Soo... an actual fleshed out post of thoughts...
As with last week's FINALLY posted meme, today's a more meta/thinky-post now that I'm finally at my laptop and have the time/idea.
I've been reading Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine which I first came across as a bookstore recommendation at the local independent store on my uni's campus/city area. And really, it drew me in partially because of its very gorgeous prose (even if it makes for rather difficult reading for my currently still-easily-distracted brain) and partially because I've been meaning to try to go back to Bradbury for a while now.
Fahrenheit 451 had been required reading in high school, and perhaps that hadn't been the most fortuitous introduction to Bradbury for me because it is forever known, basically, as the "book that traumatized me and my bibliophilic heart" junior year. (^_^)" It was also before I had ever really read anything truly classified as science fiction or before I really started learning about it as a genre, so it was with a totally unprepared mind that I took in the 'devastation' of that dystopic world (though notably not that bad in comparison to depictions of the world in other dystopics, so perhaps less "devastating" so much as "disturbing" to me, which means it did its job), even if it ends on a relatively hopeful note. It was one of the first dystopian books I had ever read, I think, at that point. It also didn't help that my English teacher also brought in the movie to show snippets of it (if only to highlight how different and bad it was), and I've been forever embedded with the image of the woman who stays in the house to be burnt with her books. ;_;
But really, that's really tangential to Dandelion Wine since it's actually NOT one of Bradbury's famous science-fiction works, and maybe that's why it's startled me a bit? In that it seems like one of those stories that would fall right up my alley (the playing off of time, of memory, of ideas of home that we cling to most or return to repeatedly, of growing up and change) and yet, instead of comfortably settling in, there's always this small dissonance - the same dissonance I feel when recalling F451. But then again, he had already based all his science fiction works along the backdrop of 'reality' as it was to his observations and to his thoughts. (Those "truths" and bits of knowledge discovered by Doug and Tom in Dandelion Wine are good examples.) And maybe all those small bits of "dissonance" I experience(d) when reading his work are just characteristic of his writing style - and of the fact that he grew up being strongly influenced by horror fiction and during the 'golden-age' of science fiction (Heinlein etc.), when it was still very much pretty much an "all boys club".
Anyway, just two things I made a note of during my read (and I am only a little past the half-way point):
1) This passage which I identified so very strongly with ends up being the start of one of the most depressing chapters of the book (which is technically a bunch of shorter stories all strung together so...) for me:
"Mrs. Bentley was a saver. She saved tickets, old theatre programs, bits of lace, scarves, rail transfers; all the tags and tokens of existence."
It ends with one of the few actual interactions where we actually see girls come into play for the story, but it's in a way that makes me extremely sad and uncomfortable - though that may say as much about me as it does about what I am reading. (What with my own "collecting" habits and need for keeping memorabilia because I feel as if they will somehow help my memories as time passes even if memory is this shallow, imperfect thing.) It's also interesting because there's a strong contrast in the elderly women of the story and the elderly men - at least, in the perspective they are being approached from, which I guess is understandable with the narrator and central characters being primarily young boys.
2) And then there's this passage that just recently came up and resonated with me strongly, but because the feelings it inspired synced up nicely with the actual message and tone of the chapter - it worked? *isn't sure if I am making any sense whatsoever*:
"The colored windowpanes on the little round windows, have they always been there?"
"Sure."
"You positive?"
"Darned old windows been there since before we were born. Why?"
"I never saw them before today," said John. "On the way walking through town I looked up and there they were. Doug, what was I doing all these years I didn't see them?"
"You had other things to do."
"Did I?" John turned and looked in a kind of panic at Douglas. "Gosh, Doug, why should those darn windows scare me? I mean, that's nothing to be scared of, is it? It's just..." He floudered, "It's just, if I didn't see these windows until today, what else did I miss? And what about all the things I did see here in town? Will I be able to remember them when I go away?"
Anyway, that's the end of THAT set of rambly thoughts. (^_^)" I hope they weren't uhmm... too nonsensical or boring. :3
Good night/day everyone! *HUGS* ♥
I've been reading Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine which I first came across as a bookstore recommendation at the local independent store on my uni's campus/city area. And really, it drew me in partially because of its very gorgeous prose (even if it makes for rather difficult reading for my currently still-easily-distracted brain) and partially because I've been meaning to try to go back to Bradbury for a while now.
Fahrenheit 451 had been required reading in high school, and perhaps that hadn't been the most fortuitous introduction to Bradbury for me because it is forever known, basically, as the "book that traumatized me and my bibliophilic heart" junior year. (^_^)" It was also before I had ever really read anything truly classified as science fiction or before I really started learning about it as a genre, so it was with a totally unprepared mind that I took in the 'devastation' of that dystopic world (though notably not that bad in comparison to depictions of the world in other dystopics, so perhaps less "devastating" so much as "disturbing" to me, which means it did its job), even if it ends on a relatively hopeful note. It was one of the first dystopian books I had ever read, I think, at that point. It also didn't help that my English teacher also brought in the movie to show snippets of it (if only to highlight how different and bad it was), and I've been forever embedded with the image of the woman who stays in the house to be burnt with her books. ;_;
But really, that's really tangential to Dandelion Wine since it's actually NOT one of Bradbury's famous science-fiction works, and maybe that's why it's startled me a bit? In that it seems like one of those stories that would fall right up my alley (the playing off of time, of memory, of ideas of home that we cling to most or return to repeatedly, of growing up and change) and yet, instead of comfortably settling in, there's always this small dissonance - the same dissonance I feel when recalling F451. But then again, he had already based all his science fiction works along the backdrop of 'reality' as it was to his observations and to his thoughts. (Those "truths" and bits of knowledge discovered by Doug and Tom in Dandelion Wine are good examples.) And maybe all those small bits of "dissonance" I experience(d) when reading his work are just characteristic of his writing style - and of the fact that he grew up being strongly influenced by horror fiction and during the 'golden-age' of science fiction (Heinlein etc.), when it was still very much pretty much an "all boys club".
Anyway, just two things I made a note of during my read (and I am only a little past the half-way point):
1) This passage which I identified so very strongly with ends up being the start of one of the most depressing chapters of the book (which is technically a bunch of shorter stories all strung together so...) for me:
"Mrs. Bentley was a saver. She saved tickets, old theatre programs, bits of lace, scarves, rail transfers; all the tags and tokens of existence."
It ends with one of the few actual interactions where we actually see girls come into play for the story, but it's in a way that makes me extremely sad and uncomfortable - though that may say as much about me as it does about what I am reading. (What with my own "collecting" habits and need for keeping memorabilia because I feel as if they will somehow help my memories as time passes even if memory is this shallow, imperfect thing.) It's also interesting because there's a strong contrast in the elderly women of the story and the elderly men - at least, in the perspective they are being approached from, which I guess is understandable with the narrator and central characters being primarily young boys.
2) And then there's this passage that just recently came up and resonated with me strongly, but because the feelings it inspired synced up nicely with the actual message and tone of the chapter - it worked? *isn't sure if I am making any sense whatsoever*:
"The colored windowpanes on the little round windows, have they always been there?"
"Sure."
"You positive?"
"Darned old windows been there since before we were born. Why?"
"I never saw them before today," said John. "On the way walking through town I looked up and there they were. Doug, what was I doing all these years I didn't see them?"
"You had other things to do."
"Did I?" John turned and looked in a kind of panic at Douglas. "Gosh, Doug, why should those darn windows scare me? I mean, that's nothing to be scared of, is it? It's just..." He floudered, "It's just, if I didn't see these windows until today, what else did I miss? And what about all the things I did see here in town? Will I be able to remember them when I go away?"
Anyway, that's the end of THAT set of rambly thoughts. (^_^)" I hope they weren't uhmm... too nonsensical or boring. :3
Good night/day everyone! *HUGS* ♥