Everyone is invited to join a community reading of the short story collection, “The Illustrated Man” by Ray Bradbury 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 10, at the Indiana Historical Society.
We invited Jason Aukerman, a professor of American studies: American supernatural, science fiction, banned books and conspiracy theories — and director of the Ray Bradbury Center at IU Indianapolis — to talk to us about the event.
The Ray Bradbury Center and IU Indianapolis are celebrating the 75th anniversary of “The Illustrated Man.”
Auckerman said the stories in the book seem prescient, “He foresaw a lot of the issues we’re dealing with, AI, smart homes and smart devices. It provides a lot of good conversations for our current moment.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
For those who have never heard of Ray Bradbury, could you tell us a little bit of who he was?
Ray Bradbury was certainly one of the best known authors of his time throughout the second half of the 20th century, and I would say continues to be one of the best known writers of our time.
His most famous novel, “Fahrenheit 451” is the seminal novel about censorship and book burning and the cultural devaluation of literacy. But he wrote a lot more than just “Fahrenheit 451.” He was best at his short fiction. I think “The Illustrated Man” is a great example of a collection of short stories. If you like his spookier stories, “October Country” is a great collection of weird tales.
Beyond the community read, if we want to learn more about Ray Bradbury, can anyone just go to the museum at IU Indianapolis?
Yes, during our hours of operation (11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday). So we’ve just moved into a wonderful new space. We’ve got three exhibits up in the new space, in the ES building, 1125. Unfortunately, we don’t have anybody full time dedicated to the Bradbury Center. At this point, we’re a team of four very part-time people, myself included.
We’re doing the best we can to get the space monitored so that we can open the doors to the public.
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What story from “The Illustrated Man” are you most excited to discuss with people?
“The Rocket Man.” Bradbury writes — I mean, he was an emotionalist — he writes so powerfully about grief and loss and loneliness. And “The Rocket Man” is a poignant story. It’s a very sad story, but it’s also just beautifully written.
People might know the promise if they’re familiar with Elton John’s song, “The Rocket Man,” because the lyrics for that song were inspired by Bradbury’s short story that’s in “The Illustrated Man.”
Oh wow, I didn’t know that.
Yeah, you know, Elton John didn’t know that either until a couple of years ago. His lyricist, Bernie (Taupin) and he were sitting down for an interview a couple years ago, and Bernie talked about the inspiration.
Oh, you are serious. I thought you were joking.
Oh no, I’m dead serious. Bernie talked about the inspiration, and Elton looked over to him and said, “really, I had no idea.” So, Elton didn’t write many of his own lyrics. He wrote the music and the melodies.
How fun. Well, thank you for joining us and we’ll see you on Nov. 10.
Please, yeah, at the Indiana Historical Society. It’s a free event. Please register, and we’ll look forward to seeing you. It’ll be a great night.
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This conversation appeared in the Oct. 28 edition of Mirror Indy’s arts & culture newsletter, Play List. You can listen to that conversation here.
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Jennifer Delgadillo is Mirror Indy’s arts and culture editor. You can reach her at jennifer.delgadillo@mirrorindy.org.
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