Perfecting the P.S.

P.S. the postscript of a letter can be a powerful tool for writers who want to leave a lasting impact: The author of Letters Of Note, Shaun Usher, told the Wall Street Journal: “The P.S. is the most charming part of a letter. It’s the wink you give as you walk away.” Ray Bradbury turns to the postscript to invest his reader and create a lasting impression with his writing that can stand the test of time even when his predictions in the body of his letter fail. 

Ray Bradbury started writing at age twelve and sold his first book at 22. His early inspiration was Poe, whose themes of light and dark imagery representing good and evil had an ever-present hold on his work. However, instead of using these themes for macabre, Bradbury used them to make social commentary. His arguably most popular book Fahrenheit 451, talks about the dangers of technology, specifically how humans can become addicted to television.

Bradbury’s work emphasized a distrust of the media and the want to rely on human interaction rather than interactions with technology. He uses light and dark imagery to teach a lesson about when society expects people to be ignorant and conform. One still must search for knowledge. 

Bradbury gained a large following due to his writing and didn’t have a secretary at the time, meaning that he was responding to all his letters “200 a week” himself. One of his faithful fans was Brian Sibley, whose fear of technology and becoming subservient to the media was informed by Faherheit 451 and continued by the movie Westworld. To Sibley, the robot workers from Westworld could be easily linked to the new animatronics being used in Disneyland, and Sibley to Bradbury for sympathy. It would be easy to expect the author behind the media causing Sibley’s fear, but that is not the case with Ray Bradbury. In response to Brian Sibley’s letter of fear, Bradbury wrote an adamant defense of Walt Disney’s vision and the animatronics titled I Am Not Afraid Of Robots. 

Disneyland is a place associated with magic and fantasy. People use it as a vice to escape mundane life, but Bradbury wanted Disneyland to be just the beginning. Bradbury’s ethos towards Disney is strong, claiming that “while the rest of us were talking about the future, he built it.” Bradbury also said that Disney was so ahead of his time “it will take 50 years to catch it.” Since Bradbury wrote the letter in 1974, that is only two years away. However, Bradbury’s claims that the world would catch up to Disneyland couldn’t be more wrong. Bradbury’s vision of people connecting and making “democracy work creatively because we will KNOW the people vote for” isn’t possible when all candidates are forced to make black-and-white decisions based on their political party. Everything we know about politicians is what we see on T.V., and we create a predetermined stance based on our political parties. 

Bradbury’s beautiful idea that “there are no true conservatives, liberals, etc., in the world. Only people” couldn’t be further from the truth. However, our society was not the world Bradbury was picturing. Our world, sadly, is quite similar to the books Bradbury wrote to us as a warning. While writing this letter, Bradbury also worked on his screenplay for Something Wicked This Way Comes. In his story, evil thrives off people’s self-hatred and dies when confronted with love and laughter. Every Disney story I know also emphasizes how love and happiness can defeat evil. Similarly every Ray Bradbury story, the darkness is beaten when the characters find happiness. It’s clear why Bradbury’s support of Disneyland is so strong. He believes that the happiness and joy it can bring will combat the ever-present darkness in everyone’s life. He idolizes the idea of Disneyland and not the reality that it becomes. Today a trip to Disneyland is costly and unaffordable. People who pay more get to cut in lines, and rather than it being a place where everyone is on their best behavior, they think the money they spend allows for their entitlement. 

So the question then becomes, what is the validity of Disney and Bradbury’s work? If Disneyland, instead of combating “the darkness,” as Bradbury would say, feeds into the system that perpetuates it, what can it teach us? Why does Bradbury’s work retain value if we have already fallen victim to what he was trying to warn us about and have not completed his vision of a better future? The answer lies in the final postscript. 

Bradbury finally addresses Sibley’s fear of Robots with many rhetorical questions. To emphasize that “any robot is the sum total of the ways we use it.” Comparing Sibley’s fear of Robots to books, cars, and theaters uses repetition to raise the age-old question of how we are supposed to have anything nice when humans always seem to misuse it. Well, Bradbury’s answer is we learn to “create with it” instead of fearing it because even inhumane objects can be used to produce human truths. Bradbury’s goal in all of his work: his letters, his books, his movies, etc. is to help people remain human. He is “afraid of people” because he can’t keep them human. Bradbury knows he won’t be around forever to remind people to fight against the darkness. Still, his books will be there, the technology will be there, and Disneyland will be there to provide a bit of happiness in a dark work, as further expressed by the line “I can help keep them human with the wise and lovely use of books, films, robots, and my mind, hand and heart.” Finally, after defending robots against Sibley’s fears, Bradbury admits some of his own. Again, Bradbury uses repetition to make his point by listing various groups in conflict and his fear of one group “and vice versa .”I want to add that since so often the job of the postscript is to create a lasting impact, his use of repetition further shows his understanding of the postscript and helps to hammer in his point. Through repetition, Bradbury never blames one group but claims the conflict is dual-sided. Every conflict has complexities, like every human, because no one is all good or bad. However, Bradbury saw robots as a clean slate that he would use “humanely to teach.” Bradbury was already using his books to do this, and now a place like Disneyland could do the same. Today, although there is hope for a more joined future, there is little hope of reaching it. The robots are still there that Bradbury wanted his “voice to speak out,” but it is no longer his “damned nice voice.” It is one rooted in capitalism, separation, and fear. 

P.S. Bradbury hoped for a better future, which could still be given to him after his death. Although the future won’t become a more civilized place overnight, it will start to get better by giving a voice to people with messages of acceptance, tolerance, love, and ideas on how to better the human condition. Humans can be compassionate and kind, but they need to start listening to the right voices. Listening to the same people spew messages of hope is pointless if you don’t also listen to the scientist trying to stop global warming, the Starbucks workers striking for their right to unionize, and the black man being brutally beaten by police officers. So read I Am Not Afraid of Robots because it provides excellent commentary on the human condition. But when you finish, learn about Disney’s antisemitism or the reason behind Splash Mountain being remodeled. As Bradbury pointed out, every conflict has two sides, and I want the voice I listen to to be “a damned nice voice.”