The Foghorn is a (very) short story, written by by Ray Bradbury, and published in 1951, about two men crewing a lighthouse, and encountering… well…
I think it’s fair to say that they find themselves confronted with the humbling magnitude and overwhelming loneliness of deep time, and their own mortality and insignifigance.
To say that Bradbury had a way with words is a gross understatement. If you have read some of his other works, you know. And this story, though very short, is also very sweet.
It is contemplative poetry, and it’s prose carries like the lonely sound of the foghorn itself.
Then comes the beast…
Ray Harryhausen and Ray Bradbury became lifelong friends, when they met at a meeting of “The Rocket Society” at Clifton’s Cafeteria, in Los Angeles, in 1940.
So it’s really no coincidence that The Beast From 20,000 fathoms, featuring some of the best-known and earliest of Harryhausen’s astounding stop-motion animation, is based on The Foghorn, though it does expand upon the theme considerably.
Though the creature makes only a single appearance in the short story, drawn by the lonely call of the foghorn, the movie version of the monster goes on a full-blown rampage. But it took the imaginations of these two dear friends, the two Rays to bring the creature to life, and present it to us on screen.
The Foghorn and The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms differ greatly in tone. The short story is typically Bradbury, dark, foreboding, even a little Lovecraftian. Whereas the movie is more of a fun giant monster story to entertain and inspire the dinosaur-loving child within. I recommend both.
To read or watch one and omit the other would be to deny yourself of the full experience.
Both of the two Rays are gone now. One passed in 2012, the other in 2013.
But The Beast they created together is still with us, to frighten, sadden, excite and inspire us, whenever we wish to call it up from “the deeps.”
