I’m currently working my way through a collection of Ray Bradbury’s short stories and came across one that really struck a chord with me today. The Murderer tells the story of a man who visited systematic destruction upon the many talking devices in his life. The man had become fed up with the amount of noise in the world, and could do nothing except try to bring quiet to his corner. He’s arrested for his spree and brought in to see a psychologist; obviously there is something seriously wrong with him. While most of his rantings are about noise – every room has the radio on and their occupants are constantly on the phone – he has an interesting observation. He “went in and shot the telivisor, that insidious beast, that Medusa, which freezes a billion people to stone every night, staring fixedly, that Siren which called and sang and promised so much and gave, after all, so little, but myself always going back, going back, hoping and waiting.” Who can say they haven’t had an evening stolen by the television, I certainly can’t. Another issue he takes is how the ease of contact makes the barrier of conversation so low that interpersonal relationships are reduced to trivialities. Bradbury wrote this in the fifties, before even the days of call waiting and answering machines, yet he captures the feel of today’s world of text messaging and twitter updates.
As I write this, obviously listening to music, I wonder how much we have been changed by the ever present noise of our culture. Are our relationships really more insubstantial? Or possibly the amount of discourse has increased so much that there aren’t enough substantial things to say. I don’t know. I certainly don’t pretend to have the answers to these questions. All I know is that The Murderer made me sit and think after I finished, and turn of the music for one moment. One of the things I love most about science fiction is it’s ability to put a character in an impossible situation, or exaggerate a current situation to its extremes, and examine the social and psychological implications. If you can find it, and have a few minutes to spare this weekend give it a chance, and maybe even steal away to some quiet place where you can sit and think afterwards, you’ll need to.
For reference I’m reading this edition of Bradbury’s stories.
john swenson 