“The Dark Music” by Charles Beaumont

by kattomic

“The Dark Music” by Charles Beaumont

07.15.12

Story 195/366

I first encountered Charles Beaumont through the wonderful scripts he wrote for The Twilight Zone, including “Number Twelve Looks Just Like You.” He was extremely prolific and it’s hard to know what he might have gone on to do if he hadn’t died of a strange, rapid-aging disease when he was only 38. (His last home was in Valley Village, California, which is where I live.) “The Dark Music” is about a rigidly puritanical teacher who is given a taste of sensuality that changes her life. The story appears in Beaumont’s collection The Magic Man, The copy I have is a 50-cent Fawcett Gold Edition published in 1965, with a foreword by Ray Bradbury and an afterword by Richard Matheson. You can still buy used copies of this edition on Amazon, for less than $15 used.

See you tomorrow!

“A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury

by kattomic

“A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury

06.07.12

Story 158/366

“You must write every single day of your life… You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads… may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.”–Ray Bradbury

When I first moved to Los Angeles, I thought the Bradbury Building (a lovely piece ofdowntown  architecture you’ve seen in a ton of movies) was named for Ray Bradbury and I thought that was fitting.

I am violating my one story per author policy today in honor of Ray Bradbury, who has died at the age of 91. Heath Lowrance has published a lovely tribute to Bradbury on his blog, and there’s not really much more I can say except that Bradbury’s writing is woven deeply into my consciousness.  I once got his autograph at a conference. I boldly told him I was a writer (lower-case w, knowing that he was a WRITER in all caps) and he signed his name after writing WRITE,WRITE, WRITE on the back of the conference flyer. That autograph was made in felt tip colored pen on paper now yellowed and brittle. It is one of my most cherished possessions.

This story is one of the most famous science fiction stories of all time, a seminal time travel tale that I first read in grade school though it had been written decades before, in 1952, the very middle of the mid-century, and published in Collier’s magazine. It is a cautionary tale with a resonant message. It is a story that will still be read when time travel is a reality.  Here’s a link to the story that’s been illustrated, with a bit of analysis at the end.

Ray Bradbury has died but his writing will live on. Mourn the man but celebrate the work!

See you tomorrow!

“The Small Assassin” by Ray Bradbury

by kattomic

“The Small Assassin” by Ray Bradbury

01.21.12

Story 21/366

This is probably the darkest story Ray Bradbury ever wrote. It was published in 1946, and I found it in The Vintage Bradbury, which also includes selections from Dandelion Wine, along with “The Illustrated Man,” “The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit,” and “There Will Come Soft Rains.” You’ve read “The Small Assassin”—it and his classic time travel story “A Sound of Thunder” are two of his best-known short stories—and if you’ve read it, you’ve never forgotten it. What you may have forgotten is the length though—it’s 19 pages and yet it reads like a compact piece of flash fiction.  The gradual reveal about what’s going on with a new mother and her infant is chilling. The last two lines of the story impact like a flash-bang grenade. This collection is actually not that extensive (“A Sound of Thunder” isn’t in it, for example, but you can read it online here) but even a little Bradbury is a lot of good reading.

See you tomorrow!