I don't quite understand what the "relatives" are in the parlor!?! Does anyone know?

canuckid

If you're talking about "Homecoming," in which Timothy's relatives run a funeral parlor, the joke is that they're vampires and of course funeral parlors drain bodies of blood so they can be injected with embalming fluid. This appears in short story versions but was left entirely out of the novel, "From the Dust Returned."

If you're talking about "Fahrenheit 451," the "parlor family" were not really Millie's relatives. She was hooked on some sort of interactive reality TV and related to the people there as family while ignoring her own real-life closest relatives, revealing one of the ironies of modern life.

Hmmm.
How many of US know more about fictional characters on TV sitcoms or the actors in movies than we do about our actual next-door neighbours or even our relatives?

(This was discussed briefly in earlier posts regarding "porches".)

If you had my neighbors, you'd rather be acquainted with fictional ones. Take my word for it!!

Good points, both of you. How about celebrities?

Someone in TIME or Newsweek wrote a nasty article following the death of John F. Kennedy, Jr., "The problem with virtual grief," about public reactions to the deaths of JFK Jr. and Princess Diana. My sister talked about a famous person saying, "You don't know me," to which her response was, "Excuse me, you don't know me, but I know YOU."

She proceeded to detail, about John F. Kennedy, Jr., "We know about his parents, we know about his sister, we know when and where he was born, we know where he went to school, we know how he spent his summer vacation," and I said, "Gosh, we have a cousin born the same year as John, and I couldn't tell you a fraction of the things about Daniel that I can about John!"

John himself said that "My photo album in my head is shared with millions of people" and remarked it was a strange connection to have.

So who's the "real relative"?

It's really an interesting observation that we know "virtual" or public persons more than we know our own neighbors and family. That goes to the power of literature to move and enlighten us. I love film, but nothing gets inside a person's ("virtual") head like the novel or short story.

As to knowing the celebrities, we don't know much about them that is not, at least in part, a product of their publicity machine. The nuts and bolts of their day-to-day life and their thoughts and feelings are not really accessible to us. We know the outward events, but what do we know about "them"?

But how much of a character in a story is the author himself, speaking now thru the vibrations of those murmured words upon the lips, or the fascinating turns in the mind and soul of the reader, as the author expresses something of his own self. Are all the characters in a Ray Bradbury story really...Ray Bradbury? Or any author for that matter?
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Different when you read scripture. You read about Christ...but then something far different! It tells you can have the same mind that was in Christ... by the encompassing infusion of God's Spirit. You no longer are reading about Christ, you are looking at things the way he saw them...if it be but a split moment. In that case, it's sometimes commonly referred to as inspiration...!

...and "celebrities" to Him are no more or less important than the poor, lame, retarded, talentless, blind, deaf, or just old "burdens on society"...

Sorry I can't recall the scriptural quote exactly, but isn't it something like, "He is no respecter of persons"?

All I can think of is, “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” – Matthew 5:45 (NIV)

How you doin’ there, canuckid?

Acts 10:34 and Ephesians 6:9, maybe more...

Happy New Year, by the way!

I now know what happened to HAL 9000!!! We all realize he fell out of favor with the deep space crew. However, after much soul searching, HAL went on to take up Sports Journalism at Jupiter University. Now, and this is the truth, HAL is doing the intro for all ESPN Sport Center lead ins: "Na na na...na na na"

(Take a look at SC and you will see him. The years have been good to him!)