Short Story #93: Time in Thy Flight by Ray Bradbury

Title: Time in Thy Flight

Author: Ray Bradbury

Summary

With the help of their time machine, a teacher with three students arrive in the 1920s to observe children's culture.  Their first visit shows children getting up at the crack of dawn to go down and see the arrival of the circus.  The next event they visit is the 4th of July with fireworks and celebrations.  Finally, they land on Halloween and watch the kids continue to have fun and adventure.  At this point, the girl among the children decides to run and stay with the children seeing their activities as exciting.  The teacher warns that she will be left with these barbarous people and she ignores him as does another boy.  The teacher and remaining child return to their time while the other children blend right in.

Reflection

This is one of those condemnation stories of Bradbury that I find a little annoying.  His love of nostalgia is sometimes tedious and often romanticized.  In this story, he seems to be also commenting the place of education and its domination over actual fun and here I can agree with him to some degree on the ways in which education trumps free time and the carelessness of childhood.  

Short Story # out of 365
Rating: 2 (out of 5 stars)
Date Read:  4/1/2014
Source:  S Is For Space by Ray Bradbury.  Bantam Books, 1970.  

For a full listing of all the short stories in this series, check out the category 365 Short Stories a year.

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