Ray Bradbury published I See You Never I believe in 1947 in the November issue of The New Yorker. For those of you guys who haven't read, its about a man Mr. Ramirez who is to be deported back to a city noth of Mexico City and never gets to see his land lady, Mrs. O'Brian. I was just wondering what everyone's inputs is on the story and what they think of it. Its difficult to part with someone that you are use to seeing or knowning they will be near by everyday. What do you guys think Bradbury's intentions where or how would it link to his past. I mean did anyone ever abandon him when he was young? I tried to make a link but my mind was going blank when i was drawing to any conclusions.

The story is collected in the new anthology: "Bradbury: 100 of his most Celebrated Tales".

I don't know how to answer your questions. I'm not sure how to link it to his past.

I would guess the intention might be to convey the sense of sadness we feel when someone who is a part of our lives will no longer be in our lives. Mr. Ramirez seemed to feel this loss almost immediately as he leaves. He inarticulately states it (I won't see you ever again) as "I see you never." Mrs. O'brien (the landlady) is sad, but it isn't until she sits down to dinner (almost immediately) and takes a bite of her food. She stares at the closed door, and puts her utensils down, and realizes she will never see him again.

Mr. Ramirez will lose a home and family...the way he looks at the house, the kids, Mrs. O'Brien, and smells the pies (that are described as being like his skin and eyes), show that he sees this as a secure and happy place. Mrs. O'Brien remembers a visit she had made to where he will be going and the imagery is all barren -- heat, dead crickets and rabbits, slow horses, dirt roads, scorched landscapes. It looks like Mr. Ramirez is leaving heaven and going to a wasteland.

It's only three pages long, but it is an interesting little story.

No one ever abandoned Ray when he was a child. However, Ray uses his life experiences in his fiction. As he notes in his introduction to THE STORIES OF RAY BRADBURY, "As a young man, I lived in a tenement in the Chicano section of Los Angeles. Most of my Latino stories were written years after I had moved from the tenement..."

"I See You Never" is also fascinating from a publication perspective. Out of the hundreds of stories Ray has submitted to the New Yorker over the decades, this is the only story the magazine ever bought. Apparently, literati snobbery came in to play soon thereafter.

"When I sold that story," Ray said, "I thought I was going to be a "New Yorker" writer. I was wrong."

As most of you Bradbury scholars out there will recall, "I See You Never" was also selected for the 1948 "Best American Short Stories of the Year" collection.

It's a great story!

sorry about the double thred.

It seems almost from a literary history context that the story takes place at the same time he wrote the story. Mr. Ramirez worked on WWII airplanes, and 1947 was near the ending of the war.

It seems to me as if Bradbury was almost a contemporary write at the time more than science fiction.

I agree with Sam. This is a great story, often overlooked, I think, when people talk about Ray's stories. I can see why the New Yorker published the story, and it was chosen as one of the best of its year of publication; it seems to, more than any of this other stories, fit into the "literary" requirements of the magazine. It's proof Ray is/was capable of writing "literary" stories yet chose his own path. Too bad the editors of The New Yorker and their like chose to exclude him from their magazines. (I understand they print Stephen King stories now. My, how the world turns!)