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he world's most popular

deleted)s on the left and the jerks on the right."

living science-fiction
author, Ray Bradbury is

a man of vast intelligence, ego, and opinion-and is equally generous sharing all three.

Ihe

outspnken

Unquestionably, his dozens of books, hundreds of short stories, countless scripts and plays, and even an opera or two attest to his durable vision.

Bradbury, 72,lives in Los Angeles with his wife of 45 years, Marguerite; the couple have five grown daughters. No retirement in sight, Bradbury remains as active as a chemical reaction: He writes each script for the USA Network anthology series Tfue Ray Bradbury Theater,

science fictinn

Bradbury's anthologies and novels date back to

such genre classics as The

adapting his own short stories. His musical, Dandelion Wine, written with composerJimmy Vebb, opened in Florida last March. And an opera
version of Falu'enheit 451,

lruriter disrusses

Martian Chronicles ltlSO),

The lllustrated Man (1951), and Fahrenheit 451 (1953).

written with

composer

David Mattee and lyricist

Ceorgia Holof, premiered shortly thereafter.

spa[0 travel,
Ameilcan

More recent works include

Creen Shadows,

White

As for what the future

holds, only Bradbury knows.

Whale (1992), a romart a cleJ

about his tempestuous Irish sojourn to write the screen-

justice, attd fte

play for John Huston's

Moby Dick, and Yestermorrow (1991), a collection of

AVI: Do you haue hightech toys like laserdisc players and a rnicrowAue ouett at
honte?

vider revrlutiun

essays

on art, architecture,
RAY BRADBURY, Yeah, we do. My youngest daugh-

fiction, and the future.

Yet beyond his stature as

the grandfatherly dean of science-fiction writers, Bradbury also brings to

bear a surprising cantankerousness, a fearless,

ter brought a lot of

these

things into the houselaserdisc player, microwave

if

oven, fax machine, photocopy machine, answer-

perhaps impolitic, willingness to brand public figures he deems deserving as "criminals" and "dishonest jerks." In a wide-ranging interview, Bradbury spoke candidly and provocatively on topics ranging from the new Freedom Space Sta-

ing machine. It's wonderfull I've come into the

20th century because of herl She's always saying, "You're the great science-fiction writer, right? So, you'd better act like onel" (laughs)

tion to AIDS, Bill Clinton, Robert Bork, and (shades of Ross Perot) a political party he
dreams of starting, The Road Runners, so named

AVIr Do you watch

laserdisc mouies?

for the political animal "between the (expletive

RB: A few. Ve watch tapes, mainly. Ve have hundreds of those, because I'm a real movie buff.

30

RuorolVrDEo INrERroRs

tlIItlll$
I've seen tens of thousands of films, and I collect the great ones. I have all the films of Billy Vilder, David Lean, people like that. I started going to films with my mother when I was 2 years old, back in the silent period. I've seen just about every movie made until about 15 years ago, when they started making films I hated. So much trash these days. Not that there wasn't trash in 1930, but it was kinda nice trash, y'know? lt wasn't violent, it wasn't bloody, it wasn't sexual. Little overtones here and there, but nothing graphic.

Vhat if anything will come from this is still

highly speculative.l AYI: How about the uideophone? RB: Vho wants it? lt's one of those stupid to look at each

ideas, that people really want

"lhe

other when they talk on the phone. Vell, I'm

uider

not sure they do. Maybe it's just for young

lovers, you think? (laughs)

reurlution is uery exdting hecause il

lnoalts relailuely

AVI: Do you
uersing information

euer use a computer network, con-

AYI I guess Terminator 2 wasn't one of your

fauorites.

with others uia modem or downloading from databas es ?

RB: Vell, it's brilliantly put together.

frue access

lr

admire the techniques. But there's not an idea in that idiot head, which is a shame. It looks wonderful, though.

the gruatesl films

AVI: As in histrry"

flm

buff who has seen the

tech-

nology euolue from silent mouies to laserdiscs, how do you uiew the current state of home theater?

RB: I don't have a computer! fComputer networking] is idiot stuff, but people are gonna do it, young men especially; all men ate crazy, young men are totally crazy. And because of them, these things get invented and used and the world changes. But a lot of the time, the computer is a huge influence on the world, a good influence mostly, making life easier.

AVI: 1r3 kind of ironic that you don't

RB: The video revolution is very exciting
because
aduantage of a word processor, isn't it?

take

it

means relatively free access

to the RB: You don't need a computer. If you're doing a long novel and want to put it on the
computer for editing, that's swell, but you don't need it for day-to-day things. I type 120 words per minute, which is first class, and I don't make that many mistakes. These people who want to play around, doing transitions along the way, they are not writers. I don't do that. Cet the work done! And then you make the changes, and it's not that much bother. How difficult is it to retype a page, really? I've been typing on paper for 60 years; you can't break that habit.

greatest films

in history. Anyone can form

their own film society tomorrow afternoon and run the greatest films in history every
night. That's very exciting.

AYl What\

your take on upcoming things like

electric cars or uideophones?

RB: Vell, if there isn't profit in it, it won't happen. Vith the electric car, you've got the gasoline industry, which is worldwide;

the Arabs are going to kill that off alone.

So, that's not going to happen, not in my life-

time, not in yours. There's no profit in it. fNote: A month after this interview, auto manufacturers Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors revealed they were discussing plans to jointly build electric cars, primarily to
meet several states' 1998 clean-air deadlines for a percentage of "zero-emission vehicles."
3

AYh Computers

haut: giuen rise to databases

such as TRW, which warehouses our credit his-

tory Jbr banks, employers, and hackers to see, oJten with the wrong inJbrmation. And now the insurance industry has a Medical In-f<tnnatiou Bureau that warehousts our ostt:nsihly confi-

dcntial mcdiral rcrords-

Auoro/VrDEo INrERloRs

#4q'

A
tWS

RB: There's nothing wrong with that. You shouldn't be allowed to have insurance if you're criminally hiding something you shouldn't hide. I have nothing against anyone knowirrg my complete background. If you're an honest person, and you've had a disease, tell the insurance company.

AVI: Ler's iltrn to spacc trauel. There's becn much talk recently about doutn.sizing the Freedom Space Station. Is the station ualuable, or
a
boondoggle?

"0ut

whrle

smiely is run hy

AYI: Actually, that's ttrtt the issue; it's about irrsuranrc companies giviug traditionally utnfidential medical records to a data warelrcusc, wltere others cart access it. RB: There's nothing wrong with that either. There should be no confidentiality. I mean, what is there to hide?
AYlz People with AIDS, Jbr exanrple, mighr be afraid the stigma would preuent their getting
a

RB: Oh, god, it's so hard to tell. Space travel is worthwhile, going to Mars is worthwhile, so are a lot of the other projects that I think are necessary for the human spirit. I mean, the night we landed on the moon, the whole world cried, didn't it? There was no profit in

that, but there was profit for the human

heart. And that's what space travel is about. \Ze're looking for ways to join the various races and countries of the world, and space travel is one way of doing it. AYI; Reaping short-term results
issue?
is

telilisinn, which
scares tls elJery

week with sme new disease

just a side

job if the employer kneru.

RB: I hate the Teflon thinkers fthose who cite

rr

the

latest alflictitn

"

RB: Vell, they have to know, if you're going to affect other people, if you're going
to horse around on the job, regardless of what disease you have. You don't want to give tuberculosis to someone that's working with you. You have to give that information, just as I would tell someone interviewing me if I were

the invention of Teflon as a tangible result of the space program]. No, going to Mars will not make Teflon for the kitchen, it's going to make blood for the human heart. The end product a
thousand years from now will be survival out in

the universe for the whole human race. AYlz Indced, out' stttt will almttst certnirrly
fioua sofiteday.
,qtt

in some stage of tuberculosis

AYI: But lteart
disease artd canrcr,-fitr in stanct'
,

aren't conlmltnicable.

RB, Or it could die and we'd freeze to

death. So we've got to move out. And we can

RB: And AIDS is, at a certain stage.

AYI; Wtat? But.,.

RB: But the thing is, people overreact. Ve're panic-stricken society. Our whole society is a run by television, which scares us every week with some new disease or the latest affliction, which is drive-by gang shootings. And then they go to see Mrs. Rodriguez and ask, "How does it feel to know they shot your son to death

concentrate our energies or-r being unitcd nations in space, because we're certainly not doing well with it on earth, are we? The United Nations hasn't done a thirrg in 45 years. They've only begun to act dr.rring thc last year. They're totally inefficient, and a
bunch of cowards, and the United States winds up doing most of the work for them.

AVI: I take it you haue rto lost loue .fltr

politicians? RB: I know very few I like. I've known Robert

in the front yard, tell us about it, huh?" Vell,

c'mon! Every night, on local and national TV, that's the thing to be scared about.
3

Packwood frepublican senator from Oregorr]

INTERToRS

Auoro/ Vroro

flr';{S r' -i- .rr

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tlItl/ll$
during the last five or six years. They're giving him trouble now. IPackwood is the subject of an investigation into alleged sexual harassment of women, dating back several years.l They're after him with this harassment charge. C'mon, if life isn't harassing women and men every day of your life, it's
not worth living. That's what our love lives are

all about. Past a certain point, of course, is decorum and manners. But to attack a very nice man like Packwood with things that
happened 20 years ago? C'mon. It's a dread-

"We

ily

peoplo,

hut we don'l tlse th0 [0tlrl$ 0f lal,ll; tllle tl$e

ful age where things that ancient are brought Ve try people, but we don't use the courts law, of we use television to ruin reputations. Putting Bork on trial on TV, come on, that should never have been on the air. You don't ruin a person's reputation.
up.

AYI:Judge Bork wasn't in an actual trial,

positions. Many people feel that open airing

oJ

course, but a Senate hearing, held for all top-leuel

oJ

the process is essential to our democratic systetn.

televisiln

lt

ruin

roptllalto]ls.

RB: Except you had criminals trying Bork! You had Gddy Kennedy fdemocratic senator from Massachusetts], who's a criminal, and

[Joseph] Biden Idemocratic senator from Delawarel, who is a dishonest jerk. Allowing them to be on the jury for a trial which shouldn't
have been a trial-l hope the American people

learn from that not to trust the senators. INofer

Bradbury uses hyperbole in discttssing Senator Kennedy, who was inuolued in a highly puhlicized auto accident many years ago
been charged

in which

his

companion droumed; Senator Kennedy has neuer

with a

crime.)

I care for my country. But I don't care who's president. I don't belong to any political party anymore. I gave up on that. I'm forming a new political party called The Road Runners,

between the fexpletive deleted]s on the left and the jerks on the right.

AVI: Is this an actual ,

su'ious projtd?

RB: Vell, I talk about it all the timel