I've spent a lot of time over the last couple of months reading Ray Bradbury. The more I read of him, the more I admire, and feel I learn from this writer. He is one
of the most celebrated American authors of the twentieth century. Bradbury strongly
believed that writing should be developed through a combination of studying the
authors you enjoy and one’s own life experiences.
A few of my favorite reads and lines so far...
Fahrenheit 451:
“It was a pleasure to burn.
It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed.
With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting its
venomous kerosene upon the world, the blood pounded in his head, and his hands
were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing
and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history”and...
“The books are to remind us what asses and fool we
are. They're Caeser's praetorian guard, whispering as the parade roars down the
avenue, "Remember, Caeser, thou art mortal." Most of us can't rush
around, talking to everyone, know all the cities of the world, we haven't time,
money or that many friends. The things you're looking for, Montag, are in the
world, but the only way the average chap will ever see ninety-nine per cent of
them is in a book. Don't ask for guarantees. And don't look to be saved in any
one thing, person, machine, or library. Do your own bit of saving, and if you
drown, at least die knowing you were headed for shore” (82).
Something Wicked This Way Comes:“You two feet taller… you
looking down at me Jim, and what’d we talk about, me with my pockets full of
kite string and marbles and frog eyes and you with… empty pockets and making
fun, is that what we’d talk, and you able to run faster and ditch me…” (127).
and
“A stranger is shot in the street, you hardly move to help. But if, half
an hour before, you spent just ten minutes with the fellow and knew a little
about him and his family, you might just jump in front of his killer and try to
stop it. Really knowing is good. Not knowing, or refusing to know is bad, or
amoral, at least. You can’t act if you don’t know” (198).
The Halloween Tree.
and
“The unemployed of all midnight Europe shivered in
their stone sleep and came awake. Which is to say that all the old beasts, all
the old tales, all the old nightmares, all the old unused demons-put-by, and
witches left in the lurch, quaked at the call, reared at the whistle, trembled
at the summons, and in dust devils of propulsion skimmed down the roads,
flitted skies, buckshot through shaken trees, forded streams, swam rivers,
pierced clouds, and arrived, arrived, arrived” (Bradbury 97).
How about you? Are you a Bradbury fan? What are some examples of written language that you enjoy?
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