pterran:
Beatles talk? Don't worry.
Biographer Sam Weller tells a story about when Ray Bradbury, with his daughter, went backstage at a David Bowie rock concert. Ringo Starr, being present backstage at the time, nearly caused himself personal injury as he tripped over stuff on his mad rush to meet Ray Bradbury... which happened to be...his 'favorite writer'.
See, Bradbury fans e v e r y w h e r e. (Yep, David Bowie is a Bradbury reader, too.)

I stand corrected. "Chrystal Blue Persuasion," by Tommy James and the Shondells. Great song.

Still love the Beatles. Glad to hear Ringo is a fan of Bradbury. One more incentive to take my daughter to go see him when he comes to Dallas!

P.S. Love the Emerson quote. I make my students read and analyze Emerson's "The Harvard Divinity School Address" every semester.



[This message has been edited by Mr. Dark (edited 05-05-2003).]

Another quote by Emerson I often ponder, and have my students reflect on, is:

"A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can let alone."

Great stuff.

Greg

[This message has been edited by Greg Miller (edited 05-05-2003).]

[This message has been edited by Greg Miller (edited 05-07-2003).]

Very similar to Thoreau's quote from Walden:

"My greatest talent has been to want but little."

(Something like that, anyway!)

Ah. I thought it was Mind Games by John Lennon...

"Love is the answer and you know that for sure

Love is a flower you got to let it, you got to let it grow"


PS My favorite Emerson: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."

[This message has been edited by WritingReptile (edited 05-05-2003).]

I would like to take credit for the Lennon lyric, but the tune in my head is the "Crystal Blue Persuasion" song.

I LOVE Emerson and Thoreau. They are both about the most quotable in the history of the world.

Truth is, a lot of my religious sensitivities come out of these two (along with Theodore Parker) in the American Transcendentalist movement. Emerson and Thoreau's focus on 1st hand religion and Thoreau's comments on materialism; along with their references to the Vedanta and Bhagavaad Gita, inform the way I "do" religion.



[This message has been edited by Mr. Dark (edited 05-05-2003).]

Emerson speaks volumnes:

"Great geniuses have the shortest biographies."

Emerson

Next to Bradbury, Emerson is at the top of a large floating lump of names for second place!
Mr. Dark, I really get what you're saying. Emerson in particular and his sources in Vedanta have been a Huge influence on my religious beliefs.
Good effort keeping this post from going sour, as well. Discussion can be heated and still productive, but it's always a fine line.
I recall something along the lines of "Blessed are the Peacemakers."

or, to drop a nod to Greg Miller, "did he say the Cheesemakers?"
Monty Python is not the end all be all. But it's wonderful stuff all the same.

My favorite Emerson quote is the bit from Nature about the Transparent Eyeball.

The great currents of the Universal Being are knocking out my TV reception,

Dan

Everyone's quoting Emerson.
Well, why not I...so this poem:

The Mountain and the Squirrel
By R.W. Emerson

The mountain and the squirrel
Had a quarrel,
And the former called the latter "Little prig";
Bun replied,
"You are doubtless very big;
But all sorts of things and weather
Must be taken in together
To make up a year,
And a sphere.
And I think it no disgrace
To occupy my place.
If I'm not so large as you,
You are not so small as I,
And not half so spry;
I'll not deny you make
A very pretty squirrel track.
Talents differ; all is well and wisely put;
If I cannot carry forests on my back,
Neither can you crack a nut."

When all the other girls swooned over Paul, I always said Ringo was my favorite Beatle. Now I know I was right!! And now to try to bring us back a bit to the topic of book burning: Does anyone have any information about how many or which books of Ray's were ever banned? I would be interested to know this, if anyone has that information. Also, in my earlier post on this topic, I told about a group of parents who were not allowing their kids to read certain books taught in our school. I would like to reiterate that I respect a parent's right to decide that a certain book is not right for their child. What I object to is when they try to decide for everyone else's children, or when they base their decision on arbitrary reasons. One year I had a mother who would not allow her daughter to read "The Martian Chronicles" because she thought the cover was "dirty." She hadn't bothered to read the book, but she just didn't like the cover. Even in cases like that, that I believe to be silly, we are not allowed to try to change the mind or debate the issue with the parent; we simply put them in another novel. I do love it, as someone earlier said, Mr. Dark I believe, when parents read the novels as their children are reading them, and have discussions with them. When parents or students tell me they are doing this, I am so happy. (Actually, I think I'm a little envious because I don't have children and have never been able to do this.) I just think this is a wonderful family experience, and I really admire them for taking the time to read with their children when I know how busy they are. I know I have not really talked in this post of book burning per se, but I do equate this type of situation, trying to prevent others from reading a book because they personally object to it, as about the same thing.

Imskipper, some of us swooned for John. His eyes were a reflection of his soul.

[This message has been edited by Celestial (edited 05-05-2003).]

lmskipper, it doesn't look like Ray made the top 100 anyway:

[okay, I tried to include a link to the ALA's top 100 most challenged books, but for some reason the link wouldn't "wrap" and it pushed all the messages on this board waaaaaaay out to the right...so go to the main site:
http://www.ala.org/

and type "most challenged books" into the search box to find the link. Good luck. ]

This actually looks like a pretty good reading list!


[This message has been edited by WritingReptile (edited 05-05-2003).]