If Bradbury doesn't consider himself a science fiction writer, who am I to argue?

And that private letter, btw, seems to belie his claim under oath in 1957 that he never read Orwell's 1984.  Here's a fella who claims to have a perfect photographic memory and can even remember his own birth, was a voracious reader since toddlerhood, loves books and words like no other person who ever breathed, devoured everything from Edgar Rice Burroughs to John Steinbeck... held extremely progressive political views, and hated repression and censorship... and yet... and yet... did not read the most talked-about political science fiction /horror novel of 1947, George Orwell's 1984.  Ever.

That was during the appeals stage of his suit against CBS for allegedly swiping Fahrenheit 451 for a TV show.  That show dealt with the same theme-- book burning in the near future-- and understandably, the protagonist (played by Sterling Hayden) was a fireman whose job it was to burn books.  The production company had begun discussions with Bradbury about optioning his book, but they broke down. The producer then turned to Robert Alan Authrur and said they wanted to do a science fiction drama about book-burning.  They did, Arthur wrote a script, it aired, and Bradbury sued.  The judge actually was sophisticated about plagiarism and copyright, but ultimately decided the similarities were scenes affaire-- coincidences arising naturally from a given situation.  The judge cited a number of similarities in both works to other dystopian novels, particularly 1984 and Brave New World.  Robert Alan Aurthur denied ever reading Fahrenheit 451.  (At no other time in Arthur's career was he accused of literary theft.)  Bradbury lost the case, but the decision was reversed on appeal, and it was during that phase (countering the judge's comparisons to Orwell's book) that he denied ever reading 1984.  Yet he knows enough about Orwell in 1950 to cite him (and want to emulate him) as a writer noted for a science fiction book who has escaped the lable "science fiction writer."  Hmmm.


Last Edited By: Ted Newsom Aug 9 10 2:24 AM. Edited 1 times.