hello - I need to send a Ray Bradbury story to an eighteen-year old to follow up a discussion we had. I am desperate to find which book holds the story (and the name of the story) in which for some reason, electricity disappears, but mankind ends up coping surprisingly well - I think it might end with a happy summer's evening and people being able to hear a brass band in the distance or something. can't find it anywhere on the internet, whatever search terms I use....thank you so much in advance, Lucy

Well, it's not "Almost the End of the World" from The Machineries of Joy and I can't think what else it might be.

I think you are thinking of Fredric Brown's "The Waverlies" in which an invasion of wave-form aliens renders all electrical devices useless, and society rediscovers the joys of non-technological pursuits.

Wow, Smckee - huge thanks. You are a star. I would never ever have found this without you....

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Lucymarianne:
Wow, Smckee - huge thanks.

Your welcome Lucy. I sure would recommend that you check out Ray's work, if you haven't already. If that conversation you had was about the de-humanizing or ant-social aspects of technology, you will find lots to talk about in Ray's work. Though not actually anti-tech, he did visit this theme many times. The short story "The Pedestrian" or the novel "Fahrenheit 451" comes to mind. Read them and you may never be able to look at a large flat-screen TV -- or see someone zoning out with an ipod -- without thinking of Ray Bradbury .