Full transcript
0:12you
0:19welcome to our sixth annual riders
0:22symposium by the sea at Point Loma
0:24Nazarene University I'm Dean Nelson on
0:26the journalism faculty at Point Loma
0:28Nazarene University and we have the
0:30privilege of having Ray Bradbury with us
0:33tonight ray has written more than 30
0:35books more than 500 short stories and
0:38poems written for television written for
0:41screenplays written for everything from
0:43weird detective to or Weird Tales I'm
0:45sorry to to Alfred Hitchcock to Twilight
0:50Zone two screenplays such as the
0:54screenplay for Moby Dick he embodies
0:56what we believe is is the the great
0:59thing about writing which is good
1:01writing is good writing it goes across
1:03genres it goes across two different
1:05styles and Ray Bradbury it's a pleasure
1:08to have you with us thank you it's
1:09evening now you have said that you don't
1:12write science fiction that's right
1:14you write about people well I write
1:16fantasy and the only science fiction
1:20I've written is Fahrenheit 451 it's the
1:23art of the possible
1:24see Fahrenheit is a realistic science
1:28fiction novel it it could happen and
1:31that has happened of our portions of it
1:33we're witnessing part of it in our
1:36society now a local television news is
1:39sort of thing that's in Fahrenheit for
1:43if I want all the local television news
1:46today's crap isn't it it's all
1:50ten-second sound bytes 15-second sound
1:53bytes
1:54we're being fragmented all the
1:58commercials you watch have 30 clips of
2:03film for a 30-second commercial and 60
2:07clips of film for a 60 second a
2:10commercial not so your mind is all over
2:13the place there's no thought that
2:15metaphors are scattered that you have
2:18the feeling that you're thinking but
2:21you're not thinking huh so what I put in
2:24Fahrenheit is Illustrated every night on
2:27television if you die you've got to be
2:30awfully famous
2:32to deserve more than 15 seconds huh so
2:35there you go
2:36all right now now you told the New York
2:39Times you told the New York Times years
2:43ago that my business is to present the
2:45future preventive prevent future all
2:49right because what I wrote what I
2:51started write down was a number of
2:53things from your books that you that you
2:57wrote about that years later have have
3:00actually happened and here's here's just
3:02a partial list the Sony Walkman I read
3:06about that in something you wrote 40
3:08years ago that's in Fahrenheit yeah
3:09exactly
3:10lawns that grow to only a certain height
3:12and then they stopped growing
3:14I read about that in one of your books
3:16mechanical dogs there that was in
3:19Fahrenheit interactive television
3:21virtual reality technology space travel
3:24even references to Who Wants to Be a
3:27Millionaire in some of your that's right
3:30and some of your books and I'm saying
3:32you wrote that you said that you write
3:34to prevent the future and yet some of
3:37the things you wrote about at least on
3:38some of these items have in fact come
3:40true well they people weren't listening
3:42were they and and you can't go against
3:48hungers and needs and we'll work our way
3:51through this and we're convinced we've
3:54got to watch TV and what we gotta watch
3:58is the better stations the cable cable
4:00stations CNN does good work Fox cable
4:04does good work and of course you can
4:06look at the old movies channels if you
4:09really want to get educated to the past
4:12of filmmaker that's that's terrific but
4:15local CTV News is an abomination though
4:19they're only out to to show you funerals
4:23diseases accidents rapes and murders all
4:28that good stuff all that good stuff that
4:31they don't care about humanity not for a
4:34moment they're off for one more disaster
4:36so that's that's why they put in the
4:38book no dude have you ever had the
4:40thought that you can actually see into
4:42the future
4:42I mean you've written so many things
4:44that have
4:45that have come to pass know if you pay
4:48attention to what's going on in front of
4:50you
4:51it's very easy to predict what's going
4:53to happen because human character
4:56doesn't change that much the the best
4:59thing I predicted and hope for was space
5:03travel of course landing on the moon and
5:06we've got to continue that we've been
5:08doing things with the space shuttle the
5:11last 15 years which is a bore you know
5:13that's not where we belong
5:15200 miles above Earth we belong on the
5:18moon we belong on Mars goddammit you
5:21know and here we are with the damn space
5:24shuttle it lands like a plane I don't
5:26want to see a plane land
5:29I'm afraid that Clinton will come out at
5:32any moment
5:38okay okay now you you have this thing
5:45you called the theater of the morning
5:48that's right
5:49I want you to describe for our audience
5:51what the theater of the morning is what
5:53happens when you get up every year but
5:55people are saying do you write about
5:57dreams as no I write about a semi dream
6:01state the best time that's why I want
6:05you to pack your minds with lots of
6:06metaphors because when you wake in the
6:09early morning you're not dreaming and
6:11you're not fully awake and all the
6:13metaphors are turned loose in your head
6:16between your ears and you can lie in bed
6:18and watch them floating around in front
6:21of you and then two of them collide and
6:25make a new metaphor and you jump up and
6:28running your typewriter and capture it
6:30before it goes poetry like occurs that
6:34way quite often but if you're lazy and
6:37lie there and you get up five minutes
6:40later it's gone unless you have a
6:43fantastic memory and I don't so every
6:46morning I just love that moment of
6:49waking up with an idea floating in my
6:52head it's not a dream and that's not
6:55completely awake now you might
6:58experiment with this maybe it won't work
6:59for some of you but it's been working
7:02for me for years another good time is
7:04the shower taking a shower and the water
7:08hits you and you have total relaxation
7:10and your brains loose inside your skull
7:13huh and you can think anything you want
7:16to or sometimes taking a nap to nap we
7:20are not completely asleep and not
7:22completely awake these are all good
7:24states for discovering stories that
7:28might be of some help you all right now
7:32when you have you have also said in the
7:35past that you wrote for ten years and
7:38then at some point you realized you'd
7:40been doing it all wrong and then you
7:42wrote a story in one hour that made the
7:45hair on the back of your neck stand up
7:47and then you realized you were doing it
7:48right that's right what happened
7:51I learned not to look at other writers I
7:53learned to be myself up until that time
7:56I was so busy being enamored of other
8:00talents and why had to be them it's
8:03ridiculous you can't can't do that
8:05but I had a memory of an encounter I had
8:11when I was 8 years old on the beach back
8:15in Illinois and Lake Michigan and I was
8:19on the shore with this little girl and
8:21we were building sandcastles and she
8:24went out in the water and she never came
8:26back
8:27that was my first encounter with death I
8:30didn't understand I kept asking my
8:32mother why didn't she come back where is
8:35she they never found her huh so that
8:37memory came back on that day when I was
8:4022 I was sitting out in the Sun with my
8:43portable typewriter and quite suddenly
8:46the memory of that little girl not
8:48coming back
8:49so I wrote a short story to bring her
8:51out of water huh 30 years later and then
8:55when I'd finished it tears were pouring
8:57down my face I realized for the first
9:00time I'd written something true and
9:02honest and real and wonderful and from
9:06that day on I began to go into my
9:08subconscious and drag out all these
9:11wonderful things so but thank God for
9:14that one memory Wow now talk talk to us
9:18for a minute about the difference
9:21between thinking and feeling when it
9:23comes to writing you you aren't real big
9:25on thinking first no well first of all
9:29you can't imagine a story
9:30you can't think of ahead you have to
9:33live it and these people that sell you
9:38want plotting there are books I've seen
9:40constructing the screenplay constructing
9:43the screenplay what the hell is that
9:46that's why so many screenplays are our
9:49lousy aren't that you can just see
9:51people sitting at a meeting saying but
9:54we'll do this next we'll do that next
9:56why don't we try this why don't we try
9:58that
9:58that's all intellectual crap it's it's
10:02all mr. Bathory and everyone trying to
10:06one-up someone else so you can't do that
10:10look on writing as a snowfield
10:13and it's pure and you have your
10:17characters that you believe in each of
10:19them has a destiny you've got to know
10:21what each of them lost madly huh and
10:25then you fire off a gun and send your
10:28characters running out on the fields of
10:30snow pursuing their dream their desire
10:33their want and after they run you look
10:37in the snow and you see their footprints
10:39there's your structure you see but you
10:41can't imagine that you got to run first
10:44it's like that writing is like any other
10:47love in your life we're all terrified of
10:50one another in certain age I took girls
10:52out to movies where I could afford to
10:55when I was 19 I just had enough money to
10:58buy a malted milk and a movie huh and
11:01walk the girl home and on the way home
11:03you think well when we get to her front
11:06door and going to say goodnight I
11:08grabbed her by the elbows and I give her
11:10a big smooch huh and you get to the
11:13front door and she opens the door and
11:16you look at her and you say night and
11:20you you walk down the street say Jesus
11:23Christ dummy dummy dummy
11:27and then the next night the same goddamn
11:30thing happens out was years before I was
11:35giving a lecture at the Unitarian Church
11:3720 years ago I looked down the front row
11:40and here's this girl I used to take to
11:43the movies
11:43she's middle-aged now okay ah so she
11:47came up and she said ray she went to
11:52high school with me she said I heard you
11:54you know try and I said that's right she
11:56said you need a lift home
11:58I said yes he she said can I give you a
12:01lift I said sure so she drove me home
12:05and when we got in front of my house I
12:09reached over grabbed her by the elbows
12:11and gave her a big smooch and I said
12:14there I should have done that 30 years
12:16ago and we both broke apart yeah and
12:19we've been good friends since I I write
12:22to her I invite her to my place stuff
12:25and but I'm sure glad didn't marry her
12:28you know she had changed over the years
12:33and so it I and I've got a perfectly
12:35wonderful wife but there's a good
12:37example of the fears that we're working
12:40for working with you know in our writing
12:43and we don't know that the fears that we
12:46have so therefore when I did the lake
12:49that encouraged me to try other dreams
12:52of frustration and death and life and
12:55need huh and getting all these things
12:58out but it took all those years from the
13:02age of 12 to 22 you you write every day
13:07don't you you must write every day every
13:10day of your life
13:11I give us the piano player analogy a
13:14piano player who doesn't practice one
13:16day yeah he knows it well if you don't
13:19write every day you'll get sick
13:21the writing is a process of cleansing
13:25yourself as well as all the other things
13:27we don't know how it works but it does
13:30work I haven't gotten that yet huh I've
13:34never used a psychiatrist I've never
13:36used a psychoanalyst
13:37good riding is automatically cleansing
13:41of the soul now I don't quite know how
13:43it works but if you do honest work
13:46passionate work and and and deal with
13:50your real fears I think you can have a
13:53pretty good life and not need help from
13:56outside maybe it doesn't work that way
13:58for everybody but it sure as hell has
14:01worked for me
14:02here's the piano player analogy I was
14:04saying you you have said that if a piano
14:06player doesn't practice one day he knows
14:09it the trophy doesn't practice for two
14:11days his critics know it if he doesn't
14:14practice for three days then his
14:15audience knows it that's right and and
14:17the analogy you've drawn is that writing
14:19is the same way after a while if you
14:21know if you aren't doing it every day
14:22people will notice no I never give them
14:25a chance okay no the most I've ever gone
14:30without writing is sometimes when I
14:32travel but even there
14:34you got a pad and pencil with you and
14:35you get your work done
14:37so I don't feel well if I don't write
14:41the I hadn't experienced a year ago and
14:47I was in the hospital for a month and
14:49that was a real endangerment not only to
14:52my life but to my writing and it was
14:55really bad the first week because I
14:57didn't have a chance to write but after
14:59the second week then I began to dictate
15:02over the phone not it's not good writing
15:05dictation is is only 50% good stuff huh
15:10but writing the typewriter is the real
15:15stuff so there came the closest to being
15:17really depressed a year ago in the
15:20hospital but then as soon as possible I
15:24began to teach myself to type again and
15:27then I was back back in shape now in in
15:32many of your books there have been what
15:34at least I perceive to be a religious
15:37theme about some there have been many
15:38biblical references you in fact you
15:41rewrote the Last Supper scene in
15:43graveyard for lunatics where you said
15:45actually it wasn't that Last Supper that
15:47you know up there in the oh yeah
15:50there was another place but but my
15:51question and actually you've got a new
15:53book coming out for burned-out preachers
15:55and and rabbis and and priests yeah and
16:00and I'm just wondering is are there some
16:01religious themes under there in writings
16:05well all of our writing is religious I
16:07mean if you care about living at all
16:10isn't it you you don't have to make up a
16:13religion you don't have to invoke the
16:16biblical things that you learned in
16:18Sunday school you'd have to be technical
16:22about it if you were celebratory the
16:27Jews say to life don't they to life
16:30that's a great proclamation to that
16:36people have often said to me do you
16:39believe in Darwin Darwin's theory has a
16:41job believe in that do believe in the
16:44Marx theory of of the movement of the
16:47generations of animals a wishing
16:50themselves to new forms secret desires
16:54yes I I believe that do you believe in
16:57Genesis the first book of the Bible yes
17:00I believe that they said how can you
17:03believe all three I said because nothing
17:06is proven nothing is proven so there's
17:10room for a religious delicatessen huh I
17:14take some ADIZ some of those and some it
17:17down huh
17:19because we just don't know that's have
17:24you seen these various documentaries on
17:27TV the last few years
17:28tonight you're going to find the secret
17:31of life how did life come on the earth
17:34what makes the Sun burn that's cetera et
17:37cetera et cetera
17:38well you're tuned in and he'll let him
17:40tell you that they don't know the the
17:44earth came out of the Sun took a billion
17:46years to cool the rains fell the first
17:49primitive plants came up the the pawns
17:52of scum created niba like creatures but
17:58there was no life here lightning struck
18:00the chemistry of the world the inanimate
18:03minerals decided to live how come how
18:07come we don't know we don't know it just
18:11it just happened that's not much of an
18:13explanation is it it just happened
18:17that's really scientific is it that's
18:20what the scientists say it just happened
18:22well he'll give me some lightning I'll
18:25go make my own life so so the thing is
18:32there's room to believe it all because
18:38you are the inhabit ours of a miraculous
18:41world why have we been put here the
18:46question is asked time and again shall I
18:49give you the answer have you been
18:51waiting for the answer I've got it for
18:54you okay
18:54there's no use having a universe and
18:58billions of stars I've done shows for
19:02the Smithsonian planetarium and you look
19:06at pictures of star systems billions of
19:11light-years away huh there's no end of
19:14the universe it goes on forever they
19:17talk about the Big Bang I got into a lot
19:19of problems with the Smithsonian I wrote
19:21a program for the planetarium and I
19:24wrote a 30 page program and they sat
19:27back 28 pages of criticism
19:30just like most generators huh and I
19:34called him I said what's the problem
19:35they said well you got stuff in here
19:39that's not very scientific I said what
19:42do you want do you want to go back to
19:43boring people I've been in your
19:45planetarium and at ten minutes into the
19:49program everyone's snoring huh you I
19:53said should I tell you what's wrong with
19:55your planetarium you are teaching when
19:58you should be preaching you cannot teach
20:01with the planetarium
20:02you've got to preach let me raise my
20:06voice for you and stand back and I'll
20:11wake people up and make them care about
20:14being alive in this universe so I said
20:18what's the one thing that makes you the
20:20most nervous about my script for the
20:22planetarium he said well you got a thing
20:24there about the Big Bang Theory
20:27occurring twelve billion years ago in
20:30the this part of the universe I said
20:33when did it happen is that 14 billion
20:37years ago I said prove it
20:47they didn't like me I shouldn't have
20:52said that huh there's no proof there's
20:55no proof so after a while I called him
20:59on the phone after six weeks of arguing
21:03back and forth I said how much do you
21:06owe me right now they said sixteen
21:08thousand dollars I said give me seven
21:10thousand and let me go this is a bad
21:14marriage we're never going to make it
21:16you promised to take me into the woods
21:20and you never have
21:25pay me the money and let me go so I took
21:28my program and I came out and put it in
21:32the Air and Space Museum in Los Angeles
21:35down to exposition Park next time you're
21:39down there go upstairs it's a thing I've
21:42called windows on the universe and I
21:45have done a 12-minute program explaining
21:48the history of astronomy in the world
21:50and our future in space a million years
21:54from tonight okay so my experience the
22:01answer the question I posed a few
22:03minutes ago
22:04what are we doing here there's no use
22:06having universe is there there you know
22:09use having a billion stars
22:11there's no use having a planet earth if
22:14there isn't someone here to see it
22:17you are the audience you are here to
22:22witness and celebrate to witness and
22:25celebrate and you got a lot to see a lot
22:29to celebrate that's your business
22:31you put in your work you put in your
22:34stories otherwise get the hell out and
22:37and get out of our way and let us live
22:39huh if you're going to be a cynic if
22:42you're going to be a pessimist you
22:44there's no hope for you I can't help you
22:48you've got to help yourself but we are
22:50here as an audience God cries out to be
22:55saved whatever God is we have we have
22:58various names we make it much too
23:01anthropomorphic that's not what it's all
23:03about creation the universe Jehovah you
23:08name it it's all mysterious but we are
23:11here to be the audience to the
23:15miraculous we are privileged to but
23:18you're going to be alive once you're
23:20never coming back think of that you've
23:23got one chance to pay back uooo uooo
23:28to the universe the burden of proof is
23:33in your lap and in your writing and you
23:36got to pay back I demand it
23:39you get the hell out of here and do that
23:41and you're going to have a good life
23:43what in hell was the question well
23:55right I don't remember either
23:59he's wheat we was afraid that's me yeah
24:02we have we have just a couple of minutes
24:05left and so what I have asked you to do
24:08is to have you read a poem that you
24:10wrote about yourself that was in the
24:13wonderful book the Zen in the art of
24:15writing I'd like to if you'll permit
24:18till no experience I had in London
24:2431 32 years ago when we landed on the
24:26moon to show you what kind of person I
24:29am
24:29people are always saying why do you like
24:32space travel well you you've heard part
24:35of my reasons that we are destined to go
24:39out from the earth to land on the moon
24:41again to go to Mars into Alpha Centauri
24:44to make life immortal for a few more
24:49thousand or maybe a million years life
24:53is worth it with all with all the bad
24:56things I know all the bad things I know
24:59the wars the Holocaust and the meanness
25:02the bad spirits but then I know all the
25:06good things too I know William
25:08Shakespeare and no Emily Dickinson I
25:11know Robert Frost
25:12I know Rudyard Kipling and though
25:14Dickens and oh sure my god we take them
25:19with us huh we take them with us we have
25:22a chance to live forever or almost
25:25because we are the cognizant part of the
25:28universe that's worth saving we've got
25:31to believe that we have to believe in
25:33ourselves so David Frost invited me to
25:37come on his show the night we landed on
25:40the moon in July of 1969 I arrived at
25:45David Frost's studio in London at 8
25:48o'clock we landed on the moon at 8:30
25:51and I prepared to go on to explain to
25:55people what the hell we were doing on
25:57the moon huh because I want people to
26:00know what I believe David Frost made a
26:03big introduction I thought he's talking
26:07about American Jean
26:08it's got to be me and he says then here
26:12he is Engelbert Humperdinck
26:18well Engelbert Humperdinck came up and
26:23sang his stupid song and then David
26:28Frost said we have in there another
26:30American genius here tonight I thought
26:32this time it's got to be me and he says
26:34Sammy Davis jr. well I knew Sammy and
26:38wonderful guy wonderful town and I've
26:40been with them the day before with my
26:42daughter's has terrific day but this is
26:45not the night for Engelbert Humperdinck
26:47and Sammy Davis I'm sorry it's the night
26:51to discover what the hell we're doing
26:52with our spaceships huh so I walked off
26:56the show producer came running after me
26:59he said what are you doing I said I'm
27:02leaving he said you can't do that
27:04I said wash my desk I said take your
27:09hand off my elbow and give me the hell
27:11out of here that's stupid asking there
27:13is ruined the greatest night in the
27:15history of the world we've been part of
27:18the greatest night in history and he
27:20screwed it up so they got me a cab and I
27:23went across London and I did a show on
27:26Telstar with Mike Wallace and Walter
27:28Cronkite and I was able to say all the
27:30things I've just said to you I never saw
27:33the tape until last year Krunk I showed
27:36it to me and god it's beautiful because
27:38I said all the things I want to say I
27:41stayed up all night in the morning Neil
27:46Armstrong fell out of the spacecraft and
27:49walked on the moon had dawn I was on
27:53seven different shows all around the
27:55world all night I cried all night I was
27:58so happy I walked back to the hotel in
28:01London at 9:00 in the morning exhausted
28:05but full of love and joy and out in
28:09front of the hotel there was a little
28:12tabloid newspaper in the headline read
28:14Neil Armstrong walks at 7:00 a.m.
28:19Bradbury walks
28:20midnight thank you very much thank you