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Thought you all might find this article interesting. And if you haven't read Fahrenheit 451, don't embarrass yourself by telling eveyone you haven't. Go and read it today. TODAY!
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Definately one of my most favorite of books. I urge you all to read this as quickly as your human legs can allow you.
Posts: 42 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Bradbury is my kind of guy! Lots to agree with him about including, among other things:
quote:"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's my whole argument about soft & hard SF -- or SCIENCE fiction vs science FICTION. Starline effects...muon flashes...forget the limiting factors! There was a time no one could have imagined electricity. The impossible is the playground of the science fiction, rather, the science fantasy writer. I unabashedly embrace it.
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Bradbury was okay, but I wouldn't class him as great. I know, that's a ridiculous thing to say, but I think that he became celbrated as an early populizer of a lot of science fictional themes rather than as a literary master. He's important to the genesis of science fiction, but his stories are more about the idea than about the story.
Frankly, though, that is probably the case with most early writers in new genres, particularly of fiction. They are remembered for the ideas that their stories explored, not for the particular genius of their language and characterization. I'm not an "idea" writer, nor really an "idea" reader. I have ideas, after all.
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And here I thought he became popular because his stories got published in Playboy.. as a matter of fact, I think that F-451 was in the first 3 issues, or something like that.
I like bradbury, always have. And one reason that I liked him is that he told stories that were based in a science fiction world, but were about how the people were dealing with stuff, as opposed to being hardcore science where the people are there only to help give a timeline and progression to the story. Some writers I think get too carried away in the science, and don't necessarily even do their research there.
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I strongly disagree, Survivor. Bradbury's stories were not so much about ideas (I've read enough "idea" stories from the Golden Age of SF) but rather about strong emotions, often set in imaginary settings. He was one of the first SF writers where the emotional resonance of the story was more important than the idea behind it.
Posts: 180 | Registered: Jan 2003
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Bradbury is a storyteller, and a great one. That is why he is popular. He doesn't seem to worry about being "literary," but just goes about telling the story he came to tell. It is just the way he is. I had the privilege and good fortune to hear him speak a few years ago at a convention. He spent upwards of an hour and a half just sitting on the stage and telling stories - stories about his life, the people he has known, the books and plays and screenplays he has written, the adventures he has had in getting some of his stories turned into films, and all manner of other topics. He held the audience spellbound; I think most of us would have gladly sat there and listened for as long as he cared to speak. That he can hold an audience - or a reader - like that is a gift and a talent.
[This message has been edited by littlemissattitude (edited May 15, 2003).]
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Well, I knew it was a ridiculous thing to say, let alone write. To me, his stories always felt more like sketches or line drawings making simple illustrations of how "the future" might affect humanity. I liked 'em okay, but only one line of his writing really ever stood out to me (as in, it would have been quotable...), the part in F-451 where the bombs fall on the city and blow it sky-wards (...but even as a kid I knew this was a rather dumb idea--even if phrased beautifully).
But that's just me, part of what I look for in a writer is the ability to put an idea into words that make the reader really think about it (even if--after thinking about it--the reader decides the idea is rather silly). Coming up with non-silly ideas is another thing I look for, but they aren't the same thing.
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His writing is clear, concise and absolutely beautiful. His imagery is powerful without being overdone and his characters are real people without being ordinary.
Sci fi, fantasy, regular old fiction- I could care less how it gets classified as long as it gets published.
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I don't know if anyone goes to the Lost Books site, but I like D.D. Shades "speculative fiction" categorization. I think this is his own naming of the genre? Kathleen, do you know, or is "speculative fiction" an accepted term?
Back to Bradbury, one of my favorite books of all time is DANDELION WINE, which is a coming of age story. The grandmother in the novel is one of my all time favorite characters, maybe because she reminds me of my own, but I think it is because Bradbury creates wonderful characters.
As hard sci fi, Bradbury's writing wouldn't cut the mustard. He is into interpersonal relationships. Liz
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Yes, "speculative fiction" is quite acceptable.
I don't know who came up with it, but it has been used for quite a while as a "catch-all" term that includes science fiction, fantasy, horror, and anything else with elements of same ("slipstream," "crossover," and so on).
One way to look at it is that speculative fiction is about things we have to speculate on as opposed to things that can be explored in more mundane ways (by actually experiencing them, for example).
What DD Shade does on his site is give an example of a differentnovel for each sub-genre of speculative fiction. It makes so much more sense than just saying "sci fi" or "fantasy," and I like that horror is included in the genre, as well as alternate histories.
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