30 January 2002, 03:09 AM
dandelionStory Classifications (UNDER CONSTRUCTION!)
Although his books are always found in the Science Fiction section, with even his non-SF titles lumped under that label, the short fiction of Ray Bradbury generally falls into several categories, which I here attempt to classify under headings. These categories refer mainly to setting, somewhat to mood and atmosphere, and a little to theme. To avoid repetition, each story appears under only one heading although some might fit under several. Classifying mainly by theme (cruelty of children, first love, loneliness and isolation, end of the world) would require a different set of categories. Another whole category set would be by season. Out of over 300 stories, perhaps a half-dozen have a real winter atmosphere and only two or three deal with Christmas. Opinions are welcome for the difficult to categorize. Bradbury's own statements range from about a third of his work being Science Fiction to "Fahrenheit 451" being his only real Science Fiction title. Quite possibly the Mars and Venus stories properly belong under the Fantasy heading but are classified as Science Fiction on this list. Martian stories are denoted "Mars MC" (included in the most recent edition of "The Martian Chronicles" I have, dated 1985--in more recent editions, the stories are the same but the dates have been changed--) and "Mars non-MC" (Martian stories not in "The Martian Chronicles.") The stories are dated, for anyone seeking "trends" in his work.
Science Fiction
Setting Classifications
FE--Future on Earth
TT--Time Travel
Mars MC--Mars, included in "The Martian Chronicles"
Mars non-MC--Mars, not included in "The Martian Chronicles"
Venus
PNMV--Planet other than Earth, Mars, or Venus
OS--Outer space
Includes realistic fantasy and magic in a futuristic setting.
-- The Piper (1943) (Mars non-MC)
-- Subterfuge (1943) (FE; Earth invaded by Venus)
-- Promotion to Satellite (1943) (FE, Space Travel)
-- And Then-the Silence
[vt The Silence] (1944) (PNMV)
-- King of the Gray Spaces
[vt R Is for Rocket] (1943)
-- October 2026: The Million-Year Picnic (1946) (Mars MC)
-- Rocket Summer (1947) (FE; very interesting companion to "The Rocket" and flip side of "The Toynbee Convector")
-- Zero Hour (1947) (FE; invasion from other planet or dimension)
-- The Irritated People (1947) (FE)
-- Tomorrow's Child
[vt The Shape of Things] (1948) (FE)
-- June 2001: --And the Moon Be Still as Bright (1948) (Mars MC)
-- August 1999: The Earth Men (1948) (Mars MC)
-- April 2026: The Long Years
[vt Dwellers in Silence] (1948) (Mars MC)
-- April 2000: The Third Expedition
[vt Mars Is Heaven!; Welcome, Brothers] (1948) (Mars MC)
-- Referent (1948)[as Brett Sterling]
-- The Visitor (1948) (Mars non-MC)
-- November 2005: The Off Season (1948) (Mars MC)
-- Asleep in Armageddon
[vt Perchance to Dream] (1948)
-- The Man (1949) (PNMV)
-- December 2005: The Silent Towns (1949) (Mars MC)
-- Marionettes, Inc. (1949) (FE)
-- The Concrete Mixer (1949) (Mars non-MC; Earth invaded by Mars)
-- I, Mars
[vt Night Call, Collect] (1949) (Mars non-MC)
-- The One Who Waits (1949) (Mars non-MC)
-- Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed
[vt The Naming of Names] (1949) (Mars non-MC)
-- Kaleidoscope (1949) (OS)
-- September 2005: The Martian
[vt Impossible] (1949) (Mars MC)
-- August 1999: The Summer Night
[vt The Spring Night] (1949) (Mars MC)
-- February 1999: Ylla
[vt I'll Not Look for Wine] (1950) (Mars MC)
-- Punishment Without Crime (1950) (FE; Illinois)
-- April 2005: Usher II
[vt Carnival of Madness] (1950) (Mars MC)
-- December 2001: The Green Morning (1950) (Mars MC)
-- August 2002: Night Meeting (1950) (Mars MC)
-- January 1999: Rocket Summer (1950) (Mars MC)
-- March 2000: The Taxpayer (1950) (Mars MC)
-- August 2001: The Settlers (1950) (Mars MC)
-- February 2002: The Locusts (1950) (Mars MC)
-- October 2002: The Shore (1950) (Mars MC)
-- February 2003: Interim (1950) (different than in "Dark Carnival") (Mars MC)
-- April 2003: The Musicians (1950) (Mars MC)
-- 2004-2005: The Naming of Names (1950) (different than "Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed") (Mars MC)
-- August 2005: The Old Ones (1950) (Mars MC)
-- November 2005: The Luggage Store (1950) (Mars MC)
-- November 2005: The Watchers (1950) (Mars MC)
-- The Fox and the Forest
[vt To the Future] (1950) (TT; Mexico)
-- Forever and the Earth (1950) (FE, TT, OS)
-- June 2003: Way in the Middle of the Air (1950) (Mars MC)
-- The City
[vt Purpose] (1950) (PNMV)
-- The Long Rain
[vt Death-by-Rain] (1950) (Venus)
-- The Veldt
[vt The World the Children Made] (1950) (FE)
-- No Particular Night or Morning (1951) (OS)
-- The Rocket Man (1951) (FE)
-- The Other Foot (1951) (Mars non-MC)
-- The Fire Balloons
[vt In This Sign...] (1951) (Mars non-MC. It does appear in some editions and the movie.)
-- Here There Be Tygers (1951) (PNMV)
-- A Sound of Thunder (1952) (FE, TT)
-- The Gift (1952) (OS)
-- The Golden Apples of the Sun (1953) (OS)
-- Time in Thy Flight (1953) (TT)
-- All Summer in a Day (1954) (Venus)
-- The Strawberry Window (1954) (Mars non-MC)
-- Icarus Montgolfier Wright (1956) (FE traveling to Mars)
-- The End of the Beginning
[vt Next Stop: The Stars] (1956) (FE)
Day-After-Tomorrow Science Fiction
A category mainly to distinguish end of the world/nuclear holocaust/book burning stories from tales of time and space, although, granted, space travel has happened more often than nuclear war. Some, such as "The Murderer," have already caught up with or passed the "day-after-tomorrow" label. (What I'd really like to see happen is for "Fahrenheit 451" to be collected with all the other destruction of art and literature stories, translated into the Afghan language, and sent to replenish the ravaged libraries of Afghanistan.)
-- Gabriel's Horn (1943) with Henry Hasse (FE)
-- August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) (non-Mars MC--In "The Martian Chronicles," but set on Earth)
-- The Highway (1950)[as Leonard Spalding] (FE; Probably South America but would go well in a collection with Mexico)
-- The Year 2150 A. D. (1950) (FE)
-- The Fireman (1951) (FE)
-- The Pedestrian (1951) (FE)
-- Embroidery (1951) (FE)
-- A Piece of Wood (1952)
-- The Smile (1952)
-- The Murderer (1953) (FE)
-- The Garbage Collector (1953) (FE)
-- The Meadow (1953) (FE)
Fantasy
Loosely classified, October Country/Horror "Weird Tales"; includes Dark Fantasy and magic in contemporary American, Irish, and Mexican settings, magic in historical settings, allegory and fable in pseudo-historical settings, and action set in fantasy surroundings.
-- Hollerbochen's Dilemma (1938)
(Bradbury's FIRST published story, ANYWHERE, PERIOD. It's delightful to be able to report, NOT Science Fiction, though it DOES qualify as Fantasy in a modern-day or near-future setting.)
-- Hollerbochen Comes Back (1938)
(Haven't read it, but should qualify as Fantasy, especially if the main character can return at all after the first story!)
-- The Pendulum (1939)
-- Pendulum (1941) with Henry Hasse
-- The Candle (1942)
-- The Wind (1943)
-- The Crowd (1943)
-- The Scythe (1943)
-- Doodad (1943)
-- The Ducker (1943)
-- The Sea Shell (1944)
-- Reunion (1944)
-- There Was an Old Woman (1944)
-- Bang! You're Dead! (1944)
-- The Poems (1945)
-- The Dead Man (1945)
-- Skeleton (1945)
-- The Watchers (1945)
-- The Traveller (1946)
-- Her Eyes, Her Lips, Her Limbs (1946)[as William Elliott]
-- Lorelei of the Red Mist (1946) with Leigh Brackett (PNMV; of all I've read, this comes the closest to "high fantasy")
-- Homecoming (1946)
-- The Creatures That Time Forgot
[vt Frost and Fire] (1946) (PNMV)
-- The Man Upstairs (1947)
-- Interim (1947)
-- The Emissary (1947)
-- Uncle Einar (1947)
-- The Black Ferris (1948)
-- Pillar of Fire (1948)
-- The Undead Die (1948) with E. Everett Evans
-- Fever Dream (1948)
-- The Exiles
[vt The Mad Wizards of Mars] (1949) (Set on Mars but belongs much more in this category. See also "The Blue Bottle.")
-- The Blue Bottle
[vt Death-Wish] (1950) (Mars non-MC)
-- Prologue: The Illustrated Man (1951)
-- Bridge-passages, Untitled: The Illustrated Man (1951)
-- Epilogue: The Illustrated Man (1951)
-- The Fog Horn
[vt The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms] (1951)
-- The April Witch
[vt The Wandering Witch] (1952)
-- The Playground (1953)
-- A Scent of Sarsaparilla (1953)
-- Marvels and Miracles--Pass It On! (1955) (TT)
-- The Dragon (1955)
-- The Sunset Harp
[vt The Shoreline at Sunset] (1959)
-- Death and the Maiden (1960)
-- Nightmare Carousel (1962)
Mystery and Detective Fiction
-- The Long Night (1944)
-- The Trunk Lady (1944)
-- I'm Not So Dumb! (1945)
-- Hell's Half-Hour (1945)
-- The Long Way Home (1945)
Real or Unreal?
Difficult category for subjective stories with one main character--did it really happen (fantasy), was it all in the person's mind (psychology), or some combination, as of magic having effect through peoples' own beliefs?
-- Luana the Living (1940) (India)
The Irish Stories
A world unto themselves; Saints preserve us! Irish magic and ghost stories go under those categories with their setting noted.
-- The First Night of Lent (1956)
-- The Great Collision of Monday Last (1958)
-- A Wild Night in Galway (1959)
-- The Beggar on O'Connell Bridge
[vt The Beggar on the Dublin Bridge] (1961)
Strictly Psychological
Non-magic in contemporary American, "non-Heber Finn" Irish, and Mexican settings, giving insight into the human condition, including darker/heavier "Dandelion Wine" stories.
-- The Lake (1944) (--which Bradbury has called his "first really good story"--NOT Science Fiction.)
-- The Jar (1944)
-- The Big Black and White Game (1945) (His first story to gain national recognition--NOT Science Fiction!)
-- Invisible Boy (1945)
-- The Miracles of Jamie (1946)
-- The Electrocution (1946)[as William Elliot]
-- The Small Assassin (1946)
-- The Cistern (1947)
-- El Dia de Muerte (1947) (Mexico)
-- The Next in Line (1947) (Mexico)
-- Jack-in-the-Box (1947)
-- The October Game (1948)
-- Powerhouse (1948)
-- End of Summer (1948)
-- The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl
[vt Touch and Go] (1948)
-- The Whole Town's Sleeping (1950)
-- Season of Disbelief (1950)
-- The Last Night of the World (1951)
-- The Green Machine (1951)
-- These Things Happen
[vt A Story of Love] (1951)
-- The Screaming Woman (1951)
-- The Great Wide World Over There
[vt Cora and the Great Wide World] (1952)
-- The Tombling Day (1952)
-- A Flight of Ravens (1952)
-- Sun and Shadow (1953) (Mexico or South America)
-- Hail and Farewell (1953)
-- And So Died Riabouchinska (1953)
-- And the Rock Cried Out
[vt The Millionth Murder] (1953) (Probably South America but would go well in a collection with Mexico)
-- The Dwarf (1954)
-- Interval in Sunlight (1954) (Mexico)
-- The Watchful Poker Chip
[vt The Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse] (1954)
-- Touched with Fire
[vt Shopping for Death] (1954)
-- At Midnight, In the Month of June (1954)
-- The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone (1954)
-- The Picasso Summer
[vt In a Season of Calm Weather] (1957)
-- The Day It Rained Forever (1957)
-- The Tarot Witch (1957)
-- Almost the End of the World (1957)
-- The Town Where No One Got Off (1958)
-- The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit
[vt The Magic White Suit] (1958)
-- The Best of All Possible Worlds (1960)
-- Some Live Like Lazarus
[vt Very Late in the Evening] (1960)
Nostalgic (set in the past) or Sentimental (set in the present) Fiction
"Green Town" and "Dandelion Wine"-type stories set 1920 and after, relatively lighter/sweeter in tone if not necessarily in action. (For instance, "Calling Mexico," although someone dies at the end, is less grim than some in which everyone lives.)
-- One Timeless Spring (1946)
-- The Night (1946)
-- The Great Fire (1949)
-- The Window
[vt The Long Distance Telephone Call; Calling Mexico] (1950) (Set in 1920s Illinois but would belong in a collection with Mexico)
-- The Lawns of Summer (1952)
-- Love Contest (1952)[as Leonard Douglas]
-- Dandelion Wine (1953)
-- Dinner at Dawn (1954)
-- They Knew What They Wanted (1954)
-- The Swan (1954)
-- The Time Machine
[vt The Last, the Very Last] (1955)
-- The Trolley (1955)
-- The Sound of Summer Running
[vt Summer in the Air] (1956)
-- Illumination (1957)
-- The Leave-Taking
[vt Good-By, Grandma] (1957)
-- The Happiness Machine (1957)
-- Green Wine for Dreaming (1957)
-- Statues (1957)
-- Magic!
[vt Exorcism] (1957)
-- Dandelion Wine (Contains eighteen untitled "bridge-passages" which are not complete stories.) (1957)
-- And the Sailor, Home from the Sea
[vt Forever Voyage] (1960)
Historical Fiction
Non-fantasy in a realistic setting before 1920.
-- The Golden Kite, the Silver Wind (1953) (China)
-- The Drummer Boy of Shiloh (1960)
Stories I either haven't read or must at least look at again before classifying
-- How to Run a Successful Ghost Agency (1939)
-- Don't Get Technatal (1939)[as Ron Reynolds]
-- Gold (1939)
-- The Record (1939) with Forrest J. Ackerman
-- The Maiden of Jirbu (1940) with Bob Tucker
-- Tale of the Tortletwitch (1940)[as Guy Amory]
-- The Flight of the Good Ship Clarissa (1940)[anon.]
-- The Piper (1940)
-- The Last Man (1940)
-- It's Not the Heat, It's the Hu-- (1940)
-- The Tale of the Terrible Typer (1940)
-- Genie Trouble (1940)
-- How Am I Today, Doctor? (1941)
-- The Trouble With Humans is People (1941)
-- Tale of the Mangledomvritch (1941)
-- To Make a Long, Long Story Much, Much Shorter (1941)
-- Eat, Drink and Be Wary (1942)
-- And Watch the Fountains (1943)
-- The Monster Maker (1944)
-- I, Rocket (1944)
-- Killer, Come Back to Me! (1944)
-- Yesterday I Lived! (1944)
-- Morgue Ship (1944)
-- Half-Pint Homicide (1944)
-- It Burns Me Up! (1944)
-- Undersea Guardians (1944)
-- Four-Way Funeral (1944)
-- Lazarus Come Forth (1944)
-- The Tombstone (1945)
-- Skeleton (1945) (different than in "Dark Carnival")
-- Dead Men Rise Up Never (1945)
-- Corpse-Carnival (1945)[as D. R. Banat]
-- Final Victim (1946) with Henry Hasse -- The Smiling People (1946)
-- Defense Mech (1946)
-- Rocket Skin (1946)
-- Chrysalis (1946)
-- Let's Play "Poison" (1946)
-- The Coffin
[vt Wake for the Living] (1947)
-- The Handler (1947)
-- I See You Never (1947)
-- The Maiden (1947)
-- The Night Sets (1947)
-- Tomorrow and Tomorrow (1947)
-- The Candy Skull (1948)
-- Jonah of the Jove-Run (1948) (Mars non-MC)
-- The Square Pegs (1948) (PNMV)
-- The Women (1948)
-- The Lonely Ones (1949) (Mars non-MC)
-- Changeling (1949)
-- Holiday (1949)
-- A Blade of Grass (1949) (FE)
-- All on a Summer's Night (1950)
-- Payment in Full (1950)
-- The Rocket
[vt Outcast of the Stars] (1950)
-- Miss Bidwell
[vt A Faraway Guitar] (1950)
-- The Illustrated Man (1950)
-- The Bonfire (1950)
-- The Pumpernickel (1951)
-- A Little Journey (1951) (FE, OS)
-- The Wilderness (1952)
-- The Secret (1952)
-- En La Noche
[vt Torrid Sacrifice] (1952)
-- The Flying Machine (1953) (China)
-- Bullet With a Name (1953)
-- The Marriage Mender (1954)
-- The Little Mice
[vt The Mice] (1955)
-- The Time of Going Away (1956)
-- The Headpiece (1958)
-- A Medicine for Melancholy (1959)
-- The Illustrated Woman (1961)
-- With Smiles as Wide as Summer (1961)
-- A Miracle of Rare Device (1962)
-- Perhaps We Are Going Away (1962)
-- Tyrannosaurus Rex
[vt The Prehistoric Producer] (1962)
-- Getting Through Sunday Somehow
[vt Tread Lightly to the Music] (1962) (Ireland)
-- Boys! Raise Giant Mushrooms in Your Cellar!
[vt Come Into My Cellar] (1962)
-- The Machineries of Joy (1962)
-- Long After Midnight
[vt The Long-After-Midnight Girl] (1962)
-- To the Chicago Abyss (1963)
The Anthem Sprinters
[vt The Queen's Own Evaders] (1963)
Bright Phoenix (1963)
A Clear View of an Irish Mist (1963)
The Life Work of Juan Diaz (1963) (Mexico)
The Vacation (1963)
The Cold Wind and the Warm (1964)
Heavy-Set (1964)
The Kilemanjaro Device
[vt The Kilimanjaro Machine] (1965)
Any Friend of Nicholas Nickleby's Is a Friend of Mine
[vt The Best of Times] (1966)
The Blue Flag of John Folk (1966)
The Dragon Danced at Midnight
[vt The Year the Glop-Monster Won the Golden Lion at Cannes] (1966)
The Man in the Rorschach Shirt (1966)
The Lost City of Mars (1967) (Mars non-MC)
Downwind from Gettysberg (1969)
The Haunting of the New (1969)
Henry the Ninth
[vt A Final Sceptre, a Lasting Crown] (1969) (England)
I Sing the Body Electric!
[vt The Beautiful One Is Here] (1969)
The Inspired Chicken Motel
[vt The Inspired Chicken Bungalow Court] (1969)
The Terrible Conflagration Up at the Place (1969)
Yes, We'll Gather at the River (1969)
The Messiah (1971)
The Utterly Perfect Murder
[vt My Perfect Murder] (1971)
Christ, Old Student in a New School (1972)
McGillahee's Brat (1972) (Ireland)
The Parrot Who Met Papa (1972)
Have I Got a Chocolate Bar for You! (1973)
The Wish (1973)
The Better Part of Wisdom (1976) (Ireland)
The Burning Man (1976)
Darling Adolf (1976)
Drink Entire: Against the Madness of Crowds (1976)
G.B.S.-Mark V (1976)
Gotcha! (1978)
The Aqueduct (1979)
Farewell Summer (1980)
The Last Circus (1980)
A Touch of Petulance (1980)
Colonel Stonesteel's Genuine Home-Made Truly Egyptian Mummy (1981)
The Love Affair (1982) (Mars non-MC)
Besides a Dinosaur, Whatta Ya Wanna Be When You Grow Up? (1983)
Banshee (1984) (Ireland)
The Enemy in the Wheat (1984)
At Midnight, in the Month of June (1988)
Bless Me Father, for I Have Sinned (1988)
By the Numbers! (1988)
Come, and Bring Constance! (1988)
I Suppose You Are Wondering Why We Are Here? (1988)
Junior (1988)
Lafayette Farewell (1988)
The Laurel and Hardy Love Affair (1988)
Long Division (1988)
On the Orient, North (1988) (France)
One Night in Your Life (1988)
One for His Lordship, and One for the Road! (1988)
Promises, Promises (1988)
The Thing at the Top of the Stairs (1988)
The Toynbee Convector (1988)
Trapdoor (1988)
West of October (1988)
The Troll (1991)
From the Dust Returned (1994)
Last Rites (1994)
Unterseeboot Doktor (1994)
Another Fine Mess (1995)
Dorian in Excelsis (1995)
Once More Legato (1995)
Quicker than the Eye (1995)
The Witch Door (1995)
The Finnegan (1996)
That Woman on the Lawn (1996)
Driving Blind (1997)
Mr. Pale (1997) (OS; Death on way to Mars)
The Offering (1997)
Pilgrimage (1999)
The Laurel & Hardy Alpha Centauri Farewell Tour (2000)
Quid Pro Quo (2000)
Overkill (2000)
Fore! (2001)
First Day (2002)
After the Ball (2002)
In Memoriam (2002)
Tete-a-Tete (2002)
The Nineteenth (2002)
Beasts (2002)
Autumn Afternoon (2002)
Where All Is Emptiness There Is Room to Move (2002)
One-Woman Show (2002)
Leftovers (2002)
One More for the Road (2002)
Tangerine (2002)
My Son, Max (2002)
The F. Scott/Tolstoy/Ahab Accumulator (2002)
Well, What Do You Have to Say for Yourself? (2002)
Diane de Foret (2002)
The Cricket on the Hearth (2002)
[This message has been edited by dandelion (edited 07-11-2003).]