Ray Bradbury

1
Ray Bradbury
2
Life

• Born August 22, 1920
• American mainstream, fantasy, horror, sci-fi and
  mystery writer
• Best known for Fahrenheit 451(1953) and The
  Martian Chronicles (1950s).
• Widely considered one of the greatest and most
  popular American writers of fiction during the
  20th century.

3
Beginnings

• Born in Waukegan, Illinois.
• Mother was a Swedish immigrant.
• Father was a power and telephone lineman.
• The Bradbury family lived in Tucson, Arizona.
• In 1934, the family settled in Los Angeles. Ray
  was 13.

4
Beginnings

• Ray chose not to attend college.
• He educated himself at a local library.
• He was influenced by science fiction heroes.
• In 1938 he began to publish his own science
  fiction stories.

5
Life Literary Career

• Rays first paid piece was for the pulp magazine
  Super Science Stories. He earned 15 for his
  first piece.
• He became a full-time writer by the end of 1942.

• 1947 was a big year for Bradbury.
• His first book, Dark Carnival, a collection of
  short works, was published in 1947.
• Also, in 1947, Bradbury married Marguerite
  McClure. They had 4 daughters.

6
Fahrenheit 451

• The novel presents a future American society in
  which the masses are hedonistic, and critical
  thought through reading is outlawed.
• The central character, Guy Montag, is employed as
  a "fireman" (which, in this future, means book
  burner").
• The number "451" refers to the temperature (in
  Fahrenheit) at which the books burn when the
  "Firemen" burn them "For the good of humanity".

7
Fahrenheit 451

• Written in the early years of the Cold War, the
  novel is a critique of what Bradbury saw as an
  increasingly dysfunctional American society.
• The concept began with Bradbury's short story
  "Bright Phoenix," written in 1947 but first
  published in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science
  Fiction in 1963.

8
Fahrenheit 451

• Over the years, the novel has been subject to
  various interpretations, primarily focusing on
  the historical role of book burning in
  suppressing the ideas of the individual.
• Bradbury has stated that the novel is not about
  censorship.
• He states that Fahrenheit 451 is a story about
  how television destroys interest in reading
  literature.

9
What is science fiction?

• Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing
  with the impact of imagined innovations in
  science or technology, often in a futuristic
  setting.
• The settings for science fiction are often
  contrary to any known reality.
• Unlike fantasy, science fiction is usually based
  on things familiar but which are then stretched
  by the imagination into realms that are pure
  invention.

10
Science Fiction Stories May Include

• A setting in the future, in alternative
  timelines, or in an historical past that
  contradicts known facts of history.
• A setting in outer space, on other worlds, or
  involving aliens.
• Stories that involve technology or scientific
  principles that contradict known laws of nature.
• Stories that involve discovery or application of
  new scientific principles, such as time travel,
  or new technology, such as robots, or of new and
  different political or social system (ex. a
  dystopia, or a situation where organized society
  has collapsed).