Literary Criticism and Reviews: Ray Bradbury
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For good reason, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 remains a very popular book over 70 years since its debut, and it often is read in English classes in college or high school. When I was 12 or 14, I read the copy pictured at right probably 8 times, just as I did with Heinlein’s Space Cadet. I seem to recall doing a book report on it in high school, too.
When I started really looking into Chief Beatty’s discussion of “technology, mass exploitation, and minority pressure” in the mid-1990s, I was surprised that only a fairly limited amount of criticism on the novel existed. Moreover, critics simply had not addressed some of the issues that I myself found crucial. |
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Now, essays of mine that first appeared in academic journals have been reprinted in various textbooks on Bradbury or in the Contemporary Literary Criticism series which some libraries carry, and students of course also often can access these articles in the online literary research databases to which their institutions’ libraries subscribe.
Those first articles were written in, ahem, the 20th century, back when I was still teaching, but then more recently I ended up falling into the orbit of Salem Press, a sub-unit of the mammoth EBSCO Information Services, which runs so many of those online research databases. Salem asked me to put together a new volume of original criticism on Fahrenheit 451, which was released in December 2013. A few years later they asked for a proposal for a new project, so we did a 2017 volume covering the breadth of the works of Ray Bradbury. Serving as volume editor on projects like these was wonderful, as I was able to get acquainted with so many other great scholars...and of course I got to write a few more pieces myself, which is always nice.
In any event, below is a list of what I have written on Bradbury, with links to the full-text articles wherever available.
Those first articles were written in, ahem, the 20th century, back when I was still teaching, but then more recently I ended up falling into the orbit of Salem Press, a sub-unit of the mammoth EBSCO Information Services, which runs so many of those online research databases. Salem asked me to put together a new volume of original criticism on Fahrenheit 451, which was released in December 2013. A few years later they asked for a proposal for a new project, so we did a 2017 volume covering the breadth of the works of Ray Bradbury. Serving as volume editor on projects like these was wonderful, as I was able to get acquainted with so many other great scholars...and of course I got to write a few more pieces myself, which is always nice.
In any event, below is a list of what I have written on Bradbury, with links to the full-text articles wherever available.
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“Fahrenheit 451 and the Possible.” The Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Possible, edited by Vlad Petre Glăveanu, Palgrave, 2022, pp. 535-42. Available here. |
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“Bradbury Beyond Apollo, by Jonathan R. Eller” (review). SFRA Review vol. 52, no.4, Fall 2022, pp. 101-103. |
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Editor, Critical Insights: Ray Bradbury, Salem, 2017. Amazon page here, Salem page here.
“About This Volume.” pp. vii-xii.
“On Ray Bradbury and His Works.” pp. xiii-xxvii.
Editor, Critical Insights: Ray Bradbury, Salem, 2017. Amazon page here, Salem page here.
“About This Volume.” pp. vii-xii.
“On Ray Bradbury and His Works.” pp. xiii-xxvii.
“From ‘Halloween Was Outlawed and Christmas Was Banned!’ to ‘You Can Stay Happy All the Time’: Shifting Impetuses for Book Burning from ‘The Exiles’ and ‘Usher II’ to Fahrenheit 451.” pp. 46-59.
“Chronology of Ray Bradbury’s Life.” pp. 209-13.
“Major Works.” pp. 215-16.
“Bibliography.” pp. 217-22.
“About the Editor.” p. 223.
“Chronology of Ray Bradbury’s Life.” pp. 209-13.
“Major Works.” pp. 215-16.
“Bibliography.” pp. 217-22.
“About the Editor.” p. 223.
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“Bradbury the Master: Review of David Seed, Ray Bradbury.” Extrapolation vol. 58, no. 2-3, Summer/Winter 2017, pp. 338-41. |
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“Ray Bradbury Completed: Review of Jonathan R. Eller, Ray Bradbury Unbound.” Extrapolation vol. 57, 2016, pp. 366-69. First-page preview available online here. |
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“Orbiting Ray Bradbury's Mars: Biographical, Anthropological, Literary, Scientific and Other Perspectives” (review). SFRA Review vol. 307-308, Winter/Spring 2013-14, pp. 30-32. Available online here. |
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“About This Volume.” pp. vii-xii.
“On Fahrenheit 451.” pp. 3-16. “From ‘Government Control of This and That’ to ‘The Whole Culture’s Shot Through’: Behavior, Blame, and the Bomb in The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451.” pp. 62-74. “Chronology of Ray Bradbury’s Life.” pp. 232-36. “Works by Ray Bradbury.” pp. 237-38. |
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“Bibliography.” pp. 239-41.
“About the Editor.” p. 242.
“About the Editor.” p. 242.
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“ ‘They Got Me a Long Time Ago’: The Sympathetic Villain in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Brave New World, and Fahrenheit 451.” Critical Insights: Dystopia, edited by M. Keith Booker, Salem, 2013, pp. 125-41. Listed in Meckier, Jerome. Aldous Huxley and Utopia, Verlag, 2022, p. 214. |
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“ ‘To Build a Mirror Factory’: The Mirror and Self-Examination in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.” Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction vol. 39, Spring 1998, pp. 282-87.
First-page preview available online here. Rpt. in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, new ed., edited by Harold Bloom, Infobase, 2008, pp.163-69. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism vol. 235, edited by Jeffrey W. Hunter, Gale, 2007, pp. 120-23. |
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Rpt. as “Mirrors and Self-Examination in Fahrenheit 451” in Readings on Fahrenheit 451, edited by Katie de Koster, Greenhaven, 2000, pp. 55-62.
Listed in Ray Bradbury, new ed., edited by Harold Bloom, Infobase, 2010, p. 222.
Listed in Eller, Jonathan R., and William F. Touponce. Ray Bradbury: The Life of Fiction, Kent State UP, 2004, p. 558.
Listed in Ray Bradbury, new ed., edited by Harold Bloom, Infobase, 2010, p. 222.
Listed in Eller, Jonathan R., and William F. Touponce. Ray Bradbury: The Life of Fiction, Kent State UP, 2004, p. 558.
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“ ‘Do You Know the Legend of Hercules and Antaeus?’ The Wilderness in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.” Extrapolation vol. 38, Summer 1997, pp. 102-9.
First page preview available online here. Rpt. in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, edited by Harold Bloom, Chelsea House, 2001, pp. 121-28. Rpt. as “The Power of the Wilderness in Fahrenheit 451” in Readings on Fahrenheit 451, edited by Katie de Koster, Greenhaven, 2000, pp. 66-75. |
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Cited in Rogers, Brett M., and Eldon Stevens, editors. Classical Traditions in Science Fiction, Oxford UP, 2015, n.p.
Listed in Bloom, Harold, editor. Ray Bradbury, new ed., Infobase, 2010, p. 222. Listed in Westfahl, Gary, editor. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders, vol. 3, Greenwood, 2005, p. 1030. Listed in Eller, Jonathan R., and William F. Touponce. Ray Bradbury: The Life of Fiction, Kent State UP, 2004, p. 558. |
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Listed in Reid, Robin Anne. Ray Bradbury: A Critical Companion, Greenwood, 2000, p. 54.
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“What ‘Carried the Trick’? Mass Exploitation and the Decline of Thought in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.” Extrapolation vol. 37, Fall 1996, pp. 245-56.
Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism vol. 235, edited by Jeffrey Hunter, Gale, 2007, pp. 114-20. Rpt. in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, edited by Harold Bloom, Chelsea House, 2001, pp. 109-20. Cited in Hurtgen, Joseph Hurtgen. The Archive Incarnate: The Embodiment and Transmission of Knowledge in Science Fiction, McFarland, 2018, pp. 47-48. Cited in Wainwright, Michael. Game Theory and Postwar American Literature, Palgrave, 2016, pp. 123, 157. |
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Cited in Brier, Evan. A Novel Marketplace: Mass Culture, the Book Trade, and Postwar American Fiction, PA Press, 2009, p. 187.
Listed in Bloom, Harold, editor. Ray Bradbury, new ed., Infobase, 2010, p. 222. Listed in Westfahl, Gary, editor. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders, vol. 3, Greenwood, 2005, p. 1030. |
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Listed in Reid, Robin Anne. Ray Bradbury: A Critical Companion, Greenwood, 2000, pp. 53-54.
Listed in “Fahrenheit 451.” Wikipedia.org (“Further Reading”). URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451.
Listed in “Fahrenheit 451.” Wikipedia.org (“Further Reading”). URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451.
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“[Hands in] Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.” The Explicator vol. 54, Spring 1996, pp. 177-80.
Available online here and here. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism vol. 235, edited by Jeffrey Hunter, Gale, 2007, pp. 112-14. Available at Gale Group online, 2003. Rpt. as “The Imagery of Hands in Fahrenheit 451” in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, edited by Harold Bloom, Chelsea House, 2001, pp. 105-108. |
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Listed in Nichols, Phil. “Re-Presenting Mars: Bradbury’s Martian Stories in Media Adaptation.” Hendrix, Howard V., George Slusser, and Eric S. Rabkin, editors. Visions of Mars: Essays on the Red Planet in Science Fiction, McFarland, 2011, p. 116.
Listed in Bloom, Harold, editor. Ray Bradbury, new ed., Infobase, 2010, p. 222. Listed in Eller, Jonathan R., and William F. Touponce. Ray Bradbury: The Life of Fiction, Kent State UP, 2004, p. 558. |
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Listed in “Fahrenheit 451.” Wikipedia.org (“Further Reading”). URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451.
