hello all im new here .. my name is sandy... and for starters does any one know what the story "the lake " is about...
a little about my self i just got out of collage and i work at a surf shop and help run ski and snowboard trips for teen highschool groups.. i got into Ray when I picked up the book Fahernheit 451 on top of a locker at my high-school ... ever sence then i have read hundreds of stories and read a bunch of books and even got a bruning book tatoo that says never let them burn.... kind of stupid but hey i was in collage .. .. thank you and hope to get to know all better...

Sandy,
Where are you from?
"The Lake" is based on a true story that happened to Mr. Bradbury.

"When I was around eight I was down at Lake Michigan. I was playing with a little girl making sand castles, and she went into the water and never came out. When you're eight years old and that happens, what a mystery that is! Well, she never did come out-they never found her. So that mystery stayed with me, an encounter with death."
-Ray Bradbury

He also says that it was his first good story after trying for ten years, crying when he finished it. He wrote it in 1942.

[This message has been edited by From Greentown Illinois (edited 04-01-2004).]

Well, I NEVER heard THAT before in my LIFE! What I heard was it was inspired by the near-drowning of a cousin of his, but not whether Ray was actually present or just heard about it from others.

A similar childhood incident happened to Stephen King. When he was four years old, his mother, who was raising him alone, always let him play with this other little boy. I guess she picked him up there, but one day found Steve home with no explanation. She was very upset that he'd been allowed such a long and potentially dangerous walk by himself and tried to call the other boy's mother, but no answer. Later they found Steve's friend had been struck by a train, and was so mangled they had to pick up the pieces in a peach basket. Steve has no recollection of what happened, so they don't know if he was present and witnessed the accident, arrived after it happened and left unnoticed, or whether he pushed the other kid under the train! In any case, like Ray, he was marked for life!

There was a man who was one of the last passengers on the "Hindenburg" to survive. All the survivors jumped--by the time that thing hit the ground anyone left was toast. This man broke a leg in the fall, but had a signal of whistles to alert his servant man. The servant was luckily unhurt, and managed to pull the injured man away from the burning wreckage. The man said the incident had no effect on his life whatsoever--his life went on after as it had before--with no dramatic change. This is the difference between when something happens to a creative, reflective person and an oblivious idiot.

Dandelion,
It's straight from the mouth of Mr. Bradbury on the interview CD with him that was made for the Gauntlet Edition of "Dark Carnival" AND it is included as his forward to the story in said book.
Why do I always have to defend these Dark Carnival quotes?
Greentown

I believe there is a reference to this in bio "American Icon" also. Something may also be stated on the cd that accompanied the Dark Carnival, Gauntlet copy as well (or some other tape with a bit of RB interview). I have heard/read this in a couple of different sources.

[This message has been edited by fjpalumbo (edited 04-02-2004).]

I'll admit to not having read the full "Dark Carnival" book or listened to the CD. Wanted to wait till I could give them my full attention--and when does anything ever get my full attention?--but I had honestly never heard before that it was an actual drowning, whether the victim was a relative or not. I'd heard only "near-drowning of a cousin" and don't remember whether it was in more than one source.

thanks everybody wow thats amazing.... i happy i know now what it is about...
I am form Fairfax VA, USA....
many thanks


[This message has been edited by whateverfloatsyourboat (edited 04-03-2004).]

No need to have a special edition of Dark Carnival. An almost exact quote appears in the foreword to a Del Rey paperback edition of The October Country.

By the way, there's a brand new spanish translation of One More for the Road. The title is Algo m�s en el equipaje.
An image of the cover is at: http://www.altocity.com/images/prod/10/10055/9505470711_xl.jpg (Note the big watermark A is not part of it)

The back cover reads (my translation):
"Only Bradbury can make us... Savour the sweet innocence of youth, the wisdom -and madness- of maturity; taste a summer's warm mysteries, and the bitterness of betrayed love or abandoned places; travel to a house where time has no frontiers, and to a far-away planet afflicted by an epidemic of sadness; feel the addictive terror caused by a mysterious expected phone call; watch the wandering souls of loved ones... Only Ray Bradbury can offer us literary experiences as varied and as suggesting as these. This all new collection lets us enjoy once more some of the best stories from the undisputed master of 20th century short fiction."

I guess no more needs to be said.
diego


[This message has been edited by Mulder (edited 04-03-2004).]

Decided to add to this discussion rather than start a new post on "The Lake."

There are two different versions of the origins of this story, the one that as a child Ray witnessed the near-drowning of a cousin in Lake Michigan, and the other about Ray's playmate actually drowning.

On reading the story for the umpteenth time, I wondered about the discovery of a body underwater after ten years or so. Wouldn't it have fallen apart? With or without a locket (a later addition) would it be intact and recognizable as human, let alone a girl?

The other day this discovery http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adipocere put me in mind of "The Lake" again. Pictures are available online, but are not for the squeamish. Suffice to say I'm now quite convinced that a body can be preserved in water for many years, in many cases moreso than on dry land. As for its not being discovered for so long--one of the subjects in the pictures was in a CAR--and that wasn't discovered for seven years. So a body in water in the quantity of Lake Michigan? No problem. Should not have doubted Ray.

In case I didn't say it before, this is to ask again whether anyone has investigated drownings in Lake Michigan in 1927-1928, specifically of young girls aged 6-10 who disappeared from the Waukegan area. If the girl was just an acquaintance, it may be impossible to prove a connection to Ray, but it might at least be possible to prove such an incident and also learn whether the body was recovered.

Thank you for refreshing this conversation, Dandelion.I wonder if watching someone be hurt or die has more impact than actually experiencing it themselves, or perhaps it was the age at which the trauma occurred. Some people (like me! Ha!) tend to hold on to painful things longer, unable to attain emotional resolution. I think writers who are able to accurately develop emotion in their stories may have a reservoir, so to speak, of deep emotions from which to draw. Writers retreat into their thoughts (Well, at least I do.), and sometimes writing is an effective outlet for cumbersome emotions that haunt. In a previous post, it was suggested that Ray cried after writing The Lake. Lingering unresolved pain that found its release? I think so.