Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Ray Bradbury: The Machineries of Joy

I used to love love Ray Bradbury in my teens. His dreamy and sentimental worlds were just the thing for my lonely disposition. Apparently we don't own any of his books though (I was so sure I did?) except for this collection of short stories. I read it because I wanted to read some science fiction and because I haven't opened a Bradbury book since aforementioned times - that would be sometime in the last century then, folks. This is, I don't feel, strictly speaking a collection of science fiction stories though, although a few fit the bill. And frankly, they were mostly the better ones. I was disappointed re-reading this. I didn't remember Bradbury as being quite so sentimental and, well, almost maudlin. Somehow though the bite comes through, the edge that makes him a classic writer still, a social commentator, one of the greats. Especially in the later stories (they are collected from a decade or two of writing) it seems that he can get more explicit, maybe more dirty. Maybe he self-censored in the 50s, making his work a bit dreamily clean and wholesome.When he gets gritty it really gets good.

I've read several things since reading this, so I can't remember what my favourite story was, I'm afraid. I might update the post some time. Yes, I am ashamed to the core that my first post on such a classic writer, that meant a great deal to me personally, to boot, is so devoid of content! Uncool, man. Some other time.

4 comments:

Tunks said...

"Yes, I am ashamed to the core that my first post on such a classic writer, that meant a great deal to me personally, to boot, is so devoid of content! Uncool, man. Some other time."
^^
Nicely said.
I look fwd to your updated post!

I saw the title of your entry and kept thinking 'I know that name, so familiar, so familiar, why do I know it?!'

Then it hit me! Fahrenheit 451!!!
It was somewhere between christmas 07 and new years 08 I was visiting some family in Boston and she gave me that book. I was reading it... and then I'm not sure what happened and I never read it out. I need to find it and finish it. It's been haunting me since... because I never start a book and not finish it. I MUST! lol thanks for the reminder

bani said...

Yes, you must, and do pop in and tell me what you think! I think I should re-read it too. :D

S. said...

What are your thoughts on 451?? I think the Mechanical Hound is one of the most frightening things I've ever been introduced to in a book.

bani said...

God I don't remember the mechanical hound at all. It was a long time ago that I read this. Clearly a re-read is long overdue!