Ray Bradbury

[Gnosticangel]

Apologies if this was already posted. I love Bradbury's works, sentimentality and all, and am always happy to see his work discussed:

Voyage to the Otherworld: A New Eulogy for Ray Bradbury

[Druidic]

Something Wicked This Way Comes, Fahrenheit 451 and The October Country are the essential Bradbury. King's "It" pales to insignificance compared to Bradbury's Something Wicked.

It's a pity that some critics attack the very things that makes a writer's work unique. After a while many readers believe them. Lovecraft is another case of this. So is Borges.

[Knygathin]

Most everyone, including esteemed Lovecraft, seems to attack the romantic/sentimental elements in W. H. Hodgson's The Night Land, ... but I loved those parts. ;.)

I tried to read Dandelion Wine in my late teens or early twenties, and I admit I thought it too sentimental or sugary, and vague ... so I stopped reading. Perhaps it was the wrong time to read it.

As to Fahrenheit 451, I would only be delighted to try it and find more fantastic elements in it than my preconceived belief. But I have not yet attempted it. I watched Truffaut's film adaption, and found it bleak.

[Robert Adam Gilmour]

I like sentimental Hodgson too.

David Pringle said Something Wicked was partially a disappointing rehash of Dandelion Wine. Pringle chosen it for Modern Fantasy: 100 Best Books and considered it the last truly satisfying Bradbury collection.

[Druidic]

Because of subject matter some artistic works are necessarily bleak.

I think Truffaut's version of 451 did justice to the book but was seriously underrated by critics. It's a fine movie and an even better book.

Something Wicked is one of the greatest fantastic novels to come out of the 20th century. I wanted to like the film version but it felt so watered down I couldn't. The book contains some real nightmare touches.

Man, I love Carnivals.

[ToALonelyPeace]

I like The Illustrated Man . Other than that, haven't read much from him.

[Druidic]

Ted Sturgeon's "The Dreaming Jewels" is another wonderful book that should appeal to those of us who find magic in dark Carnivals.

[Zaharoff]

I am beginning to suspect many of you are romantics down deep.

[Druidic]

Hopeless Romantics.

Sigh.

[Knygathin]

Fahrenheit 451 is one of those few books where I couldn't decide if I want it in my collection, or not. Does its contents meet my particular interests? What does my instinctive intuition tell me? Do I really need it?

In this case I decided to get it as an audio book (to give my eyes some rest). Here Bradbury reads his own book:

YouTube

Very interesting to listen to his reading! Who else could know the right accentuation better than him?! He is old here, but still, it is Bradbury!

I only have a few other audio books; the follow-ups to Frank Herbert's Dune, and some titles by Philip K. Dick.

I have also read one or two complete books digitally, on the computor screen (again to relieve my eyes). It was a much more pleasant experience than I had expected. I read Sarban's The Sound of His Horn this way, and remember the story very distinctly, without the "burden" of owning another book; instead I am the owner of the story only and purely, ethereally harbouring inside my head. A sense of freedom accompany this.