Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451

The Theremin is mentioned in Ray Bradbury's famous book, [i]Fahrenheit 451[/i]. Here, the fireman caption Beatty is speaking to Montag on how the written word and the arts gradually became less and less intelligent, and became more about 'feeling.'

The quote:

"If the drama is bad, if the film says nothing, if the play is hollow, sting me with the Theremin, loudly."

What does he mean by this? I think he is implying that plays and movies will gradually become more and more about blind feeling, evoked not by words but by emotional background music. Perhaps he thought the ethereal sound of the Theremin was the ultimate future for music, to replace symphony orchestras and other classical instruments? I'm not quite sure what he means by all that, though.

I just thought it was interesting to note this Theremin reference.

I've met a lot of the major science fiction writers of the golden era, and while all of them have known what a Theremin is, ironically, none of them that I've spoken with had ever actually seen one. (I know because they told me mine was the first they'd seen.) But, I've never met Bradbury.

I wonder if he actually might have had the opportunity to see Sam Hoffman play, by virtue of having been involved with "It Came From Outer Space".

Tom wrote:

"I've met a lot of the major science fiction writers of the golden era, and while all of them have known what a Theremin is, ironically, none of them that I've spoken with had ever actually seen one..."

To which science fiction writers do you refer?

This query is just a beautiful, curious aside to this post thread.

Good-Luck!

teslatheremin

Tesla:

You don't know what you're missing! I would recommend that you check out some of Tom's photos at

http://theremin.tomfarrell.org/photos/

Yes, I take it that in the post above, Tom is referring to authors more of yore, not pictured in the photo gallery. But it's still fun to see just how many hands graced the cabinet of a single Etherwave.

Most of the ones I'm going to remember are photographed and shown on my web site, from when they autographed my Etherwave. I've met several other SF authors of that era, but less famous and I regretfully don't recall their names.

If you're a big SF fan, you should by all means go to a Worldcon, while some of the greats of the golden era are still with us. Worldcon is amazing. I remember arriving a little late at a talk given by Terry Pratchett - he's as funny extemporaneously as he is in his books, which is kinda scary - and I snuck in and grabbed the last available seat. I turned my head to see who I was sitting next to... it was Larry Niven. I had a delightful chat with Fred Pohl about the Theremin. Harry Harrison and I figured out that while I'm one of his fans, his daughter in law reads my web site. Neil Gaiman is not only friendly and humorous, and dresses like a rock star (which suits his status in the SF community), but he could pass for Alan Rickman's identical twin if he tried. Robert Silverberg gives the first impression of being an old curmudgeon but clearly loves SF fandom. In one panel discussion, Asimov came up, and it came out that all of the authors on the panel had been friends of his, and they all started to tell happy stories about what a nice guy he was. One of my favorite authors spent an hour walking around and chatting and shopping for t-shirts with me.

The experience of interacting with the authors whose books I've read all my life was amazing. If you want to meet some of the greats of SF, you just have to go.

I was merely questioning the literary significance of what Bradbury was saying about the Theremin and the future of the performing arts. Doees anyone have ideas about what he might have meant?

Outstanding!

Kudos, for the many you have met.
I wish I could have read them all!

Good Luck!

teslatheremin

[i]I was merely questioning the literary significance of what Bradbury was saying about the Theremin and the future of the performing arts. Doees anyone have ideas about what he might have meant?[/i]

It seems clear enough. Sometimes, the score for a film or TV show suddenly interjects a loud chord, to emphasize a moment of shock, surprise, etc. In the trade, it's known as a "stinger" chord.

Bradbury wrote the story in 1953, at which point the theremin was associated in film with sensational, exotic themes: psychotic episodes! ([i]Spellbound[/i]), alcoholic cravings! ([i]The Lost Weekend[/i]), extraterrestrial visitors! ([i]The Day the Earth Stood Still[/i]).

So, as you pretty much summarized in your intro: where the script falls short in intellectual engagement, a triply crude way to stimulate a visceral reaction is with a 1) sudden, 2) lurid, 3) loud musical effect.

Th-th-th-that's all, folks.

Fahrenheit 451 is all about "dumbing down" - the film is oddly disturbing, but it took me a while to figure out why - there is no writing - no words, no letters - visible anywhere in the movie. It's like reading a paragraph with no 'e's in it. You know something is missing, but can't see what.

Bradbury was actually referring to a specific incident, which has been rather hushed up by the theremafia. Whilst providing a live accompaniment to a silent film, Julius Goldberg became upset by the number of people leaving the theatre muttering their discontent at the quality of the movie. So much so that his temper boiled and, shouting "I am Thor, feel my wrath!" he javelined his distinctive lightning bolt pitch rod into the ample backside of a departing gentleman.

[img]http://www.peterpringle.com/goldiepix/gold7.jpg[/img]

It is also reported that friends afterwards told Julian, "That would have been more impressive if you hadn't been inhaling helium."

That's very interesting. So that Theremin below was Goldberg's instrument? How would such an antenna's shape affect the sound, if at all?