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San Bernardino
Summers: A Foreword by Donn Albright
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| Part
I: Prelude to a Screenplay: Ray Bradbury and It Came From Outer
Space |
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Ray
Bradbury on "It Came From Outer Space" (an interview with
Donn Albright) |
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Our
Harvest is Fear (an essay by William F. Touponce) |
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Bradbury's
Web of Fear (an essay by Jonathan Eller) |
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"A
Matter of Taste" (the short story that inspired It Came
From Outer Space) |
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Letter:
Fantasy & Science Fiction to Ray Bradbury, June 28 1952
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| Part
II: From Story to Film: It Came From Outer Space |
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Ground
Zero (The Atomic Monster) - 39 page treatment |
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It
Came From Outer Space (Atomic Monster) - 37 page outline 3 Sept
1952 |
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It
Came From Outer Space (Atomic Monster) - 49 page outline 5 Sept
1952 |
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It Came From
Outer Space: A Story for Films - 119 pages Sept 1952
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Afterthoughts |
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Russell
Johnson: a reminiscence |
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Marketing It
Came From Outer Space: Posters, Ads and Reviews
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| Part
III: Life in Bungalow 10: Ray Bradbury and Sam Rolfe |
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Bungalow
10: An introduction by Jonathan Eller |
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Letter
from Sophie Maslow to Ray Bradbury |
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Short Story:
Troll Charge
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| Part
IV: Postscript: Ray Bradbury and Harry Essex |
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Postscript:
an Introduction by Jonathan Eller |
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Letter:
Harry Essex to Ray Bradbury, Feb 10 1976 |
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Letter:
Ray Bradbury to Harry Essex, Feb 10 1976 |
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Letter:
Harry Essex to Ray Bradbury, undated |
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Chrysalis:
a Partial Screenplay by Harry Essex, based on a story by Ray Bradbury
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| Part
V: Bonus Materials (contained in the Lettered Edition only) |
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Bonus
Materials: an Introduction by Jonathan Eller |
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Unfinished
screenplay: A Face in the Deep |
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Letter
from Mathilde Moser to Ray Bradbury, Sept 8 1953 |
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| Synopses
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| "A
Matter of Taste" (the short story that inspired It Came From
Outer Space) |
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A spaceship
from Earth lands on a planet dominated by a peaceful species of
giant spiders. The Earthmen have no logical reason to dislike the
aliens, who are pleasant, thoughtful, intelligent and caring...but
they can't help being revolted by the fact that they are giant spiders.
The story is told from the viewpoint of one of the aliens, who struggles
to comprehend the problem. When he reads the Earthmen's minds, all
seems well; but when he listens to them talking to each other (in
a tongue he cannot make sense of) it is evident that something is
upsetting them. Bradbury is here struggling to convey the idea that
in exploring the universe we will, sooner or later, come across
things that revolt us. He uses this germ of an idea in his screen
treatment for It Came From Outer Space.
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| Letter:
Fantasy & Science Fiction to Ray Bradbury, June 28 1952 |
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Bradbury submitted
"A Matter of Taste" to The Magazine of Fantasy and
Science Fiction, who rejected it. This letter explains the aspects
of the story that the editors were unhappy with. One of their criticisms
is of the apparent logic of the story, which seems to require that
all the Earthmen are arachnophobic (fair comment, but the editors
might have spotted that the story isn't actually about arachnophobia,
it's about dealing with things that disgust us when we know there
is no valid reason for us to be disgusted.)
A more interesting
aspect of the letter is that it also rejects another story Bradbury
had recently submitted: "A Sound of Thunder". The editors
criticise this one, too, for its logic: they are unable to accept
that a small change in the past will have specific, discrete effects
on the future, preferring instead that the impact should be catastrophic.
"A Sound of Thunder" was published later in the year in
Collier's, and has subsequently been reprinted hundreds of
times, achieving a reputation as a classic of science fiction.
Despite these
apparent failures, 1952 would turn out to be the first year Bradbury
would sell any stories to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science
Fiction (the first story being "The Wilderness").
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(to be continued...)
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