Re-reading Something Wicked This Way Comes (a sheer pleasure). In chapter 28, Will and his dad have a fascinating discussion in goodness and happiness. Will, like many others, assumes goodness leads to happiness, so he asks his father if he is good. When his father says he is good (at least to Will and Will's mother) Will asks, then why aren't you happy? Will's father asks, "Since when did you think being good meant being happy?"

Mr. Halloway explains that often being good means that a good person denies himself pleasures that others partake of. He admits that man loves sin, and that being good means you "miss out on" a lot of pleasure. Will's dad can say he has been good, yet has missed out on a lot, and has regrets about fear in his own life. We have to learn to move ahead, prior to being perfect.

For Mr. Halloway, being good is tied to something other than just "happiness" simplistically defined.

At the end of that conversation, Will's dad tell's him that Will is wiser than the father. Will denies this, but the father insists. In a line reminiscent of Socrates, Mr. Halloway says he would be a fool not to recognize his lack of wisdom.

A few lines later, Will says, "I want you to be happy, Dad". This ability to love others and stay focused on others, it turns out, is Will's wisdom.

I think the thought expressed here, and the depth of the conversation between the father and the son is absolutely fantastic.

How much of happiness is self-denial? What kind of happiness do we get when we deny ourselves of short-term pleasures? Why do we love sin and why are we drawn to it so powerfully? What tools are we given to overcome sin? What is it, in the end, that make both Will and his Dad "good"?

What I like about Bradbury is that these are not abstract, English 101 Cliff's Notes questions. These are real questions he wrestles with in much of his writing.

Is he the best there is at this stuff?

In the end, they overcome evil by laughing and not taking evil seriously, and by love.

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Mr. Halloway plunging evil away by joy and laughter?

That scene coming near the end of the book I found collapsed the trail of truth that was being explained, defined. Now I found a small plastic party balloon instead, not even popped, but blurting out like with a single gasp of breath. What a shame! Evil is very familiar with laughter.

Much of what the book deals with is fundamentally on course. The scene where people are trapped in the Cooger and Dark Carnival freak side-show by the weaknesses of their flesh or mind, was aptly described. But in the library, where the devil throws the Bible into the waste-basket saying it had no power over me...I figured was Bradbury's way of saying it wasn't his to deal with in length or depth. On the other hand, the motion picture had the scene otherwise: now no Bible, but a diary wherewith pages torn out, falling in fire, speed up the calendars and wane quickly the promises of the past.

About denying self pleasure equals = being good, is certainly not biblical. But was the book Something Wicked This Way Comes really suppose to be something based on the Bible, or natural decency between relationships and common sense of self? I figure it was the later. When asked of Christ who was good, Christ answered that one: No one is good...except God!

I wouldn't say the book was meant to be Biblical, per se; but I would not begin to deny that with it's delineation of sin, and it's focus on love, and its constant hammering on the role of a whole family, that several major ideas were influenced by the Bible.

Also, Bradbury, in that same chapter, cites that there are good smiles and smiles that hide evil, so he does recognize that distinction.

Additionally, Paul frequently tells us to rejoice in Christ, and I believe the Biblical message is that we are one in love; so I think Bradbury has those themes right, also, from a Biblical perspective. As he was raised Baptist, many of these themes are "in" him, and I think many come out in his writing and in his own theory of life--though clearly he would not be categorized as an orthodox Christian.

Also, Paul does talk about bringing himself under subjection (though none of us can individually succeed outside the grace of Christ), so I do think there is a Biblical element to this idea of denying oneself--it is seen in Christ sublimation to the will of God, and in the command to deny ourselves and take upon us the cross of Christ, and to follow his example of service (powerfully and clearly shown in the washing of the feet of the apostles, with his exortation that they should do as he has done).

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