Ray Bradbury's 2026: A Year with Current Value
Author(s): Robert Dominianni
Source: The English Journal, Vol. 73, No. 7 (Nov., 1984), pp. 49-51
Published by: National Council of Teachers of English
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A New Contributor
Ray Bradbury's 2026:
A Year with Current Value
Robert Dominianni
It is unfortunate that some of the finer science
using only the chronicles they feel are germane to
students' interests.
fiction novels have been obscured by technological
advancement since their publication. While Jules
The most emotive chronicle is "August 2026:
Verne's Twenty-Thousand Leagues under the
Sea Will Come Soft Rains," which originally
There
had its effect on the 1870 audience, few readers
appeared in Collier's and is Bradbury's favorite
today appreciate his prophetic description of
short story. It is especially important for students
Nemo's submarine, replete with gadgets now today, for it is an eerie depiction of the last extant
found in anyone's kitchen or den. Only the mosthouse amid the radioactive rubble after the world
enthusiastic of sci-fi buffs can thumb through H.war. An excellent recording of this story is availG. Wells' In the Days of the Comet or The First able.2 Students readily appreciate the difference
Men in the Moon without chuckling.
between standard classroom reading and a reObsolescence is not a problem with Ray Brad- corded dramatized one.
bury's The Martian Chronicles. Bradbury is not Students are usually surprised at the current
primarily concerned with scientific attainment inrelevance of this chronicle. Typically they assume
the colonization of Mars. He is a social critic, and that the possibility of a nuclear holocaust is
his work is pertinent to real problems on earth. recent. Some historical background might helpWith the exceptions of the bathetic chronicle,the tragedy of Hiroshima or how the Soviets
"June 2003: Way in the Middle of the Air," whichacquired "the secret" in 1949.
seems almost a lampoon in light of the civil rights Students tend to generalize on what they see as
advances since the book was published, Bradbury'sBradbury's "negative attitude" toward technology.
There are countless indications that the house
masterpiece is as crisp today as ever and can be
effective in the classroom.
required little human attention (e.g., "Somewhere
Literature teachers often observe that their stuin the walls relays clicked, memory tapes glided
dents are distracted by Bradbury's inconsistent
under electric eyes." 3), but they should realize
depiction of Mars. Students find the episodic
that Bradbury is not entirely against technology.
In other stories, he has favored the advancement
format getting in the way of Bradbury's message.
of machinery. Specifically, he is opposed to letTheir difficulties are not without justification--
parts of the work had been published over ating the machine enter the human aspects of
period of four years, and it is clear that Bradbury
life. The machine no longer serves humanity in
had intended most of these to be separate, com-"There Will Come Soft Rains"; there humanity is
plete stories. (He has admitted he is basicallysubservient
a
to machinery.
short story writer, claiming that he is more com- An early metaphor likens the house to "an
fortable with this canvas than with the longer
altar with ten thousand attendants, big, small,
work.') However, this disjunction can be an
servicing, attending in choirs," (p. 167). Students
advantage. The Martian Chronicles does not have can usually trace the exploitation of the allusion
to be read in its entirety. Teachers can truncate it,to the various references to robots and their
November 1984 49
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functions-as wall clocks, robot mice, poetry
And indeed the house did not need humans
readers, the automatic stove, and the like. When
to continue its life. With solar regularity it
attempts at extinguishing a fire don't work, back-set tables, filled bathtubs, lighted cigars, read
up "attendants" try to save the altar. Bradbury poems, recited the time-all unaware of the
absence
refers to them as "blind robot faces [that peer
of its owners.
down] with faucet mouths that gush green chem- Some techniques might elude the slower stuical," (p. 170).
dent, but none would have difficulty grasping the
Bradbury's personification of the house showsprophetic message. I usually tell students of a
him at his best, accentuated in the last segmentmovie-some of them have seen it-entitled The
of the story, when "at ten o'clock the house
Atomic Cafe, which is a black humor compilabegan to die," (p. 170). The building is not pas- tion of propagandist educational films and news
sively consumed by flames; rather, "The house footage during the Cold War era. Of particular
gave ground," (p. 170). When it is clear that
relevance are clips depicting test drills in which
the house will burn; it shudders with "its bared
school children are methodically ushered into
skeleton cringing from the heat," (p. 171). Despite
protective cellars, or instructed to "duck and
heroic efforts, the house succumbs, and its robot
cover" under their desks in preparation for the day
alarms pathetically wail "like a tragic nursery
rhyme.. . like children dying in a forest," (p.
when the "real bomb" would hit-a gruesomely
inane practice when one considers the potency of
171).
nuclear warheads. I ask students if they feel there
The fire also has human traits, though in a
had been sufficient warning for the war in "There
malicious sense. Ir: crackles up the stairs, feeding Will Come Soft Rains." They have no difficulty
upon oil paintings as if it knew their worth. Con- noting the shock behind the war's onset:
fronted with the robot firefighters, "the fire backed
off, even as an elephant must at the sight of a
dead snake," (p. 170). After it mustered its courage, it rushed into the closet and "felt of the
clothes hung there," (p. 170). Bradbury's fire is
"clever" (p.170), and even "eats" the breakfasts
made by an automatic stove deranged by the
flames.
The entire west face of the house was black, save for
five places. Here, as in a photograph, a woman bent
to pick flowers. Still farther over, their images
burned on wood in one titanic instant, a small boy,
hands flung into the air; higher up, the image of a
thrown ball, and opposite him a girl, hands raised
to catch a ball which never came down. The five
spots of paint-the man, the woman, the children,
the ball-remained. The rest was a thin charcoal
Bradbury's graphical technique is so vivid that layer, (p. 167).
students have no trouble visualizing this story,
I used, with mature groups, the next exercise
and interesting comments could be drawn discuswith astounding results. It causes spontaneous
sing its possible filming. How would a producer
reaction. I distribute blank sheets of paper (durcapture the personification? Would it be possible
ing oral reaction individuals might be influenced
to film the tragedy of the house in "maniac
by others' responses) and propose the following
confusion" (p. 171) without it looking like a
hypothetical situation: "Unlike Bradbury's 'spots
humorous scene from Mary Poppins? Even "nonof paint,' suppose we were to receive news that
readers" -students who do book reports, by
an atomic bomb will land within five or ten
some inexplicable coincidence, on cable televiminutes-one which cannot be destroyed in midsion classics such as Blade Runner and Polterair and which would be too potent to escape from
geist-would shine in this discussion.
in the given time. Write what your instantaneous
Sara Teasdale's poem (p. 169) elicits discusreaction would be to such news. What would you
sion. Bradbury's exceptional sense of irony
comes
do in those final few minutes of life?" Students
into view in a most grotesque way as students see
are given no more than five or ten minutes to jot
the gravity of having this poem read to an empty
down what first leaps into their minds.
house by a robot reader:
This may seem a macabre response to elicit,
And not one will know of the war, not one but the results are always fascinating. Students let
Will care at last when it is done.
their inner selves surface, especially if their papers
Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree
If mankind perished utterly.
are submitted anonymously. Some manifest a
belief in God or trust in the afterlife by their
50 English Journal
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Lest the students feel Bradbury's work is
supposed actions (praying, repenting); others envision themselves breaking down completely;
entirely pessimistic, the final chapter of The
another group admits to strong family attach-Martian Chronicles, "October 2026: The Million
ments, others plan to calmly indulge in favorite Year Picnic," could be read. Here, humanity
delights (listening to a cherished record or eating experiences a second Genesis. Several families
a whole chocolate cake); and others honestly do escape the holocaust and plan to rebuild a peacenot know what they would do. To this last group,ful civilization on the desolate Mars. There is
the possibility of nuclear disaster is so remote thathope.
it has never crossed their imaginations.
In this nuclear age, The Martian Chronicles
Recently, I received the following from stu- seems a necessity for mature students. Literature
dents:
teachers should not write this book off as "raygun sci-fi," for its effect is jarring.
I would run down to my cellar and cover myself up
with sheets and everything I could find and just
wait for the bomb to hit. There's not much you canNotes
do, though.
1. Refer to Willis E. McNelly's article, "Bradbury
I'd pray to God to go to heaven, hope that mankind
Revisited." CEA Critic (March 1969): 5-6.
survives to start again, and hope that I don't die
2. Burgess Meredith Reads Ray Bradbury. One LP
painfully.
record/cassette tape from Lively Arts, 1962.
I would thank my parents for what they have done
3. New York: Bantam, 1982, p. 166. Subsequent
for me, and then hide with some of my belongings I
references are to this paperback edition.
would like to go with me.
Brush my hair and talk on the phone.
The exercise is a frightening reminder that
Bradbury's nightmarish prediction is not an
impossibility and can lead to discussion and
debate.
Robert Dominianni teaches at
Woodrow Wilson Junior High
School, Clifton, New Jersey.
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