen Mirren-de the marvelous 2001: A Space Odyssey Kubrick's brilliant); Hyams takes to the big screen The Sound Of A Thunder (2005, released on these shores as Dinosaur Hunters). The director stretches a little the original story, but retains the lines of text Bradbury: Travel in Time, domino effect, alternate realities and parallel evolutions. What is said a home run.

Hakim of Merv