I was a kid, so I was fixated on the story, the surprise, the horror. Reading these reminded me how little I appreciated Bradbury's prose when I was young. He was light on scifi (it was a light frame) and heavy on characters, but he kept enough of the pulpy scifi tropes to make you almost unaware of the pill you were swallowing until it was completely absorbed. He wrote about alienation, loneliness, jealousy, racism, and fear in new ways. Not the first star in the night, but the one that tore a bit of the sky open for the rest. His stories (and books as well) are part of our modern psyche. I've recently returned to him as a father and an adult and get to re-establish connection to this great writer of American pop-lit. I permanently dented my aunt's couch one summer reading Vonnegut and Bradbury. I remember reading him for fun, reading him anthologized, reading him again and again. He is 180-proof literary, pulp, scifi nostalgia. “I shall remain on Mars and read a book.” ― Ray Bradbury, The Illustrated Man Ray Bradbury is forever connected to my youth.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |