The Watchtower of Destruction: The Ferrett's Journal - Why I Love Ray Bradbury

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December 23rd, 2011
12:59 pm

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Why I Love Ray Bradbury

“I often use the metaphor of Perseus and the head of Medusa when I speak of science fiction. Instead of looking into the face of truth, you look over your shoulder into the bronze surface of a reflecting shield. Then you reach back with your sword and cut off the head of Medusa. Science fiction pretends to look into the future but it’s really looking at a reflection of what is already in front of us. So you have a ricochet vision, a ricochet that enables you to have fun with it, instead of being self-conscious and superintellectual.”

- From this interview here.  Man, I hope Ray lives forever, I really do.

Cross-posted from Ferrett's Real Blog.

This entry has also been posted at http://theferrett.dreamwidth.org/180835.html. You can comment here, or comment there; makes no never-mind by me.

(6 shouts of denial | Tell me I'm full of it)

Comments
 
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From:cathica
Date:December 23rd, 2011 06:15 pm (UTC)
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You and me both, Sunshine. The man is a writing God.
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From:mariadkins
Date:December 23rd, 2011 08:21 pm (UTC)
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i want to meet him so bad!
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From:finubala
Date:December 23rd, 2011 10:10 pm (UTC)
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You know, I hope that Ray Bradbury lives forever too.
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From:gabyrippling
Date:December 23rd, 2011 11:30 pm (UTC)
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The medusa is often used as a literary trope to talk about the male gaze and the objectification of women (especially through the law and sexual censorship) too. But it's not really as poetic and harmless as what Ray Bradbury is talking about.
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From:dayzdark
Date:December 24th, 2011 08:17 am (UTC)
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I saw him with Douglas Adams in 1999 or 2000 Of the two men on the stage, the one in the wheelchair who obviously had physical difficulty speaking wasn't the one I expected to outlive the other bloke (love them both if for different reasons). I have absolutely no problem with Ray Bradbury living forever.

The money quote from that speech was something along the lines of, "When we go to space, we will still be human. We will still bring all our prejudices and failings with us. But we will also bring our great musicians, our amazing authors, and so many other wonderful things that are worth sharing with the Universe." Not an exact quote, mind you.

My favorite Bradbury metaphor (though the shield of Perseus is indeed awesome) was in describing himself as a compost heap assembled by his willingness to read good books and bad, great books and insignificant ones, important books and ones that will be forgotten in a year - and that it was from such a mishmash of ideas that his story ideas sprang. That's a philosophy of reading I can get behind 100% - both for writers and for readers.
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From:icelator
Date:December 25th, 2011 05:23 am (UTC)
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Just so I can be the first to post this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1IxOS4VzKM
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