Martian chronicles - good fluff ( )

This LOA edition contains both his sci fi and horror stories. As one of the early pioneers of the sci fi genres, he set the standard with his “The Martian Chronicles.” His “Fahrenheit 411” is included here. Dandelion Wine is a fictional retelling of his own teenage years. The last “Something Wicked This Way Comes” was made into a Disney movie which I saw myself. It is indeed a horror story so for those who like horror stories, you will enjoy the creepy reading. ( )

SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES | read 2021-09

Chiefly my appreciation of Bradbury centers on his prose, a feature evidently love-it-or-hate-it for many readers. Along with prose, his premise and setting are strong, as are some set pieces. Oddly enough, the plot or denouement -- for me -- tend to the vanilla. (Writing that, I associate a similar profile with Steven King -- though I'm not a King fan, and would substitute "dialogue" for "prose" in his case.) Most Bradbury I've read was when a teen, though I re-read The Martian Chronicles somewhat recently. That novel, The Halloween Tree, and Something Wicked each left a similar impression of prose over plot.

A key underlying tension in Something Wicked is the risk-avoidant behaviour of Will's dad (Charles), and the risk-alluring behaviour of Jim. Will seems set between the two, more risky than Charles, less than Jim. The novel's theme then, the place of danger, or exploring the uncertain in life.

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Somewhat an impulse read for the season (it is set at the end of September and runs into October), and concurrent with a family screening of the first season of Stranger Things.

From the Appendix, I also read "Carnivals, Near and Far (An Afterword to Something Wicked This Way Comes)", originally used for a later edition; and, LOA's notes on the text / chronology, which had brief accounts of the writing of Something Wicked. Evidently the novel's origins are with an old story ("Black Ferris") that was excluded from Bradbury's early collection, Dark Carnival. The story was inspired by wanting to write a screenplay for Gene Kelly, but it went unproduced and Bradbury turned it into a novel. He did this a few times, and worked the other way round, too.

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to be read:
THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES
FAHRENHEIT 451
DANDELION WINE
APPENDIX
- A Few Notes on The Martian Chronicles
- Day After Tomorrow: Why Science Fiction?
- No Man Is an Island
- Just This Side of Byzantium (An Introduction to Dandelion Wine)
- Dandelion Wine Revisited ( )