ULTIMATELY...
what good does it do to be 'captured' by the prose of Ray Bradbury?
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( I've had it ...'up to here'... by all the posts arguing about the Moore flap, about who owns what title...and has Ray done this, or that, or has Moore gone off the edge, or Ray.. etc etc. It has been one enormous goofy zone-out on this board....)

REALLY!...what is the question that runs thru this board and all his works, and in each reader's life?

I propose the above question, the topic I have hereby presented.
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And my personal answer, at least to start with, and probably continue if anyone out there is interesting in tossing this around... is...

...ULTIMATELY....
Ray brought me to the edge of profound personal issues in my life, to the edge of spiritual matters, and brought me to a place where I was able to learn about the 'burden' on my psyche from the time I was a kid that had to do with 'life'. How? By his writings? They were instrumental. Perhaps by Bradbury just being alive in my lifetime!

I could have sat back and let it all run past me, but, however late in life it was, I finally got off my chair and did something about the effect I had experienced from this man, Ray Bradbury, and his writings.

"The Tombling" was a moment in time that pressed hard with captivating impression, "Death and the Maiden"...and others.

Ray is no mere story-teller.

There are others who are no mere story-tellers:
Robert Louis Stevenson,
Charles Dickens,
Nathaniel Hawthorne,
Herman Melville.

These giants lived in our 'land', and how incredible it should be that at least one ... is alive today and approachable.

The journey continues...

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[This message has been edited by Nard Kordell (edited 08-07-2004).]

so since you feel so touched by him and other writers you couldnt possibly see someone incorporating a piece of him into their own work? and you certainly cant look at the situation and see how silly it is to get upset over something like that?

oh yeah thats right....because you and Bradbury have a political agenda.....as do most people.....and his actions were not simply based on his own understanding of how artistry works....

Still pondering the question of how, exactly, people coped before Ray was around. Must have been a pretty bleak universe then.

Thormachine: Your post is non-responsive to Nard's opening. Hopefully, it will just get ignored on this thread. Please feel free to open another thread on this original, engaging, and relevant topic and engage in more discussions there.

Nard: As I'm sure I've mentioned in the past, the impact Bradbury had on me was to open me to the realization that ideas mattered. This realization occured during my first reading of F451.

Additionally, though, that novel not only opened my mind to the centrality of the role of ideas to the human condition, it showed how those ideas have an impact on human happiness and human interaction. This realization has been with me and influenced me since 9th grade.


[This message has been edited by Mr. Dark (edited 08-08-2004).]

The exchange between Beatty and the 'sick' Montag will always be with me; Montag doesn't have much to say, but as a reader you are led to formulate your own replies . . .

this is 'strictly' for

thormachine:
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I'll make this as clear as possible.
Really!

Lot of talk about Ray being a 'Unitarian', in his beliefs, has made me re-think a few things. But nothing changes. Just a lot more 'thought'... of looking at the same piece of sculpture, so to speak.

And it goes like this:

I walked into a drugstore when I was about 12 or 13. Saw a magazine rack, and on the very top of this magazine rack was a magazine, and on the top edge of this magazine ...I saw a color, but not any color I had ever seen before, and heard a sound, not like any sound....(maybe it's the sound light makes!!? )... but then my eyes went down to a name, just further down from the top of the magazine, and the name was Ray Bradbury...and something inside my little head said...
" you get to know who Ray Bradbury is, you'll find out what you just experienced."

Sound crazy!

The color and the sound, tho a second or two in the experience, was profoundly overwhelming in its personal impact, and changed my life forever. Here I was, silly little 'lost soul' kid, who didn't know how to deal with all the sins inside of me, those little silent behaviors that knock you off the way you want to go, like little stupid friends who like to detain you so you miss the good things in life, and then tell you ''see you tomorrow'' when it gets late and they know you'll feel the loss deep down inside, of things missed, but you won't have the brains to know whatgto do about it. Something like that!

And that's how I got introduced to Bradbury. Nothing to do with a political agenda. (Or one thing or another, or whatever.)

It was a strange collision early on. Could have let it all pass by and say it never happened... but went on later to develop a different outlook on life that I would never have had. I'd say Ray unbeknownst 'carried' me so far...and then I met Jesus Christ... the one they talk about that came back from the dead, who Christ sent a helper, the Holy Spirit... 'where by Christ be formed in you'... and so forth.... and so forth.

Hey, thormachine...Lose you yet?

I read my first Ray Bradbury collection in Junior High School at age 12. It was THE GOLDEN APPLES OF THE SUN. It was like getting hit over the head, but in a very wonderful way. Beautifully written stories about time machines, dinosaurs, space travel, baseball, the evils of racism...it made me a fan for life and lead me off searching for all of Ray's other books to read.

Ray's writing has enriched my life in a way in which I never can fully describe in words, and for which I can never adequately say "thank you". However, just as wonderful as Ray's writing has been the chance to meet and get to know Ray Bradbury, the person. It is so fantastic when your literary hero turns out to be one of the kindest and most thoughtful persons you have ever met. That's exactly the kind of person Ray is. If anyone had ever told that 12-year-old boy that used to me that I would have the chance to get to know this great writer and fine gentleman, and have him refer to me as a friend, I would have said they were dreaming. But, to my amazement and joy, it happened.

It is obvious that none of the negative posters on this site know this man. Otherwise, they could never have said the things they did.

Richard:

I agree with you on that. I have not met him as often as some others out here, but I have met him twice. In both cases, he was intellectually sharp, honest and opinionated, humorous, kind and gentle, and very generous with and to his fans.

He is a great writer, but is also a great guy.