I'm writing an essay on Bradbury's universal theme in his works. my theme is this; By whosing the reality that society lives in, Ray Bradbury is able to persuade his readers to preserve and illuminate the apst while pondering the future. his works give you the feeling that if society's tie to the past is broken, the future will be in shambles, and not much can be done to fix it. and my topic sentence is this-Bradbury's futuristic works reveal the dystopia caused when society loses its connection to the past- how would The Martian Chronicles or From the Dust returned fit into this thesis or topic sentence?

Per above post:

Thinking there may just be such a word as "whosing'...I looked it up in my old radical dictionary, 'Peeple Plases 'n Tings', Kourtyard Publications, 1958.

Sure enough, there is "whosing".

whosing: v. Bouncing around random individuals because one is intoxicated 2. Randoming picking a page from the book, 'Who's Who', and picking out a name, any name 3. n. A person who wonders what day it is, and doesn't know why.

Apst ...was another word. Son-uv-agun. Found it there also. Wow!

apst n. not quite being there, but also not quite not being there. 2. singularly absent

Oh, then there is 'dystopia'.
Couldn't find that one anywhere, until I called a friend. He claims it is such a word...He said it is defined as impaired dystropia. To which I say, Hmm!!

percussionjunkie...
So, as to the answer to your question, I'll have to leave DAT to someone else..

dystopia: an imaginary place which is depressingly wretched and whose people lead a fearful existence (Webster's) The other two were brand new to me. I too can not begin to answer your question, but thanks for the vocab. lesson!

Whosing = Choosing?
apst = past?

Aren't they just typos?

that's what i though, Mr. Dark. apst was most likely supposed to be past given the context. I can't say for sure about "whosing", but it seems like it could make sense here.

Mr. Dark:
Good Grief! You're not supposed to know that those are just tpyos. Shhh!

Nard:

If it's any consolation, I liked your definitions better!

Mr. Dark...

Guess what! Some of us must be getting old. Because there ACTUALLY IS a real definition for dystopia. And it is a real word, the definition of which lmskipper made reference to! Bravo lmskipper!
My question: exactly when did THIS word come about? Maybe I have strongly edited versions of a dictionary.

Anyway, click on, or type into finder: http://hem.passagen.se/replikant/dystopia_definition.htm




[This message has been edited by Nard Kordell (edited 12-14-2003).]

percussionjunkie:

Okay...
...with a better sense of your question, an honest effort to answer....

Personally, I do not think the question you posed is foremost in Bradbury's mind...that losing the past will jeopardize the future...

Oh, the old saying ...if one doesn't learn from the past, he is condemned to repeat it, tho true, does not necccesarily fit into the Bradbury picture...

I think Bradbury's preoccupation is his untiring describing of unquenchable love, as he travels easily this unexplainable "glue" that fully bonds him to old and new magical experiences within his family, friends and strangers...and now explodes into grand expressions of these experiences via the elixir of this unexplainable "gift" he has been born with. From this 'gift', we find: eloquence of prose, a mystifying crafter of word-play, a wizard of sentence construction, phraseologist par excellence, story teller forever invited into the heart of the reader.
Both past present and future are now something timeless, eternal. Without the eternal, the timeless, there is no past, present or future to be had at all.
What is left then is, just as you say, this: dystopia.

sorry about the typos I was in a hurry when I was typing-they are supposed to be choosing and past. thank you!

it is a little late for me to change thesis statements, but if any of you have read from the dust returned, could you help me to try and fit it into my existing thesis? I read the book, but I don't really see it as a futuristic novel. thank you