Below we have moments from a recent evening (August 24) at the Writers Guild Theater with Ray Bradbury and Hugh Hefner. The subject was Ray's landmark 1953 novel, Fahrenheit 451, and there was a screening of the 1966 movie based on said book. Before the film, the two men were interviewed — quite skillfully, it would appear from this clip — by Geoff Boucher, who presides over the Hero Complex blog at the L.A. Times. Geoff ably brought out an important point that many forget about Hefner. Never mind the naked ladies. Playboy, at least in its early days, really was a magazine folks could truly buy for the articles. It contained important pieces, fiction and non-fiction, and ran work that others feared to touch. Running Bradbury's then-controversial book took some nerve but also helped establish Hef as a courageous publisher who would defend the written word as vigorously as he'd fight to be able to market Miss October's chest.
I have, and will probably always have, enormously mixed emotions about Ray Bradbury. When I was about 13, he welcomed some similar-aged friends of mine and me into his office in Beverly Hills for an afternoon of talk about his work, the world, comics and writing. When he understood that I was serious about writing as a career, he invited me back for a one-on-one conversation that was enormously inspirational. He continues to be just that if only because despite his age and afflictions, he still manages to write almost every day. That I rarely agree with what he writes or with any opinion he has formed since around 1993 and that some of what he says or does these days makes me cringe is almost beside the point. Having interviewed him myself in several public appearances, I have seen how riveting and powerful his words can be and watched then as his wheelchair was engulfed by the best kind of autograph-seekers: The ones who have a palpable need to touch and thank an author whose work changed their lives and only for the better.
I probably need to reread Fahrenheit 451. It's been a while…like 30+ years. My sense is that it endures well as a work of compelling fiction but not of prophecy. Perhaps it needs a little add-on chapter where the characters decide it's sorta okay to burn book paper as long as you first digitize what's on it and make it available for downloading. Then again, if ever there was a novel that should be read in book form and not on a Kindle or iPad, it's that one…and just as a reading experience, it's a tremendous and important ride. I was sorry I couldn't make it to this event, which was part of a whole week in Los Angeles that celebrated Bradbury turning 90 but through the miracle that is YouTube, we all get to experience about ten minutes of it…