Is he really your f.avorite author would you put him first

Favorite author? Well, I like different things about different authors. The thing with Bradbury is two things (for me):

(1) In 1969, he absolutely turned me on to ideas, literature, religion, theology, psychology, sociology, character, morals, description, poetry, science fiction. He turned me on to a world I had no experience with prior to a pressured reading of F451. Then to MC, SWTWC, the rest of his work, then to sci fi writers, then literature, philosophy, history, biography, etc. I have Masters degrees in English and Philosophy, and I honestly believe that without Bradbury, I never would have pursued them.

(2) At 49, I am still totally turned on and enthralled by his writing.

He is different than Hemingway and Poe and Hawthorne, and many other writers that I consider to be great writers, but Bradbury will always be the one who opened up the world of ideas.

Yes, he really is my favorite author.

Yes, I really would put him above all others. To me he is second to no one.

I love many authors, but Ray is definitely my favorite. When I read anything of his, whether it's a poem, children's story, short story or novel, it takes my breath away. I can't even explain it that well; I just know he does something to me that no other author can do.

Without question, Ray's earlier stuff is the best on the planet.

But I've become a tad disappointed with Bradbury lately because his vision is not so grand as it first was, that is to say, I am led to believe that his thinking about his own life seems to say that it just ends, period, when he dies; whereas, in his earlier works, he had some grasp of the eternal, and his place in it. Has long life in general led to disappointments about his thoughts about life after death? He seems to be comfortable nowadays with the assumption that it is his ideas that survive his death, and not he himself.

Is he still my favorite author? Yes, no one probably in my lifetime will match him.

Other authors I would have loved to meet and know, would definitely have been Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife. An evening with J.R.R. Tolkien would have been grand. Perhaps meeting Charles Dickens in his very early years, say in his 20's, might have found an author that matched the energy of Ray Bradbury. And THAT would have been really something.

Yes, he is 'My Favorite Author'.

Nard,

Interesting and timely what you said about RB losing his sense of the eternal. I've noticed the same thing happening to my Mom as she's aged. It seemed to come on quickly. She has lost her optimism and abandoned all foward-thinking, she now only talks about the present and the past. She's also very judgemental, surly, and blunt where as in the past, my whole life, she was always positive, warm, and accepting. She was the kind of person who could light up the room and brighten the day of all those she encountered. I'm not saying Mr. Bradbury has gone the way of my Mom and I hope he doesn't, what you said just hit close to home.

[This message has been edited by grasstains (edited 12-04-2004).]

grasstains:

Oh, I am very sad to hear this! You see, my Mom went thru this as well. Couple names for this: Alzheimers. Dementia.

I do not think this is Ray's case. What bothers me is that Ray in years past considered himself a Christian. I've got letters from him where he makes note of this. (But It has crossed my mind). A lifestyle that moves away from God little by little results in a rationalization of Christianity that finds little or no faith supplied by the Spirit, thus, one is left to analyze a gift of grace, that which is not possible without the Spirit. What's going on with Ray. I don;t know. Maybe he's been a Unitarian for many years, and is simply comfortable to mention Christianity by convenience.

Getting back to mothers. It's terrible, but your mother's condition doesn't get any better. It never improves. In your case, you are speaking all the classic symptoms. If the rule applies, your mother will eventually hate you at times, and your past will come thundering back and you will be at the mercy of an event that you will either have to quickly learn how to handle, or it will thunder on and over you.

I went thru about 3 years of this. It was triggered, according to one of the doctors, when my Mother was given a drug in order to perform a procedure that permits a small camera down your throat to look inside your stomach. I've had it done myself. Lots of things can 'trigger' the Alzheimers or dementia, including regular anethesia for a simple operation.

What has been happening is that plaque has been forming on the message sending receptors and transmitters on the brain, and the messages get all haywired. They are trying to figure out how to prevent plaque from forming. Some drugs are available. Their effectiveness in question. No one has been able to figure out how to ''remove'' the plaque.

Eventually my mother had no idea who I was. She would scream frequently thru the night at nothing at all. Have imaginery friends, many who were either intriguing or downright frightening. The image of herself in the mirror was 'not' her, but someone else who copied her every move. I removed many of the mirrors in the house and glass-waxed the windows so she couldn't see her reflection. It is a insidious disease. Read up as much as you can so you know the best avenue to take.

New movie coming out, ''The Aviator'', about Howard Hughes. Many think Howard had Alzheimer's at the end of his life. Maybe the movie will mention what is known.

Another was actress, Rita Hayworth. Many thought she was hitting the bottle. Only years later did the truth be known. http://www.alz.org/Events/RHG.asp

Wow...That's very sobering. Thanks Nard. Me thinks I needs to rethinks some things, and pray for the same kind of strength which saw you through.

Ray Bradbury is definitely my favourite living author. He is tied with the wonderful JRR Tolkien, but alas he has already departed for foreign shores. I think what these two authors give us are these wonderful stories and images that we can lose ourselves in and often seem even strong than 'real' memories. I sometimes even mix up things that happened to me in real life, in stories, or in dreams. But i guess it seems like these things are generally the same when it comes to remembering them.. they are all just different memories. Some just have a more definite attachment to your own 'reality,' but still, they are all just memories, images and feelings stored in our brains that we can only think about. The great thing about stories is that we can relive them and visit them vividly whenever we re-read them. Relating to the other discussion about growing old, i think it is sad when you lose these pieces of your life, your memories, because without them how do you really know you are alive? My grandfather had alzhiemers and passed away last year, and it was hard to watch his progression. By the end he only remembered my grandmother's name, which says a lot for love, but was horribly sad. I am currently writing a short story about it, and in some way i guess it ties in to that and also Ray because he is my idol and i love his style of writing, and i guess this is also a topic somewhat relating to him. This also makes me think of a story of Ray's that was about a little girl and an old woman and the girl makes the old woman admit that she was never a little girl. That one always made me soooo sad..

On the news the other day was a report about memorializing the Second World War in Italy. They spoke to a woman, old enough to be able to remember the war. She spoke in English with words to the effect of, "We are the sum of our own memories, because a person who lives only in the present, never fully aware of what's behind them, is not fully human."

This hit me like a ton of bricks. I've been accused of "living in the past" a lot, even at young ages. (Supposedly a 12-year-old is too young to experience nostalgia, but even at 12 a person is old enough to have experienced life changes--a key theme in "Dandelion Wine," which shows the actual process of the past becoming the past.) Perhaps that's one reason I can identify with so many of Ray's characters who have this issue (regardless of how they decide to resolve it) and why that story, "Season of Disbelief," makes me VERY sad. It's actually a story of destroying not only memory, but EVIDENCE of the past--exactly what is done a lot of times after wars and what historians in Italy and other places try to prevent!

This loss of memory is definitely pernicious. This is one of the reasons Hemingway committed suicide. He began to lose his memories and without his memories, he couldn't write. And if he couldn't write, there was nothing he could contribute and do. And if he couldn't do anything, he had no value and no happiness. While this is a bit over-simplified, memory loss and his awareness of that decline, is a significant factor in his depression and suicide.

Interestingly, Plato tied knowledge to memory (in "The Theatetus, a fantastic dialong), arguing that much of what we call knowledge is memory and our ability to grasp "pieces" of memory when we need them. I symbolized, in one part of that dialog, as the mind being a large aviary, and birds as being bits of memory. It was a matter of being able to get the bird you need at the time you need it.

Augustine tied faith in god to his memory:

"These things [understand and have faith in God] do I within , in that vast court of my memory. For there are present with me, heaven, earth, sea, and whatever I could think on therein, besides what I have forgotten. There also meet I with myself, and recall myself, and when, where and what I have done, and under what feelings . . . Great is this force of memory, excessive great, O my God; a large and boundless chamber! Whoever sounded the bottom thereof? . . ." (Augustine, The Confessions)

It is amazing how complex the mind is and how it works and how much of who we understand ourselves to be and our grasp of things small and timely to things vast and infinite -- at some point, they are defined and comprehened in the mind.

The science of nuerology is redefining what the mind is and how it works. I think some of this research is going to have significant impact on how the mind really functions. I think some of this research will impact how we understand ourselves and how we define knowledge. A new branch of philosophy is developing (neurophilosophy) that is looking at how we define mind and man in light of the discoveries of how the mind itself works. What are intellectual images? How does abstraction work? Where do emotions come from? What impact does species and individual DNA have on perception, language, imagery, etc?

Bradbury still seems very sharp to me, when I see the recent interviews and speeches,a nd look the output of books, stories, introductions and appearances, I'm hopeful he is doing well. He still seems very articulate and passionate. While his vision on some things has changed, he still seems to be a visionary to me. I hope he is blessed to be intellectually sharp and vigorous to the very day he dies, and hope that day is far off.

Oh, yes! My favorite. I have found significance in his writings at the best of times and the saddest of times.

The birth of our boys, travels abroad or into remote wilderness camping regions, on the deck for an hour of a lazy (rare!) summer day, in the early hours of a restless morning, walking on a secluded country trail, reviewing early stories on quiet evening accompanied only by the tick of the mantel clock, enjoying a late summer garden that awaits the first day of autumn, throwing the ball around in a family game of catch, watching neighborhood kids racing by on bikes-laughing, and even while grieving for lost loved ones, something from RB comes to mind at an important moment. Metaphor or reality!?

We have spoken of this so often. I try to somehow bring the two together when reading any author I really like. With Mr. B it seems to occur unattended, naturally.

My students in class rib me often for using what they call "strange phrases." I like to think of them as quaint, colloquial allusions! Ie, "Cat's Pajamas; acting like the Keystone Cops; slapstick of Laurel and Hardy; ditched by his friends; it's zero hour; a game of kick the can; etc.(others?)! One just needs to read enough RB to know he has seen and experienced so much that has been a part of the real fabric of our culture and 20th Century history.

Mr. Dark, I thought his Fox TV interview was sharp and enthusiastic. We sent him a congratulatory card with signatures from about sixty HS Eng. students (in recognition of the Medal of Arts Award from the Pres.). We received a thank you note back 5 days later. Imagine!!!

Is it that so much is being lost so quickly because of micro-technology, vast and rampant immigration, watered down education (this from an Eng. teacher remember!), and instant gratification from age 2 and on that the greats have become "Who's?"?

Image the likes of Bradbury, Poe, London, Twain, Shelley, Stevenson, Shakespeare, Alcott, Hawthorne, Carroll, Baum, Crane, Dickens, Bierce, Buck, Frost, Dickenson, Wells, Hesse, Lewis, Huxley, Verne, Orwell, Kafka, Hemingway, Burroughs, Doyle, and Fitzgerald being lost from the reading lists across this country because of a need for more pc selections as the main course from the menu. Exiles and Usher II come to mind, saddly...

My own faith, Nard, is a very separate and core reality. Somehow my enjoyment of Mr. Bradbury's works have over the years inspired me to do well in teaching so I can be better at what I do for the grander plan. There are pieces of music and certain musicians who have influenced me greatly as well. Yet, I play no instrument.

I am no, philosopher. Though I love to read philosophy: (A few) Confucius, Gerald Manley, Plato, Pope, Francis of Assisi, and Marcus Aurelius. I try to remain open to the spirit of expression because you never know when something very good can come from it. In view of the state of affairs globally, we can all use a bit of Spirit and Inspiration. Yes!?

The Authors Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John had much to say and need to be quietly read and heard clearly. Their messages are simply stated and have withstood many centuries of shelvings, burnings, abridgings, twistings, condemnings, yet still they stand the most widely read.

Montag found his "time for change." Maybe that is why RB is my favorite. We all change and still there is meaning to be found, even if in a quite different way from when a selection was first read!

So, Banana, Is Mr. Bradbury your favorite author?



[This message has been edited by fjpalumbo (edited 12-06-2004).]

fjpalumbo:

"...Bradbury has inspired one to do well over the years!"

YES!

No question about how he affects people. But something is very strange here.

Ultimately, Ray seems to be saying...
'...that all is for naught, that life ends in the grave, maybe there is re-incarnation...and that one's identity carries on thru others.'

Now this seems diametrically opposite than one would think about the man, and of what he has said earlier in his career. What happened?

I watched "60 minutes" with the Bob Dylan interview last night, and after all the stuff Dylan has written and gone thru, the question was asked Why? And his answer was that God was his judge and that he was doing what he was convinced deep down inside his soul was God commanded, and he must follow. Now THIS is something along the lines of Bradbury's talk years ago. 'God thumbprints thee, be not another'. But then Ray got into this ...we are the ''Saviour of God'' thinking. Now what is that? It's not any Christian faith I know of. God needs no saving.

And little by little we find Ray talking about death as the final end. Now does this make sense of what someone would find as the end result of Ray's masterworks, his thinking, and his life? Is this the logical conclusion of where all this fine brilliance winds up, an end with no new beginning? Ray seems to think so.

So my take on this: There's something terribly wrong here.

____

Mr. Dark:

I remember hearing, from Ray himself, that the reason why Hemingway commited suicide, was that he was involved in two plane crashes within a couple days of each other. In the first plane crash, Hemingway was able to walk away . But the second plane crash did Hemingway in, causing severe pain and suffering, to the point of despair and suicide. Ray's take on this was, how can a person continue to live in such a broken body. I do not recall him speaking of mental illness per se, dementia or some such. But then, I never read Hemingway's biography or the history of his demise. I'm speaking from what I recall Ray discussing.

I haven't read much on Hemingway either, but the story my English teacher repeated several times was that Hemingway's father had shot himself and Hemingway often said he'd probably end up the same way.

dandelion:

Looked up info on Hemingway's plane c rash. Click on the link, and look specifically at the entries for years 1954, 1960 and 1961. Ray pretty much had it right on Hemingway's demise.
http://www.millikin.edu/aci/crow/Chronology/hemingwaybio.html