Ray Bradbury - please help!

[JustPassingThrough]

You know, thinking of authors that are misanthropic, for some reason the only once that popped into my mind was Harlan Ellison.

 

[D_Davis]

You know, thinking of authors that are misanthropic, for some reason the only once that popped into my mind was Harlan Ellison.

We had a discussion about this topic in another thread recently, and while I agree that Ellison is somewhat misanthropic, most of the other posters did not. I can see both sides. I wonder if Ellison really dislikes humanity, or if he simply dislikes the society in which we live. Ligotti, on the other hand, I feel is genuinely disgusted by our existence, or, at the very least, is shocked that we've survived as long as we have given how stupid and gullible we generally are.

It's funny (to bring this back on topic somewhat) that Ligotti seems to be exactly the opposite of Bradbury, and Theodore Sturgeon, one of Bradbury's heroes. Also, Ellison and Sturgeon were very close friends, and so that fact alone should temper my views on Ellison's misanthropy, because I don't know if there was a mortal man alive who loved humanity more than Sturgeon loved humanity.

 

[JustPassingThrough]

To me it's this: Bradbury loves humanity. Ellison is disappointed in us. But then that of course is how is had to be considering how they grew up.

When you read Bradbury you wish that you could have grown up with him running through the grass after it's been cut and running to the carnival that has just arrived in town. With Ellison it's more, not the opposite, but rather perhaps the same childhood of Bradbury, but an early realization that everything is going to let you down sooner or later and that your parents grow old and die and that there is nothing that you can do to stop it.

 

[D_Davis]

When you read Bradbury you wish that you could have grown up with him running through the grass after it's been cut and running to the carnival that has just arrived in town. With Ellison it's more, not the opposite, but rather perhaps the same childhood of Bradbury, but an early realization that everything is going to let you down sooner or later and that your parents grow old and die and that there is nothing that you can do to stop it.

This is completely true, and most probably due to the ages of the respective authors. As a child of the 20s, and growing into adulthood during the 40s and into the 50s, Bradbury came from a more "innocent" and positive time, a time when people dreamed big, and genuinely felt good about being American and prosperity. Conversely, Ellison was in his 30s during the '60s, a time when people grew more and more cynical and negative towards the establishment. So while only 20 years separates the authors, their outlook on society was vastly different.

Bradbury's ideology is also perfectly summed up in his choice of religion - Unitarian Universalists. UUs generally tend to be very positive and accepting.

 

[JustPassingThrough]

And yet each author is as he should be. When it's a bright summer day you want to read about Bradbury's sneakers; and when the winds have started and the everything has begun to die, you feel like curling up with Deathbird.