{"id":2191222,"date":"2024-03-03T05:41:10","date_gmt":"2024-03-03T10:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/something-wondrous-this-way-comes\/"},"modified":"2024-03-03T05:42:00","modified_gmt":"2024-03-03T10:42:00","slug":"something-wondrous-this-way-comes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/something-wondrous-this-way-comes\/","title":{"rendered":"A Marvelous Arrival Awaits"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">8<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsomething-wondrous-this-way-comes%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2191222&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>March 2024<\/h2>\n<p>Dear (if I \u200dmay be so bold) Ray,<\/p>\n<p>I \u200bread Jonathan\u200d R. Eller&#8217;s collection of your correspondence, from the fan mail you sent in\u200c your youth to the letters and emails you sent in 2007. Eller writes that, before your death in 2012, you approved\u2062 of his publishing \u2062some of your\u200c letters: &#8220;Oh sure, oh yeah,&#8221; you said, &#8220;because \u200dit&#8217;s the story of my <i>life<\/i>.&#8221; \u2062That&#8217;s exactly what the book is\u2014autobiography, yet\u2063 somehow more authentic because\u200c the autobiographer was writing of his experiences while \u200cliving them.<\/p>\n<p>You critiqued plenty of books\u200c throughout \u200dyour life, Ray, so you can understand <i>Remembrance<\/i> is a hard book \u2064to review.\u2063 So many letters are so personal\u2014those to your parents, of course, \u2063and those to friends, especially amid an\u200c argument. But then, you were always personal in your writing, weren&#8217;t you? A \u200cBradbury story is always autobiographical, certainly in feeling and usually also in fact, from \u2064the earliest <i>Weird Tales<\/i> \u2064submissions on. OK, so maybe you didn&#8217;t \u200creally meet the powers of darkness in the form of a traveling carnival, but <i>Something Wicked This Way Comes<\/i>&#8216;s Mr. \u200bElectrico was real, you explained, and formative on you. OK, so maybe\u2064 firemen \u200daren&#8217;t yet hired to burn books, but you always could see, and target, the insidiousness of thought control. (How sad you would be now, if you could see the cruel iconoclasm that accompanies today&#8217;s &#8220;wokeness,&#8221; politicization of everything, and cancel \u200cculture.) And, of course,\u2064 <i>Something Wicked<\/i> and <i>Dandelion \u200cWine<\/i>&#8216;s Green\u200b Town is your idealized Waukegan, Ill., where you grew up and which you capture with the skill \u2062and Americana of, yes, Mark Twain.<\/p>\n<p>I was in elementary school when I discovered one of your\u2062 stories in the library\u2014I think it was &#8220;The Black Ferris.&#8221;\u200b A mysterious circus comes to town on the wings of the October wind (&#8220;like a dark bat flying over the cold lake&#8221;), bringing a \u2063Ferris wheel that can reverse the\u2063 flow of time? I \u2063was hooked.\u2064 On to \u200b <i>The Martian Chronicles<\/i>, <i>The October Country<\/i>, and the other glorious short stories! On \u2062to <i>Something Wicked<\/i> and\u2014eventually\u2014<i>Dandelion Wine<\/i>! I came to realize, at some point, that a story like <i>The Martian Chronicles<\/i>&#8216; &#8220;Mars Is Heaven&#8221;\u200c (my favorite Bradbury, then and now) doesn&#8217;t have much\u2062 to do at all with the fourth planet from the sun. Your Mars exists in the longings \u200dof the human soul\u2014the reason the \u2064story is so moving and so terrifying. <i>The Martian Chronicles<\/i> can &#8220;be read on Mars \u2026 one hundred years from\u2062 now,&#8221; you noted in a 1996 letter, because you were writing &#8220;mythology,\u2062 not scientific fact.&#8221; And what is mythology, after all, but our stumbling first attempts to cope\u200d with the world, the universe, and the divine?<\/p>\n<p>You made this point both \u200din interviews and in these letters. &#8220;Fantasy must\u2064 not just be fantasy,&#8221;\u2062 you wrote in a 1981\u200b analysis \u2062of <i>Something Wicked<\/i>, &#8220;it must be rooted in metaphor.&#8221; (If only more fantasy \u200dand sci-fi writers nowadays understood this!) The power of metaphor, \u200bof meaning, of\u2064 mythopoeia,\u2064 overshadows the arbitrary genre distinctions beloved of critics. &#8220;I don&#8217;t\u200d write stories with labels\u200c at all, if I\u200d can help it,&#8221; you explained in 1951. &#8220;I write &#8216;stories.&#8217; I write stories the best\u200b I know how, at all times.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>That you did, with \u2062that\u200d inimitable prose style\u2014poetic but\u200b not \u2063purple, with\u200c the honesty and precision of one of your favorites, Robert Frost\u2014for over 70 years.\u200c Your \u2063gift \u2063for prose shows up throughout <i>Remembrance<\/i>, with phrases funny (&#8220;they both breathed blarney and barley&#8221;), writerly (&#8220;I would be delighted [hell, what a weak word] to try my hand \u200bat it&#8221;), and contemplative: \u200b&#8221;I still feel like the boy who woke up summer mornings in Illinois thirty years ago,&#8221; you wrote in 1960. &#8220;Hell, it&#8217;s \u2063a \u200dcollaboration between him and me still, anyway, his early delights, and\u200c my later wisdoms knocking together and coming out in stories.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I was particularly\u200c struck by a letter you \u200bwrote to a friend, \u200cin the middle of\u2064 a \u2062fight. &#8220;I hope this friction cools off quickly. We all need friends and life is so damnably,\u200d tritely, \u2064short.&#8221; That\u200b <i>tritely<\/i> is the Bradbury touch.<\/p>\n<p>You may\u200c be surprised, as I was, by \u2063how Eller organized the\u2064 book\u2014not totally chronologically but thematically. The letters in\u200c each section are chronological, but then the reader moves on to \u200dthe \u2062next section and is back in your early days. (I was amused \u2063by how many novelists, politicians, filmmakers,\u200d actors, journalists, philosophers,\u2062 etc., with whom \u2064you corresponded\u2014Ray, is there anyone you didn&#8217;t know?) I understood why Eller made that choice, though, \u2062as \u2062I read on: A straightforward progression \u200cwould be too much. After reading \u2063letters \u2063from three U.S. presidents and the Pulitzer committee,\u200b we need a reminder \u2064of when you were working your way up, paying\u200c your dues,\u2064 toiling in the\u200c pulps. The\u2064 future, in other words, leads us to the\u200c past\u2026 I think you would have liked that.<\/p>\n<p>I could \u2062say much more. \u200dI loved \u2063your rightly \u200dincensed letter to a far-left\u200c editor who \u200bwanted you \u2064to change a story to align with his publication&#8217;s politics. He could\u200c criticize style, characterization, and structure, you told him, \u200cbut &#8220;when you begin telling me how my theme should be angled \u2064sociologically or politically, I am going to\u200b pack my belongings and trot \u2064out \u2062the front door.&#8221; Hear\u2064 hear!<\/p>\n<p>But \u2063I&#8217;ll stop there, \u2063except to say \u200cthat throughout the \u2062book\u2063 you refer to your novels, stories, and poems \u2062as &#8220;yarns.&#8221; Is that fair for\u2062 someone of your \u2064talent, \u2063someone who broke the barriers between genre and \u200d&#8221;literary&#8221; fiction, who reminded us of wonder? But maybe, ultimately, just spinning a yarn is a writer&#8217;s highest achievement\u2014a yarn that will withstand time and become mythology, ready for Martians to read 100 years hence.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks, Mr. B., \u2063for \u2062the letters, for\u200d the\u2063 wisdom, and for\u2063 the yarns.<\/p>\n<p>Karl<\/p>\n<p><em>Remembrance: Selected Correspondence of Ray \u2063Bradbury<\/em><br \/>  by Ray Bradbury, edited by Jonathan\u2064 R.\u200d Eller<br \/> Simon &#038; Schuster, \u2064528\u200c pp., $35<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<h2> In \u200cwhat ways\u200b did Ray Bradbury use fantasy to confront \u200cand \u2064understand the human experience?<\/h2>\n<p><span>  \u200d N short,&#8221; you wrote. It&#8217;s such a simple \u2062statement, but it speaks volumes about the importance of friendship and the challenges we face in maintaining those relationships. And yet, despite the struggles, you always\u2064 found a way to connect \u2063with people, through\u2063 your words and your stories.<\/p>\n<p>Your\u2064 writing, Ray, has touched the lives of so many.\u2063 It&#8217;s\u200d remarkable \u200dto think that your\u2062 stories,\u2064 filled\u200d with fantastical elements and otherworldly settings, are \u2064rooted \u2064in the deep and universal truths of the human \u2064experience. You understood that fantasy is \u2064not simply\u200d an escape from reality, but a way \u200cfor us to confront and understand our own lives.<\/p>\n<p>In a\u200c world that is often filled with chaos and uncertainty, your stories offer \u200ba sense\u200c of hope and wonder.\u200b They remind\u200b us of the power of imagination and the beauty that can be found in the ordinary. \u200cYou once wrote, &#8220;Everything I write is like the early\u2062 sun in Illinois, coming up \u200dgolden over a field \u2063of fresh corn.&#8221; That \u200cimage\u200b perfectly captures the warmth and optimism \u200cthat \u200dpermeates your work.<\/p>\n<p>But \u200byour writing was \u200bnot just about escapism. It was also a reflection of the times in\u200c which you lived. You used your\u200d stories to shine a light on the injustices and dangers of the world. You saw the insidiousness of thought control \u2064and the\u200c dangers of \u200ccensorship long before they became \u2064buzzwords\u2063 in our\u2063 contemporary society. Your \u2064words\u200d still resonate with relevance today, reminding us of the importance of free expression and the dangers of silencing dissenting voices.<\/p>\n<p>Ray, your impact on literature and popular culture is immeasurable. Your stories have been read by millions\u200d and have inspired countless writers and artists. You were not only\u200d a master\u200c storyteller but also a true lover of literature. You once\u2064 said, &#8220;Libraries \u200braised me. I\u200d don&#8217;t believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries because most students don&#8217;t have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during\u200c the Depression and we had\u200d no money. I couldn&#8217;t go to college, so\u200d I went to the library three days a week for 10 years.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Your love for libraries and your belief in \u200dthe power of books to educate and inspire\u2062 is\u2063 evident in your work. \u2062Your stories are a \u2063testament to\u2063 the transformative power of literature, and they continue to captivate readers of all ages.<\/p>\n<p>March 2024 marks twelve years since your passing, Ray, but your legacy lives on. Your words continue to transport us\u200d to other worlds, challenge our \u2062perceptions,\u200b and remind us \u2062of the\u200b beauty and\u2063 fragility of\u2063 our own \u200bexistence. Your stories are a gift, and we \u200dare grateful for the time\u2063 you spent with us, sharing your innermost thoughts and dreams.<\/p>\n<p>In Remembrance of\u200d Ray Bradbury,<\/p>\n[Your Name]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>March 2024 Dear Ray, I recently delved into Jonathan R. Eller&#8217;s compilation of your letters, spanning from your youthful fan mail to the 2007 emails. Eller reveals that you granted permission for him to publish a selection of your letters before your passing in 2012, stating, &#8220;Oh, go ahead<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":162,"featured_media":2191223,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/remembrance-9781668016978_xlg_736x515.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2191222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/remembrance-9781668016978_xlg_736x515.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2191222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/162"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2191222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2191222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2191223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2191222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2191222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2191222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}