Ray Bradbury

[Connavar]

I feel emotionelly drained by Something Wicked Comes This Way. A book i found to more poetic than expected. The title could have been Bradburys own words and not Shakespeare since there were similar poetic heavy words....

My review from Goodreads:

This is only my third Ray Bradbury book and the others have been The Illustrated Man and The October Country they were great collections of weird,fantasy,SF stories. I saw his greatness there with his clear and unspectacular prose style. This Novel shattered my view of his prose. There was so many impresive turn of words, dark poetic writing that i could with pleasure let the words sing inside my mind to enjoy them slowly.

The mundane part of the story about the boys and their friendship and what it was like being boys in that age he excelled with too. Most importantly it is like cover blurb say its an incomparble masterwork of dark fantastic. I have read great similar stories in classic weird short stories but not a Novel like his so atmosphere strong so weird,dark beauty that engaged my heart and brain fully. I didnt have to excuse literary flaws of writing and storytelling just because i enjoyed the story.

The only real flaw was that Charles Halloway was too much " im very old and not a boy like my son Will!" early in the Novel. Mr. Dark was wonderfully creepy, great villain and one of the many reasons to re-read this Novel and to face The Dark Carnival again.

 

[clovis-man]

Mr. Dark was wonderfully creepy, great villain and one of the many reasons to re-read this Novel and to face The Dark Carnival again.

I don't know if you've seen the 1983 movie, but Jonathan Pryce in the role, although adequate, falls far short of the menace implied by Bradbury's description.

 

[j d worthington]

I don't know if you've seen the 1983 movie, but Jonathan Pryce in the role, although adequate, falls far short of the menace implied by Bradbury's description.

That's interesting. I find it to be quite the opposite; while a very different approach, Pryce's is more understatedly sinister; a very quietly menacing figure whose manner is much like the faint rumblings of the storm to end all storms.... The confrontation between Dark and Halloway in the library shows flashes of what lies underneath, but in general he is so coldly controlled that one can sense horrendous forces just held in leash....

Apparently Bradbury thought well of the film; I have a tape somewhere of an interview with him in which the interviewer expressed little enthusiasm, and Ray responded with a very spirited support of the film, feeling it was one of the best adaptations of his work he had seen....

 

[clovis-man]

I'm going by distant past recollection, but having read the book in the 1970s, I was looking forward to the movie, especially to the portrayal of Mr. Dark. Pryce's image seemed too urbane. Sinister, perhaps, but not threatening. This many years later, I'm not sure exactly what I was looking for, but "more evil" might fit the description. Mind you, I have generally been pretty impressed by the roles Pryce has filled.

 

[Connavar]

Bradbury mentioned the film in afterword. The way Gene Kelly inspired the book is fascinating story. Like the book was meant to happen as novel.

I'm glad I was in Somalia when I read the book otherwise I would have called the bookstore and ordered 5-10 Bradbury books

 

[dask]

Saw this on my home page tonight:


http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/49751194/ns/today-books/

 

[Extollager]

Here's an appreciative essay about Ray Bradbury's achievement:

http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-dark-and-starry-eyes-of-ray-bradbury

 

[kythe]

I just finished "The Martian Chronicles" by Ray Bradbury, and I actually think its better in some ways than "Fahrenheit 451". Bradbury does very well with short stories, expressing haunting yet truthful views on human nature.

I had a hard time getting into "The Martian Chronicles", and I had picked it up but put it down several times before actually determining to read it. I kept getting hung up on Mars not being realistic, but then I read an old interview with Bradbury where he says he dislikes his works being considered "sci fi". He considers himself to write fantasy because he knows his stories are not things that could ever really happen.

When I read "The Martian Chronicles" from that perspective, it became a fantastic set of stories. Its not just the overall picture they show, some of them work well as stand-alone stories.

Now I want to read "The Illustrated Man", which I understand is structured much the same way.

 

[Extollager]

How about revitalizing this thread?

http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/533772-the-good-ray-bradbury-stories.html

There's this too ... postings on The October Country....

http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/foru...ons-of-outstanding-ouevres-6.html#post1538690

 

[tylenol4000]

All i'v read by Bradbury are Fahrenheit 451 and Martian Chronicles. I really enjoyed both.

I especially love the way Martian Chronicles is written. I'm talking about how it's a collection of different smaller stories that are related to each other, making it a novel instead of a short story collection. It's a work comprised of small pieces. This gave me more reason to read it and finish in a relatively short amount of time; with short story collections i usually spread it out more, not reading them like i do novels.

I went out and bought The Illustrated Man because it's supposed to be similar in structure. Haven't read it yet. Usually i don't read story collections, or at least don't finish them.But this is different

I was surprised by how clever Martian Chronicles was. Some great ideas in there. His writing is great. Bradbury has a style that isn't really too stylized or anything like that. It's more simple and somewhat sparse, like Philip Dick.