| It is an undergraduate SCI-FI Lit. course at a UC. At this point I have my thesis but I need to focus on a couple elements for the body of the paragraph, what should I focus on? I was thinking about what Bradbury was going through (for some historical context) within the real wold during the publication of these stories, the alienation that is represented within the stories, and last but not least the lost of individualism by means of technology...what do all think about that??? |
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| Possibly a good approach, but also probably best not to try to psychoanalyse the author (better to discuss in terms of social/political issues, I would think). It sounds like you need to read either THE BRADBURY CHRONICLES by Sam Weller (authorised biography of Bradbury) or better still BECOMING RAY BRADBURY by Jonathan R. Eller (more detailed literary biography). You wouldn't need to read all of those books, just selected chapters. |
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| I see what you mean philnic...I began my paper by discussing an interview that LA weekly had with Bradbury and how he proclaimed that “Fahrenheit 451 is not, he says firmly, a story about government censorship. Nor was it a response to Senator Joseph McCarthy whose investigations had already instilled fear and stifled the creativity of thousands” and says “its is in fact, a story about how television destroys interest in reading literature.” I used this interview and idea to tie in the short story I read because his magnum opus Fahrenheit 451 was published right after the story's I am using so the string of ideas that stem from the earlier works would explain the greater novel and thus reflect on his intentions for his earlier work. I am finished with the first point now I am trying to get through my second point... which is getting a bit tricky. I do have the bio by Jonathan R. Eller but having a hard time picking it apart, my teacher told us not to get stuck doing a bio on the author cause this is not that type of paper...ugh |
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| Sounds to me like you're doing very well! Are you are UC Riverside by any chance? I may know some of your teachers. I may have mentioned this before, but if you can get hold of the current Simon & Schuster edition of F451 (which says "sixtieth anniversary edition" on the front, and has a foreword by Neil Gaiman), you will find it has a lot of explanatory materials, including another essay by Eller. Probably less hard going than BECOMING RAY BRADBURY, and definitely more focused on the task at hand. |
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| I am at UCSD...it is such an academically challenging school. I feel like I am doing everything wrong. I went to the writing center today and I got some constructive criticism but the allotted time we are given to talk to the tutors is only 30 mins long. It was just not enough time and the tutor only got to page 2 on my paper. I am freaking out now.... |
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| 30 minutes is quite luxurious. I generally only get to see my undergraduate students for 15 minutes at a time! But I do get to look at their writing ahead of time, if they send it to me early enough. |
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