Ray Bradbury Hompage    Ray Bradbury Forums    Forums  Hop To Forum Categories  Imported Forums  Hop To Forums  Inspired by Ray?    "I Sing the Body Electric!"

Moderators: dandelion, philnic
Go
New
Find
Notify
Tools
Reply
  
"I Sing the Body Electric!"
 Login/Join
 
posted
"So, for thousands of years, you humans have needed kings, priests, philosophers, fine examples to look up to and say, 'They are good, I wish I could be like them. They set the grand, good style.' But, being human, the finest priests, the tenderest philosophers make mistakes, fall from grace, and mankind is disillusioned and adopts indifferent skepticism or, worse, motionless cynicism, and the good world grinds to a halt while evil moves on with huge strides."

From "I Sing the Body Electric!"

(page 730 of "The Stories of Ray Bradbury" (Knopf, 1980)
 
Posts: 4 | Location: palm desert, california, USA | Registered: 22 June 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
posted Hide Post
This friend in college used to laugh at my "hero-worship" every time the subject of Bradbury came up and say, "If you have to have a hero, pick someone who's dead, they're the only ones who won't screw up on ya." I respectfully disagreed. Ray has not screwed up on me yet, but on the chance that he someday does, let's hope I don't get like *that*. Thanks for the quote!
 
Posts: 2694 | Location: Dayton, Washington, USA | Registered: 03 December 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
posted Hide Post
You are welcome, Dandelion . . . I thought it was a good quote for these times . . .

While I am here, I have been meaning to inquire about a speech which Mr. Bradbury gave at the Tuesday Evening Forum at Pasadena City College in 1974. It was SO good, as I recall . . . I wish I had the transcript for it, there was one particularly funny part he had in it about a cat and a humongous hairball, and how not taking care of the creative drive can result in a "hairball" building up in a person . . . if you or anyone here knows of a source where I could find a transcript for that speech, I would just love that.
 
Posts: 4 | Location: palm desert, california, USA | Registered: 22 June 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
posted Hide Post
Finally, I've come to read that story too and it's become one of my most favorite!

In a way, I think it sums up Ray's ideas of technology (or rather the "proper" use of it) and (technological) progress quite neatly. After all, it is a means to accomplish our visions.

It was some years ago I became aware of the danger of "motionless cynicism" as sjacob qoutes, because I often tended to become a cynic myself. Now I think of it as an attitude that provides a kind of "shelter" from the atrocities of this world (by saying well, that's just the way it is and has always been), but on the other hand is something static and utterly uncreative. It completely denies the fact of development and evolution.
 
Posts: 62 | Location: Hamburg, Germany | Registered: 23 July 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
posted Hide Post
I've only ever seen the Twilight Zone episode :/


"The drain of talent - pure talent - from one single department, Feature Animation, has been absolutely gut-wrenching in the past year. People are being asked to leave because management - meaning Michael Eisner - can't figure out what to do with them. That is not the fault of the talent... it's the fault of management." <br />�Roy E. Disney <br /><br />savedisney.com<br />for future generations
 
Posts: 47 | Location: wilmington, DE, USA | Registered: 07 December 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
posted Hide Post
That TZ episode draws a lot of complaint. Ray blamed its failure on the omission of one crucial scene, but perhaps the truth is that the full idea could not be developed in half an hour--as evidenced by the fact that it never appeared on "Ray Bradbury Theater."
 
Posts: 2694 | Location: Dayton, Washington, USA | Registered: 03 December 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
posted Hide Post
I thought it was a pretty good episode. It did seem a bit rushed, though.


"The drain of talent - pure talent - from one single department, Feature Animation, has been absolutely gut-wrenching in the past year. People are being asked to leave because management - meaning Michael Eisner - can't figure out what to do with them. That is not the fault of the talent... it's the fault of management." <br />�Roy E. Disney <br /><br />savedisney.com<br />for future generations
 
Posts: 47 | Location: wilmington, DE, USA | Registered: 07 December 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
  Powered by Social Strata  
 

Ray Bradbury Hompage    Ray Bradbury Forums    Forums  Hop To Forum Categories  Imported Forums  Hop To Forums  Inspired by Ray?    "I Sing the Body Electric!"