tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post7451774750366111609..comments2024-03-27T22:39:08.396-04:00Comments on Sweet Freedom: FFBradbury: Sturgeon, Brackett, Bloch; Bradbury; Knight, Matheson, Beaumont, King...some notes about RB's mentors, peers, legacyTodd Masonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-19607888841051888792012-12-10T09:05:03.959-05:002012-12-10T09:05:03.959-05:00Well, he didn't ever stop writing about childr...Well, he didn't ever stop writing about children...this is the greatest flaw in his work...among no few others, the characters and tenor of his work never matured much, and it took a toll. Being vastly, hugely overpraised doesn't help. Most of his productions in the last thirty years or so have been mediocre verse, one might note. But on rare occasions, as with "Gotcha!", one saw the vigor of the earlier work, in later years...but he was still writing about kids of legal maturity. Todd Masonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-87769241035118414522012-12-10T00:09:26.223-05:002012-12-10T00:09:26.223-05:00Todd, I always enjoy reading your comments about w...Todd, I always enjoy reading your comments about writers and magazines. Concerning Bradbury, despite living a long life I've found that his best work was in the 1940's and 1950's. Frankly, I don't see the same quality in the last 50 years. <br /><br />So many authors have a brief period where they write their best work and then the decline sets in. Bradbury had a good 20 years or so, maybe less.Walker Martinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16089880902426182100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-59040337584065852172012-12-09T03:13:52.104-05:002012-12-09T03:13:52.104-05:00You're quite welcome, Prashant, and thanks to ...You're quite welcome, Prashant, and thanks to you, as well. With the exception of Brackett, most of the writers I cite above didn't specialize in sf (if you mean science fiction) particularly, though they did write it, so much as writing eclectically in fantasy, horror, crime fiction and to some extent contemporary mimetic fiction and other fields (Brackett also was eclectic, having written more westerns than Sturgeon or Bloch who also did write some, but the vast majority of her work was one kind of sf or another, including the borderline form science-fantasy...her work in that field, and in screenwriting, was why she was asked to to the first screenplay treatment for <i> The Empire Strikes Back</i>, though she died before she could go much further with that project).<br /><br />If you take away anything from this post, I hope it's that these other writers were fully the equal of Bradbury, when they didn't have a slight edge on him in one aspect or another, and, yes, one can spend a lifetime reading and enjoying nearly every school of literature...there are very few that don't have excellent examples of the art among them (even though some readers and more critics have been known to attempt to segregate the good work from entirely too many schools...perhaps every field of fiction has suffered this to some degree. "I hate contemporary mimetic fiction...but I sure like John Cheever or Raymond Carver or Ellen Gilchrist or...").<br /><br />And the first EC comics adaptations were plagiarized from Bradbury, as I note above...he famously wrote them a letter suggesting that through some oversight, the check for adapting his work hadn't arrived yet, and the publishers came quickly to an agreement to legitimately adapt his work going forth. <br /><br />And, of course, all of the writers mentioned in the post have had comics adaptations...one of Sturgeon's earliest stories, "The Ultimate Egoist," was plagiarized by one of the Atlas or Timely Comics horror titles for a story reprinted in my first issue of <i>Tomb of Horror</i>, one of the comics I wrote about a month or so back...legitimate adaptations abound as well, and Mike Mignola, for a related example, took inspiration for <i>Hellboy</i> the comic directly from Robert Bloch...not theft in this case, but inspiration.Todd Masonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-13993899124642547772012-12-08T11:08:53.305-05:002012-12-08T11:08:53.305-05:00Todd, thanks very much for a most educative and co...Todd, thanks very much for a most educative and comprehensive post and links about Bradbury and his fascinating relationship with his fellow sf writers, especially Leigh Brackett that I have heard much about, and their collective sf. I am really interested in reading Bradbury's comic-book adaptations in EC's Weird Fantasy that I am going to look out for. Never realised that his stories would find their way into comics which, I guess, is only natural with a genre like sf and a creative writer like Ray Bradbury. You can spend a lifetime reading and enjoying sf.Prashant C. Trikannadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16079354501998741758noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-66549358956481524582012-12-08T08:24:10.172-05:002012-12-08T08:24:10.172-05:00You're welcome, Sergio, and thank you.You're welcome, Sergio, and thank you. <br /><br />Todd Masonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-23736280772239318922012-12-08T08:16:24.920-05:002012-12-08T08:16:24.920-05:00A really fascinating look at the genealogy of thes...A really fascinating look at the genealogy of these writer's career trajectories Todd =- thanks very much. I think you are certainly spot-on about the influenece on Sturgeon and then how that filtered through to Matheson. really enjoyed seeing the connections being put under the microscope here - thanks again. Sergio (Tipping My Fedora)http://bloodymurder.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.com