Ray Bradbury Hompage    Ray Bradbury Forums    Forums  Hop To Forum Categories  Imported Forums  Hop To Forums  Inspired by Ray?    A Brighter Room

Moderators: dandelion, philnic
Go
New
Find
Notify
Tools
Reply
  
A Brighter Room
 Login/Join
 
posted
“My Demon warned me one night years ago when I saw some glum theater at UCLA. Later I said to the director, "You want me to stick my wet finger in a wall socket for electrocution. Instead I will screw a brighter bulb in the same socket and light the room.”
--Ray Bradbury

When I returned from South East Asia in early 1969, I saw in the magazine rack next to the couch, an issue of The Saturday Evening Post containing an installment of the story “True Grit” by Charles Portis with a great illustration showing the heroine with a broken arm trapped in a rattle snake pit. Read it. Bought the book and read it. Went to NYC with my uncle and saw the movie. Loved it.

In the late 1800’s Cyrus H. Curtis purchased the Post and eventually hired George Horace Lorimer to edit it. The editorial policy for the covers of the magazine was “to show the cheerier side of American life”. Anyone fortunate enough to see a collection of Post covers will see that that is what they did, decade after decade. And it wasn’t just the Post that did this. For some reason, almost all of the other “weekly” magazines did the same. “The cheerier side of American life.”

And each of these weekly magazines with the cheery covers contained a bunch of short stories. Some of Ray’s best were originally published this way.

But there were movies and then radio and then TV and slowly the market for short stories dried up. And this type of weekly magazine disappeared. Today there are I-pods and video games and computers, oh, my! And you can’t go to your mailbox once a week and get a smile from a cheery magazine cover anymore (more than likely--though I’ve been spared--a weekly to your analyst or psyc.).

I fear that we’re doomed never to see that happy magazine cover/short story combination again but authors like Ray keep plugging away and teachers in schools still introduce the stories and the students keep writing in to forums such as this.

I think that lights up the room a little.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Chapter 31,
 
Posts: 861 | Location: Manchester CT | Registered: 13 August 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
posted Hide Post
"There are smiles that make us happy..."
"Let a smile be your umbrella..."
"When you're smilin', when you're smilin'..."
"I've got a shine on my shoes, and a melody in my heart..."
"It's a hap-hap-happy day..."
"Let the sunshine in, take it with a grin..."
"When the red, red, robin comes bob-bob-bobbin' along..."

All just off the top of my head. Not much like this in our culture's songbook today, my friend.
 
Posts: 3167 | Location: Box in Braling I's cellar | Registered: 02 July 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
posted Hide Post
"What a glorious feelin',
I'm happy again."
 
Posts: 861 | Location: Manchester CT | Registered: 13 August 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
posted Hide Post
Chap, Hearkening back to your original post, that is Post covers, Norman Rockwell, of course epitomized the "cheerier side of American life” theme. I wonder if Mr. B ever met him?

ImageRockwell-Surprise.jpg (33 Kb, 7 downloads)
 
Posts: 3167 | Location: Box in Braling I's cellar | Registered: 02 July 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
posted Hide Post
Good question. Rockwell is my favorite out of all the magazine illustrators but the Post had lots more and they came up with the same kind of stuff. Unfortunately very few people are aware of them any more. But yeah, Rockwell is the main man.

I’ve attached below, a composite photo that includes Rockwell’s "Surprise" and one taken in Afghanistan.
**
After reviewing this post I find that the pictures are displayed so large that you don’t get the proper perspective. I recommend copying the composite to a file so you can view it all at once. Sorry about the problem.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Chapter 31,

ImageTeacher_Two-2.JPG (182 Kb, 11 downloads)
 
Posts: 861 | Location: Manchester CT | Registered: 13 August 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
posted Hide Post
Actually, on my screen they came up just fine. A little 'expand/contract' gizmo appears off to the right to make it bigger or smaller.
Great juxtaposition! Even the colours are similar.
 
Posts: 3167 | Location: Box in Braling I's cellar | Registered: 02 July 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
posted Hide Post
Chapter 31 said:
quote:
I fear that we’re doomed never to see that happy magazine cover/short story combination again


This gave us an idea at Adventure Books. We researched the cost of publishing a one-hundred page (average) magazine in perfect-bound on a quarterly basis. We found it was not only cost-effective, but we will be able to make it a PAYING magazine, as well.

Check in at Adventure Books of Seattle in a couple of weeks and see the News and Updates page.

Short stories, sci fi and horror, articles, and illustrated.

Later edit: The staff put their heads together and came up with a title and a first cover. 'Escape Velocity-The Magazine of Science Fiction and Horror'

(LOL) Sometimes when we get inspiration, we move pretty quickly on it...

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Robert M Blevins,
 
Posts: 349 | Location: Seattle, Washington State, USA | Registered: 20 July 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
  Powered by Social Strata  
 

Ray Bradbury Hompage    Ray Bradbury Forums    Forums  Hop To Forum Categories  Imported Forums  Hop To Forums  Inspired by Ray?    A Brighter Room