You can read the extended version of the story of my entry into Bradbury's universe: http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north19.html

It started with "Dimension X." I was in the third grade. Someone told me about a radio show that had stories about . . . what? I don't know if the words "science fiction" were mentioned. Probably not. But I tuned in. I never really tuned out. I also listened to "X Minus One" years later. I did not understand that these were dramas from stories published in specialized magazines. That insight came two years later.

I heard "The Veldt" that night. It was quintessential Bradbury. It was a story about a fantasy world created by youthful participants through technology. Bradbury had the same ability, but with not much technology: a typewriter and paper. That radio show served as my virtual reality walls. I could no more stay out of that fantasy room -- a room created by radio -- than those children could. Bradbury's stories were the ones that grabbed me tighest in 1949. My memory of listening to "Mars is Heaven" still unnerves me.

I cannot write fiction. Yet I ask myself: "What is different about Bradbury?" All I can say is that there is something about Bradbury's style that is haunting. He is the literary master of science fiction, the 24-karat king of the golden age. I cannot tell you precisely why why I think this, but it has something to do with his poetry without rhyme, his imahination, and his creation of deliberate fantasy worlds that are emotionally irresistible. Once in his veldt, I could not stay away.