Though I haven’t been doing much reading lately, I have been toting The Illustrated Man around on my commutes. I always forget what a good writer Bradbury was. But damn, his stuff can be bleak.
It’s weird, I could have sworn Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles were the only of his books I’d read. But then as I’ve been chipping (back) away at Illustrated Man, I know I’ve read these before. Or maybe the End is near and I have had eerily similar visions.
At any rate, there’s that one story with the astronauts in space. It reminded me of this Perry Bible Fellowship comic. I wonder if that was his inspiration for the strip.
I’ve really got to read that Brackett/Bradbury collaboration, Lorelei of the Red Mist. I’ve already got it and everything.
I’ve got to update the Grand List.
-Bushi
I think the Illustrated Man was what did in my interest in Bradbury. Bleak indeed!
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These group of stories reminded me a lot of Edgar Allan Poe. I know he was an admirer of Poe’s works, so I wonder if he intentionally wrote them in his style, or it’s just purely coincidental and I’m just projecting my own imagination on these stories.
Great anyway, regardless. I’m not against bleak fiction, so long as the dark aspects are there for a reason, not just cheap attempts to shock the writer. Thankfully Bradbury didn’t fall into that trap.
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*shock the reader, not writer.
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I didn’t know Bradbury was an admirer of Poe, but doesn’t surprise me.
I like your making a distinction between darkness to convey something versus just to shock the reader. Something to think on!
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