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Opening Arguments

Aging like fine wine

Happy birthday, and hang in there. Ray Bradbury turns 91. He's getting a nice present:

 He's the legendary author of Fahrenheit 451, one of the most important books ever written. With that and many of his other works having been brought to the big screen, it is no surprise that Dandelion Wine, the book he followed Fahrenheit with in 1957, has been scooped up by Phoenix Pictures to be adapted for the big screen.

[. . .]

The book was an amalgamation of many previously published Bradbury short stories that found life in 50s magazines. When in 1957 the stories were pieced together for the novel version of Dandelion Wine, it became clear that Bradbury himself was the main character, pseudonymed as Douglas Spaulding, and that this was his childhood on paper.

It's hard for me to be objective about Bradbury. I can look at some of his stuff today and think it somewhat flowery and overwritten. But when I was a kid, his writing seemed magical to me. He was the writer who first took me on flights of imagination. He's the reason I developed a love of reading at a young age. He's part of the reason writing appealed to me as a profession.

And my first taste of his writing was "Dandelion Wine." Mostly I read his short stories first -- I got around to the novels later, I think the first one being "Thr Martian Chronicles." He seems best in the short form; even most of the novels read like short stories strung together around a common theme.

And be careful what you call him:

He also doesn't care to be called a science-fiction writer, even though it's a tag he's worn for most of his life. “I write fantasy,” says the 82-year-old author of “The Martian Chronicles.” “Science fiction is the art of the possible. I imagine the impossible.”

That was from an article nine years ago about why  "Fahrenheiet 451" is his most important work. He's right about the difference between science fiction and science fantasy, though most non-fans use the terms interchangeably. I like another term some people have used for the SF inititials: Speculative Fiction.

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Comments

Bob G.
Tue, 08/23/2011 - 10:56am

Leo:
And here I thought you were wishing ME a HBD...(Ray and share the date, fyi).

I've got a rather extensive collection of his works, and he 's a fantastic writer and a favorite of mine.

With all the CGI todfay, be nice to see some of his classics translate to the big screen properly.

BTW, if you swing by my place, I WILL have a slice of birthday cake for 'ya.
(to go with that zifandel I also have)

We can toast Ray...and birthdays...and cats.

;)

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