David Mogen in his biography on Ray Bradbury argues that when Damon Knight and James Blish established the formula of science fiction to prove Bradbury a terrible writer, Bradbury broke these rules, proving him unique. In Professor William Warner’s page on formula, or genre, fiction writing, he notes that the main character in such stories is typically a hero in one way or another while there is no “good” or “evil” in “All Summer in a Day,” just children who get jealous and do something mean. They are not necessarily “evil” for this, however, and obviously feel some sort of regret or remorse when they finally realize Margot’s feelings. There is no good in this story either; Margot is not a hero but rather just another child who was born on Earth. Another large component of formula fiction is “the basic exchange [of] entertainment for money,” rather than simply loving to write. Bradbury tells others in his book “Zen and the Art of Writing” that one must love writing to write properly. However, other critics point to Bradbury’s work in mainstream magazines as proof that he simply wanted money. He counters that although he did follow a formula in his “apprentice years” to gain stability economically, he grew …show more content…
As mentioned briefly before, science fiction focused more before on science itself rather than simply imagination. For example, Mr. Dan Quigley, a major in creative writing, says one of the main mistakes in “All Summer in a Day” is that the story takes place on the completely uninhabitable Venus of all planets. Though, even if Bradbury had based the setting of his story on actual science, he still would have no way of knowing what we know today with modern science. In any case, however, Bradbury was still a major advocate for scientific advancement, most likely out of curiosity for whether or not these alien planets truly were like what he thought of