The Fog Horn

1951 short story written by Ray Bradbury

"The Fog Horn"

Short story by Ray Bradbury
Language| English
Genre(s)| Science fiction, Fantasy
Publication
Published in| The Saturday Evening Post
Publication type| Periodical
Publication date| June 23, 1951

"The Fog Horn" is a 1951 science fiction short story by American writer Ray Bradbury, the first in his collection The Golden Apples of the Sun. The story was the basis for the 1953 action horror film The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.

## Plot

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The plot follows Johnny, the protagonist and narrator, and his boss, McDunn, who are putting in a night's work at a remote lighthouse in late November. The lighthouse's resonating fog horn attracts a sea monster. This is in fact the third time the monster has visited the lighthouse: he has been attracted by the same fog horn on the same night for the last two years. McDunn attributes the monster's actions to feelings of unrequited love for the lighthouse, whose fog horn sounds exactly like the wailings of the sea monster himself. The fog horn tricks the monster into thinking he has found another of his kind, one who acts as though the monster did not even exist. McDunn and Johnny turn off the fog horn, and in a rage, the monster destroys the lighthouse before retreating to the sea. The lighthouse is reconstructed with reinforced concrete and Johnny finds a new job away from the lighthouse. Years later, Johnny returns and asks McDunn if the monster ever returned; it never did. McDunn hypothesizes that the monster will continue to wait in the depths of the world.

## Background

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Scene from The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms

The original title of the story was "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms". It was published in The Saturday Evening Post. Meanwhile, a film with a similar theme of prehistoric sea monster was being shot under the working title of Monster from Beneath the Sea. Later the producers, who wished to capitalize on Bradbury's reputation and popularity, bought the rights to Bradbury's story and changed their film's title. Bradbury then changed the title of his story to "The Fog Horn". The monster of the film was based on the illustration of The Saturday Evening Post.[1]

Bradbury says that the idea for the story came from seeing the ruins of a demolished roller coaster on a Los Angeles-area beach. The tracks suggested a dinosaur skeleton. He credits this story with earning him the attention of John Huston, who engaged Bradbury to write the screenplay for the 1956 film version of Moby Dick.

The story was reprinted in various collections including the 1953 publication The Golden Apples of the Sun, the Japanese publications The Fog Horn & Other Stories in 1979 and The Fog Horn and Other Stories in 1981 (both editions were published in English also), and finally Dinosaur Tales in 1983.

## Adaptations

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The story was the basis for the 1953 action horror film The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.

A play based on the short story was included in Bradbury's Pillar of Fire and Other Plays in 1975.

The plot in the thirteenth episode of Pokémon, "Mystery at the Lighthouse" (1997), is based on this short story.[2]

Leonard Nimoy stated that this story was part of the inspiration behind the 1986 film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.[3]

In 1953 in the comic book Tales of Horror #7 an uncredited version of this story is presented as "The Beast From the Deep".[4] An official comic adaptation was produced in 1993 in Topps Comics' Ray Bradbury Comics #3.[5]

The 2020 crowdfunded Japanese short film Howl from Beyond the Fog was inspired by the story,[6] with director Daisuke Sato having previously adapted the story as a 20 minute short fan-film in 2007 as a technical exercise.[7]

The influence of the short story contributed to the creation of the Godzilla franchise.[8]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Rovin, Jeff (1979). The Encyclopedia of Monsters. New York: Facts on File.
2. ^ "The Ray Bradbury Homage Hidden in a Classic Pokemon Episode". Den of Geek. January 11, 2017.
3. ^ Nimoy, Leonard (1995). "Chapter 14: I, SPOCK, or "The Final Plain" on the Streets of San Francisco". I am Spock. Random House. p. 251.
4. ^ "Beast From the Deep". Tales of Horror. No. 7\. Toby. 1951. p. 16.
5. ^ "Ray Bradbury Comics #3". Grand Comics Database.
6. ^ "HOWL FROM BEYOND THE FOG - Interview with Daisuke Sato". SciFi Japan. April 2, 2020.
7. ^ Robert Hood (October 14, 2009). "New Daikaiju Appears Through a Fog of Obscurity". Undead Backbrain.
8. ^ "Before 'Godzilla' There Was 'The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms'". Film School Rejects. May 30, 2019.

## External links

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* The Fog Horn title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

* v
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Ray Bradbury

Bibliography (Short fiction)

Novels|

* The Martian Chronicles (1950)
* Fahrenheit 451 (1953)
* Dandelion Wine (1957)
* Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962)
* The Halloween Tree (1972)
* Death Is a Lonely Business (1985)
* A Graveyard for Lunatics (1990)
* Green Shadows, White Whale (1992)
* From the Dust Returned (2001)
* Let's All Kill Constance (2002)
* Farewell Summer (2006)

Short stories|

* "Hollerbochen's Dilemma" (1938)
* "The Scythe" (1943)
* "I, Rocket" (1944)
* "The Lake" (1944)
* "Frost and Fire" (1946)
* "The Million Year Picnic" (1946)
* "The Small Assassin" (1946)
* "I See You Never" (1947)
* "Fever Dream" (1948)
* "The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl" (1948)
* "The Long Years" (1948)
* "Mars Is Heaven!" (1948)
* "Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed" (1949)
* "The Exiles" (1949)
* "Marionettes, Inc." (1949)
* "The Long Rain" (1950)
* "The Rocket" (1950)
* "There Will Come Soft Rains" (1950)
* "The Veldt" (1950)
* "Ylla" (1950)
* "Embroidery" (1951)
* "The Fog Horn" (1951)
* "Here There Be Tygers" (1951)
* "The Pedestrian" (1951)
* "The April Witch" (1952)
* "A Sound of Thunder" (1952)
* "The Wilderness" (1952)
* "The Flying Machine" (1953)
* "The Golden Kite, the Silver Wind" (1953)
* "The Meadow" (1953)
* "The Murderer" (1953)
* "Sun and Shadow" (1953)
* "All Summer in a Day" (1954)
* "The Dragon" (1955)
* "The Aqueduct" (1979)
* "Banshee" (1984)
* "The Toynbee Convector" (1984)
* "Is That You, Herb?" (2003)

Collections|

* Dark Carnival (1947)
* The Illustrated Man (1951)
* The Golden Apples of the Sun (1953)
* The October Country (1955)
* A Medicine for Melancholy (1959)
* The Day It Rained Forever (1959)
* The Small Assassin (1962)
* R Is for Rocket (1962)
* The Machineries of Joy (1964)
* The Vintage Bradbury (1965)
* S Is for Space (1966)
* Twice 22 (1966)
* I Sing the Body Electric! (1969)
* Ray Bradbury (1975)
* Long After Midnight (1976)
* The Fog Horn & Other Stories (1979)
* The Last Circus and the Electrocution (1980)
* The Stories of Ray Bradbury (1980)
* The Fog Horn and Other Stories (1980)
* Dinosaur Tales (1983)
* A Memory of Murder (1984)
* The Toynbee Convector (1988)
* Classic Stories 1 (1990)
* Classic Stories 2 (1990)
* The Parrot Who Met Papa (1991)
* Selected from Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed (1991)
* Quicker Than the Eye (1996)
* Driving Blind (1997)
* Ray Bradbury Collected Short Stories (2001)
* One More for the Road (2002)
* Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales (2003)
* The Cat's Pajamas: Stories (2004)
* A Sound of Thunder and Other Stories (2005)
* The Dragon Who Ate His Tail (2007)
* Summer Morning, Summer Night (2007)
* A Pleasure to Burn (2010)
* The Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury (2011, 2014)

Plays|

* The Meadow (1947)
* The Flying Machine: A One-Act Play for Three Men (1953)
* The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit and Other Plays (1972)
* Pillar of Fire and Other Plays (1975)
* The Martian Chronicles (1986)
* The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit (1986)
* Fahrenheit 451 (1986)
* Dandelion Wine (1988)
* The Veldt (1988)

Adaptations|

* It Came from Outer Space (1953)
* The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953)
* Moby Dick (1956 screenplay)
* "I Sing the Body Electric" (1962)
* The Autumn People (1965)
* Tomorrow Midnight (1966)
* Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
* The Picasso Summer (1969)
* The Illustrated Man (1969)
* The Martian Chronicles (1980 miniseries)
* The Electric Grandmother (1982)
* Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)
* Bradbury 13 (radio series, 1983–84)
* Fahrenheit 451 (1984)
* "The Burning Man" (1985)
* The Veldt (1987)
* The Ray Bradbury Theater (TV series, 1985–86, 1988-1992)
* The Halloween Tree (1993)
* Dandelion Wine (1997)
* The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit (1998)
* A Sound of Thunder (2005)
* Ray Bradbury's Chrysalis (2008)
* The Whispers (2015)
* Fahrenheit 451 (2018)

Miscellaneous|

* Futuria Fantasia (1939–1940)
* The Mummies of Guanajuato (1978)
* Zen in the Art of Writing (1990)
* It Came from Outer Space (2003 book)

Characters|

* Guy Montag

Related|

* Bettina F. Bradbury (daughter)
* Spaceship Earth
* Ray Bradbury Center
* Bradbury Landing
* Ray Bradbury Award
* Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury
* Dandelion crater
* "Treehouse of Horror Presents: Simpsons Wicked This Way Comes"

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