I agree, his books are hard to follow, i had to reread sentences just to try and understand them at times. In class, it was hard to try and concentrate on the book. The book was also sometimes hard to follow.

These posts have been moved as they were in the wrong thread. I didn't write them but don't know how to move them and preserve the original posters' names. If they want to repost them they can and I'll remove this.

guitargirl116
Posted 24 January 2012 01:46 PM Hide Post
Hello all! I am I new member on the ray Bradbury website and it's good to be here. My fellow classmates and I read two of ray's books. "the pedestrian" and also fahrenheit 451. Im not one to complain about a book is good or bad. Personally I enjoy books by Nicholas sparks becausenibmyself enjoy reading romance novels and mysteries. Although when I first read Fahrenheit 451 I wasn't all that interested. To be honest I found it to be a bit eccentric and something I was not use to. I tried to keep an open mind though and really try. After finishing the book I discovered it wa s actually pretty decent. Although I'm not crazy about ray and his style of writing it was a good book. I mostly liked it for its lesson i got out of it. I also found it almost rather amazing because we discussed in my class how technology in today's real world society really has been taking over. And almost the same concept was given to me in the pedestrian. It gave me a few other ideas as to what you could get out of the books too besides the main point ray was trying to point out to his readers. Even though ray is not my most famous author I am greatful that through his books I learned some valuable things. Thanks for listening to me and reading my forever long book!
Sincerely,
Guitargirl116

(Dandelion here. Could I get you guys to either move these two posts to this thread https://raybradburyboard.com/ev...1083901/m/8647096216 or start a new thread? They don't belong in the current thread. Thanks, D.)
This message has been edited. Last edited by: dandelion, 24 January 2012 02:38 PM

Posts: 1 | Registered: 24 January 2012 IP
philnic
Posted 24 January 2012 01:52 PM Hide Post
Thanks for your observations, guitargirl116! I hope you read some more Bradbury, because there is a LOT of variety in his works. Schoolteachers like to give people F451 and "The Pedestrian" to read because they are "relevant" to some of the technological and cultural issues surrounding us. But there is plenty of OTHER Bradbury out there which might amuse you, scare you or make you think.

- Phil

http://www.bradburymedia.co.uk

This message has been edited. Last edited by: dandelion,

I have to agree with flower. I also found Fahrenheit 451 to be very confusing. I can honestly say that while reading the book I rarely knew what was going on. I also thought that his book was very boring and that Ray didn't go into as much detail as I would have liked which may have contributed to my confusion. I also agree with weedeater. I know that Bradbury predicted a few things that would happen but none of them have had any major effect on our society. I think that people still would rather go do things with their friends than stay inside all day by themselves. I can also say that I don't really like Ray Bradbury but I might give him another chance if I ever come across another one of his books.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Thunder05,

I am a sophomore in high school who has read the books "Fahrenheit 451" and "The Pedestrian". I found that "Fahrenheit 451" was a very confusing book. I did not understand the book until I read it more than once or my English teacher explain or talked about the events taking place in the book. This book would not be one of the books I would recommend to someone of my age to read. "The Pedestrian" on the other hand was not as confusing to me. Some of my class mates would disagree on me with that but I found this short story a lot less confusing than the Fahrenheit novel. I did find it very interesting that the technology Mr. Bradbury was talking about in both the short story and the novel are beginning to be developed into the world today. I would not say that Bradbury is a bad author nor would I say he is a good one either.

Personally my take on it is Bradbury may make one convert for each class to which his work is presented but it is worth bringing that work to the attention of as many as possible for the sake of the life-changing effect on that one convert.

Yes I agree with weedeater917. Dandelion you are obsessed but not as obsessed as I am. If you think you are his number one fan I would think again because your not, I AM!!!!!!! He is the best author in the milkyway galaxy and he writes science fiction books like he created the genre. He is the greatest and noone compares to him. I especially love how he emailed me himself and told me that he understands how much of a diehard-fan I am and that he enjoys reading my posts. I think we are going to have lunch tomorrow if you want to join.

quote:

Originally posted by Thunder05:
I have to agree with flower. I also found Fahrenheit 451 to be very confusing. I can honestly say that while reading the book I rarely knew what was going on. I also thought that his book was very boring and that may have contributed to my confusion. I also agree with weedeater. I know that Bradbury predicted a few things that would happen but none of them have had any major effect on our society. I can also say that I will probably never read another one of Bradbury's books again.

Wow. And wow. And... wow!

Carry on.

quote:

I especially love how he emailed me himself and told me that he understands how much of a diehard-fan I am and that he enjoys reading my posts. I think we are going to have lunch tomorrow if you want to join.

Then after reading only two works of his you are doing way better than I am after reading every published word by and about him for 37 years. It took 19 years of hard work to arrange a personal meeting and I fear his emails have dropped off of late. Congratulations to you.

quote:

Originally posted by Thunder05:
...Bradbury predicted a few things that would happen but none of them have had any major effect on our society...

Hmmm. I'm sitting in a station in England as I type this. Looking around me, I see almost everyone has earphones in (seashells, anyone?), isolated in their own personal coccoon of sound.

As I walked to and through the station, I saw various huge billboards, many of them animated ones on giant plasma screens. This sound a bit like F451.

Over there is another guy reading off a screen, and over there is a woman with a Kindle. Five, ten years ago you would see people on trains and in stations reading books. I don't see any books here.Have they been burned? Of course not. But Bradbury said you don't have to burn books to get people to stop reading.

I'm a teacher by profession, so I think I should end this post with one word:

Discuss.

I am going to have to agree with philnic. I am a great fan of books. I read all the time. I prefer books over most things. I think books help u connect with another reality. It helps you imagine things beyond your wildest dreams. I am personally a big fan of Jerry Spinelli, Rick Riordan, Christopher Paolini, and J.K. Rowling. I do not like Ray Bradbury at all. I think his books are slow paced and do not appeal to younger readers. I find he focuses to much on the setting and the mystery of his books than he does on the characters. The only thing I like about Bradbury is that his books are a reality and they can help you understand a changing world. Ray was a man who was way beyond his time period. I don't like his writings but I sure do respect his views.
#realtalk

weedeater917:

I disagree with you in how technology will become as controlling and obsessed over like in "The Pedestrian" and "Fahreheit451" I feel as if it is already starting to isolate people and will continue to do so with all of this new technology coming out. Companies and business are going to keep making and selling them because they know everyone wants the latest thing and to learn how it works. I apologize for disagreeing with you but I thought I would let you know my aspect of it and why I thought so. I hope you understand my thinking because everyone has their different opinion about Mr. Bradbury.

-flower03

A P O: With Jerry Spinelli, Rick Riordan, Christopher Paolini, and J.K. Rowling as preferred authors, I am actually surprised that you do not take a liking to Mr. Bradbury's works. Imagination is the centerpiece of all of these current best sellers! So too, Mr. B.

Try some of the stories in Golden Apples of the Sun or Illustrated Man.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: fjp451,

fjp, I must admit I agree that Mr. Bradbury is very creative, but diasagree that he is as good as J.K. Rowling. To read one ofhis books is more like...watching a documentary. You see whats happening but you don't understand why the character does it, because he doesnt elaborate fully on the character's past, present, personality, and other traits. In Farenheit 451, he manages to paint quite an elaborate oicture of Montag's surroundings, but I feel as the book goes on you don't get to know Guy Montag any better at all.
Flower, I respect your opinion, but I don't see how things like facetime, skype, the iphone, etc, isolate people, I think they bring people together even more. I didn't simply mean that people become obsessed, but not everyone will surely, that is equivalent to saying that because left handed people have a recessive gene, that when we reproduce all our offspring will then become right hsnded. I understand where you are coming from though.

weedeater917, you've stumbled on a key question of style relating to Ray. You're right that he doesn't often go (in F451) into his character's background etc. But this is largely because he has a quite cinematic style of writing: like all good screenwriters, he describes actions and events as they happen, and leaves it to the viewer/reader to piece together the meaning and significance. He does also, in F451, take us inside Montag's head, so we know what he is thinking from minute to minute.

I think it's a mistake to dismiss Bradbury because of this style, as you will find he uses different styles in different books/stories.

I like the way these posts are developing, though. It's good to see readers starting to dig deep into what works for them and what doesn't work.

I can understand where both weedeater917 and philinic are coming from. Bradbury has a very unique almost vague style of characterization. which in some ways may help to develop the sense of technology taking over but it would be much better to feel as though you have met the characters. giving a deeper feeling of what his message was by letting us sympathize with them.