From Dandelion Wine: (On the porch at night)

Oh, the luxury of lying in the fern night and the grass night and the night of susurrant {what a word!}, slumbrous voices weaving the dark together. The grownups had forgotten he was there, so still, so quiet Douglas lay, noting the plans they were making for his and their own futures. And the voices chanted, drifted,in moonlight clouds of cigarette smoke while the moths, like late appleblossoms come alive, tapped faintly about the far street lights, and the voices moved on into the coming years....

This is probably RB's most recognized line, see if you recognize it.

"They came becauase they were afraid or unafraid, because they were happy or unhappy, because they felt like Pilgrims or did not feel like Pilgrims. There was a reason for each man. They were leaving bad wives or bad jobs or bad towns; they were coming to find something or leave something or get something, to dig up something or bury something or leave something alone. They were coming with small dreams or large dreams or none at all."

If you're familiar with it, you probably recognized it before the ; part. The words Mars or martian never appear, but you know it's from "The Martian Chronicles".

I'm doing this COMPLETELY from memory so bear with me if I miss a word or two:

"That country where it is always turning late in the year. That country where the hills are mist and the rivers fog. Where noons go quickly, dusks and twilights linger, and midnights stay. That country composed in the main of cellars, sub-cellars, coal bins, attics, and pantries all faced away from the sun. That country whose people are autumn people, thinking only autumn thoughts. Whose people passing at night on the empty walks sound like rain . . .

The opening paragraph of THE OCTOBER COUNTRY and the best description of everything truly wonderful and creepy about Halloween.

Look it up--if I have it right (time dims even the best of memories) then you'll see how well it has stayed with me all these years. What better testament to the power of an author's writing?

[Plus the recitation impressed the first girl I ever dated and won her heart for a time. Ah, sweet youth . . .]

Regarding SWTC, "First of all it was October . . ." has its own special magic but I have to agree the opening of Chapter 1 is more favorite of the two. There's a lot of great foreshadowing in arriving just ahead of the storm.

The physical storm? Or the thundering wail of the night train . . .

-- Doc

unlike you guys, I love all of Bradbury's words. :P
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but to really answer this i like it in that story in "illustrated man" (sorry for all these examples from that book its like my favorite!) its the story about neptune or venus where it rains all the time. and these soldiers there trying to survive and get to a "SUN DOME." anyway, i like how Bradbury describes this storm coming by them as a huge caterpillar type monster whose legs were lightning. ill try to find the real quote later and edit this post.

[This message has been edited by Ettil (edited 04-13-2004).]

"America, above all nations, has always been a country of ideas. We have always been revolutionary, in all the senses of that much overused word. Somewhere, years ago, I used a term for us that I think fits more than ever. I called us a nation of Ardent Blasphemers. We ran about measuring not only how things were but how they ought to be."

"Science Fiction". In YESTERMORROW: OBVIOUS ANSWERS TO IMPOSSIBLE FUTURES. Ray Bradbury. Joshua O'Dell Editions, Santa Barbara. 1991. (p. 220)

I like the idea of a passionate challenge to accepted ideas and circumstances; and the implied challenge to question everything . . . to seek the "ought" in life. What I kind of call the Pragmatic Ideal.

Ettil:

Is this your passage?

"And as they stood, from a distance they heard a roar.
And the monster came out of the rain.
The monster was supported upon a thousand electric blue legs. It walked swiftly and terribly. It struck down a leg with a driving blow. Everywhere a leg struck a tree fell and burned. Great whiffs of ozone filled the rainy air, and smoke blew away and was broken up by the rain. The monster was a half mile wide and a mile high and it felt of the ground like a great blind thing. Sometimes, for a moment, it had no legs at all. And then, in an instant, a thousand whips would fall out of its belly, white-blue whips, to sting the jungle."

From: "The Long Rain". Ray Bradbury. THE ILLUSTRATED MAN.

yep, thats the one, Mr. Dark. thanks for finding it for me.

okay, there was a passage about hands, and if you could watch a life in fast-forward all you'd see is a blur of hands moving by...sound familiar? I was trying to remember this, because my girlfriend's dad passed a couple weeks ago, and at the funeral that quote kept running through my mind, but I couldn't remember it exactly or where it was from.

*bump*

*Bumpity bump*