Is there a Ray Bradbury story out there that involves the use of advanced social networking of some kind, whether computer based, or telepathic or other futuristic model? Hopefully the story utilizes this networking to advance the plot in a interesting, even dark dystopian way?

quote:

Originally posted by wmelnick:
Is there a Ray Bradbury story out there that involves the use of advanced social networking of some kind, whether computer based, or telepathic or other futuristic model? Hopefully the story utilizes this networking to advance the plot in a interesting, even dark dystopian way?

There is the book, Yestermorrow, which is a compilation of Ray's essays on urban planning and architectural design.

Hi wmelnick, and welcome to the Board.

"Social networking" is a difficult one. It seems to me that we only talk about "social networking" in the modern sense - Myspace, Facebook, etc - because "sociality" is a relatively new dominant activity on the web.

But away from the web, isn't much of human acitivity "social networking"? Whenever two people meet, they converse. This is social networking, right? But because it is so fundamental, we never had a particular name for it.

So in this latter sense, much of RB's fiction is about social networking.

However, I suspect you may be curious as to whether RB foresaw, predicted, or commented on the online kind of social networking. I can't really think of any story that directly addresses this. The closest I can think of is Fahrenheit 451, in which people interact with their TV and take part in TV dramas. We imagine a substantial part of the population taking part, so it is a social activity, and it is mediated through a screen.

Bradbury's attitude in this story is scathing. The interactivity and social aspect is portrayed as a poor, surface imitation of the real intellectual joys of true creative storytelling.

You could argue that "The Veldt" also offers an oblique insight into modern social networking: it shows two kids who become quite obsessed with a kind of virtual reality environment. Their parents disapprove to some degree, and certainly don't understand their kids' behaviour. Of course, they pay the price for being such bad parents...

The is also a bizarre kind of social networking in "I, Mars" (also known as "Night Call, Collect"). In this case, a man networks with HIMSELF - he is the only man on the planet mars, and over a period of decades he has wired it up with answering machines so he can hold conversations with his younger self. (It doesn't do to analyse the logic of this story!) Again, the networking is artificial and a poor substitute for the real thing, except this man has no choice in the matter, being the only person left on the planet.

Generally, Bradbury in his fiction is skeptical of machines (broadly defined). Although they can do marvellous things, they come a poor second to direct human relations. The only machines he ever seems to be positive about are time machines, although even these can bring misfortune.

Thanks so much Phil and John! The book Yestermorrow seems to be sold out, I will have to wait for that one. I was looking to see whether RB foresaw the Internet kind of social networking and would have been disappointed if he didn't see the sinister side of this type of interface. The Veldt is a great story, we teach that in high school english quite often. I will look for the I Mars story.

Thanks again,

Wendy

Wendy,

Ray sees the sinister side of the internet...as he did with TV in F451. As I have observed before, Ray is a social animal and thinks that any technology that isolates us is bad. Of course, not all of us have had the honor of dining with Pierre Salinger and Walter Cronkite while sitting at a sidewalk cafe in Paris. But he believes that face-to-face is better than Facebook. Even with an e-book, it just cannot smell like mummy dust as an old book does.