Don't walk through the quiet streets
Do not go walking through quiet streets ( English title The Pedestrian dt =. The pedestrian ) is a science fiction - short story by Ray Bradbury , which was published in 1951.
content
On a November evening in 2052, the unmarried writer Leonard Meads is taking the evening stroll he has been accustomed to for years through a city of three million while the other townspeople sit in their dark living rooms and watch TV . Suddenly he is from a patrol car with metallic , called voice asking him to stop, because it is otherwise shot. Meads is surprised that there is only one police car in town due to the few crimes since last year.
The patrol car begins with Mead's questioning, whereby he states that Mead's activity as a writer is not a profession. Mead says she goes for a walk to get some fresh air and see. When he says he doesn't have a TV, the car becomes suspicious. When Mead also declares that he is not married, the car prompts him to get in, as Mead has no wife who could provide him with an alibi . Mead gets in, the interior of the car resembles a prison cell. The car makes its way to the “Psychiatric Research Center for Regressive Tendencies ”. On the way there they pass Mead's house. It is the only building in the dark city that is brightly lit.
background
Bradbury's story was inspired by a personal experience in Los Angeles . After a visit to a restaurant on Wilshire Boulevard , deep in conversation, he was on his way to a bus stop with a friend when they were stopped by a police officer in a patrol car. When the officer questioned her about what she was doing and Bradbury gave somewhat flippant responses such as “walking” and “taking a breath”, the officer became very formal and told her not to go for a walk in the future.
Bradbury wrote the story down immediately after the experience. His literary agent Ray Congdon offered the story from the glossy magazines ("slicks") to the science fiction pulp magazines , but to no avail. It was only published in 1951 in the liberal magazine "The Reporter". According to Bradbury's own statements, she was u. a. one of the foundations for his novel " Fahrenheit 451 ", although it did not deal with the subject of censorship .
The story was first published in German in 1970 in the short story collection The golden apples of the sun in the MvS Science Fiction & Fantastica series .
Theater, film adaptation
In 1964, “The Pedestrian” was adapted as a one-act play, with a second role being introduced to make Mead's thoughts visible to the audience during his walk. This dramaturgical structure was also retained in 1989 when it was made into a film under the title "Pedestrian" in the television series Bradbury's Chamber of Horrors. The leading role is cast with David Ogden Stiers . It was first broadcast in Germany on November 18, 1992 on Tele 5 .
literature
- Ray Bradbury: The golden apples of the sun , Marion von Schröder Verlag , Hamburg / Düsseldorf 1970.
- Don't walk through the quiet streets. In: Ray Bradbury: Don't walk through quiet streets. Science fiction stories. 3. Edition. Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1980, pp. 20-24, ISBN 3-453-30169-2 (original edition The Golden Apples of the Sun ).
- Sam Weller: The Bradbury Chronicles. The Life of Ray Bradbury. Harper Perennial, New York et al. a. 2005, ISBN 0-06-054584-4 .