Ray Bradbury and the Art of Self Educating

by Caroline Acoca

“Writing is the exquisite joy and madness of my life, and I don’t understand writers who have to work at it. I like to play. I’m interested in having fun with ideas, throwing them up in the air like confetti and then running under them. If I had to work at it I would give it up. I don’t like working.” – Ray Bradbury 

            In our minds, education is often associated with school- elementary school, high school, university, and so on. But what if we lived in a society where education was not as easily accessible? Or if we simply did not have enough money? 

            When I was in seventh grade, our class was assigned a research project on an author. Our teacher handed us a list and made us choose- Shakespeare, Hemingway, Dickens- I was vaguely familiar with all of these great writers. At the bottom of the list was Ray Bradbury, a name I had never heard before. I immediately decided to do my project on him simply out of curiosity. Since that day where I went home and researched his life for hours, I have been in love with the author and his incomparable passion for literature. 

Ray Bradbury, American author, poet, and playwright, was twelve years old when he set out on a journey to study and imitate the works of Edgar Allen Poe. A few years later, it was Emily Dickinson that became the object of his literary affection. He then discovered John Steinbeck. As a child, he could not control his sponge-like mind that simply desired to sit and read all the books he possibly could. 

In a large family filled with disheartening tragedies, Bradbury began to read when he was three years old, books of fairy tales and fantasies. He then grew older and by the time he was seven years old, he was at the library at least once a week. In several interviews, Bradbury laughs at how he was the youngest person to continually go to the Waukegan Public Library, where he began to dive into his journey of self-education. 

When he graduated high school, his passion for education faced a roadblock: his family had barely enough money to survive, not enough to even consider sending him to college. In his words: “The greatest thing happened- I went to the library!” He began to work selling newspapers on a street corner for $10 a week, and always spent his money on books and renting out typewriters. 

Through many interviews, Bradbury urges writers to simply read books and go to the library to get their education. He acknowledges that teachers play a huge role in inspiring students, but libraries truly educate and fulfill people. He has said that libraries are great because they have no biases. Teachers have a preference of which author or poet they like and want to teach to their students, but to Bradbury, this has always been the downfall of traditional education. Libraries never push an opinion on readers or tell them which authors they should and should not be reading from. 

At nineteen years old, Bradbury read “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck. Needless to say, he was moved by this novel and later, as he was writing his own novel “The Martian Chronicles”, he structured his novel in a similar way to “The Grapes of Wrath”. He claims that Steinbeck was his “skeleton” as to how to structure a novel. 

Bradbury’s best known novel, “Fahrenheit 451”, was partly inspired by something that occurred to him when he was fifteen years old. While listening to the radio at this young age, he learned that Hitler had burned all the books in the streets of Berlin. This terrified Bradbury and became personal to him- he felt as though Hitler was destroying his one and only passion in life.

Though he never truly had much money until much later in his life when his novels became more well known, he did all he could to write. To complete “Fahrenheit 451”, Bradbury spent 9 days in the UCLA library basement. For ten cents a half hour, he rented a typewriter and wrote the entire story. It cost him a total of nine dollars and eighty cents. Bradbury once said that Montag (the main character of “Fahrenheit 451”) came up to him one day and said, “I have a problem. I’ve been burning books.” And Bradbury replied (to this imaginary Montag voice in his head) “Then go do something about it.” Bradbury always said that Montag wrote the book for him. He explains that his characters speak to him; they decide their own actions once they are created in his mind. 

Another fascinating part of Bradbury is that he is truly honest when it comes to his work. While reading and listening to interviews, Bradbury basically went against all the basic writing “rules” that I thought I had learned over the course of my life. For example, when asked if he used a notebook, Bradbury replied: “Why would I use a notebook? As soon as I get an idea, I write a short story, or start a novel, or I write a poem. So I have no need for a notebook.” Tell this to any contemporary writer and they will think you are clueless about the art of writing. He was also asked when and where he did most of his writing. His answer was whenever and wherever he felt like it. He never had a schedule, writing was a hobby that he did when he felt like it. 

The message I am trying to somehow get across through Bradbury’s voice is that libraries are important. They are the only place that can fully teach you how to write. You make your own prejudices and begin to dislike certain authors and their method of writing. You start to imitate those that you do favor. Bradbury, a man who lived to be 91, self-educated himself in libraries and became one of the most successful and talented writers we know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF3uZf4G3Lo&feature=related 

Here's a link to an interview Bradbury did when he was around, a bit long but definitely worth watching if you are interested in the art of writing.

http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6012/the-art-of-fiction-no-203-ray-bradbury 

Here's a written interview which also captures Bradbury's passion for books.