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Cento racconti. Autoantologia 1943-1980
I cento racconti inclusi in questa antologia - scelti dallo stesso autore per il volume pubblicato nel 1980 da Knopf con il titolo The stories of Ray Bradbury - costituiscono una scelta assai rappresentativa della straordinaria produzione narrativa di Bradbury, che nella sua lunghissima e prolifica carriera ha esplorato i generi più disparati. Accanto ai racconti propriamente fantascientifici - tra guerre di mondi, scenari postatomici, marziani che vivono in dimore incandescenti piene di libri che parlano appena vengono sfiorati, ma anche terrestri che lasciano la Terra per colonizzare altri pianeti e fondare nuove civiltà - non mancano infatti racconti polizieschi, noir, fantasy e horror. Ben rappresentato nel volume è poi il Bradbury cantore della provincia americana, con una serie di celeberrimi racconti in cui le atmosfere della small-town sono ritratte con sguardo insieme feroce e struggente, e una forte componente autobiografica. Altro tema potente delle sue short stories è infatti la rievocazione dell'infanzia e dell'adolescenza, viste come un tempo incantato, dominato da grandi passioni letterarie (Poe, Dickens, Twain e Steinbeck su tutti), e dall'amore per il cinema, specialmente per i primi effetti speciali che raccontavano la conquista dello spazio con un misto di ingenuità ed entusiasmo.
1342 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
2102 people are currently reading
6906 people want to read
About the author
Ray Bradbury
2,544 books24.7k followersRay Douglas Bradbury was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and realistic fiction.
Bradbury is best known for his novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and his short-story collections The Martian Chronicles (1950), The Illustrated Man (1951), and The October Country (1955). Other notable works include the coming of age novel Dandelion Wine (1957), the dark fantasy Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962) and the fictionalized memoir Green Shadows, White Whale (1992). He also wrote and consulted on screenplays and television scripts, including Moby Dick and It Came from Outer Space. Many of his works were adapted into television and film productions as well as comic books. Bradbury also wrote poetry which has been published in several collections, such as They Have Not Seen the Stars (2001).
The New York Times called Bradbury "An author whose fanciful imagination, poetic prose, and mature understanding of human character have won him an international reputation" and "the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream".
Bradbury is best known for his novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and his short-story collections The Martian Chronicles (1950), The Illustrated Man (1951), and The October Country (1955). Other notable works include the coming of age novel Dandelion Wine (1957), the dark fantasy Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962) and the fictionalized memoir Green Shadows, White Whale (1992). He also wrote and consulted on screenplays and television scripts, including Moby Dick and It Came from Outer Space. Many of his works were adapted into television and film productions as well as comic books. Bradbury also wrote poetry which has been published in several collections, such as They Have Not Seen the Stars (2001).
The New York Times called Bradbury "An author whose fanciful imagination, poetic prose, and mature understanding of human character have won him an international reputation" and "the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream".
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 304 reviews
September 23, 2023
Ok so I’ve read 50 of the 100 stories in this collection and I'm going to take a little break. You see, I've been having these Ray Bradbury dreams. You know the kind where you're an octogenarian trapped inside the body of a child who can't grow past 10 years of age and you have to keep moving from family to family in different parts of the country so that nobody catches on you're some sort of a chronological freak? Or the kind where you find yourself marooned on the planet Venus where the torrential rains never let up, to the point that your flesh begins to decompose before you're even dead, and if you don't soon find someplace dry to shelter in it’s going to melt right off your bones like a popsicle in the sun? Or how about the one where you give birth to a baby who, you are convinced, wants to murder you for no better reason than revenge for being born? Or...but I'll stop here lest you should have Bradbury dreams yourself and blame this reviewer for your sleepless nights.
October 14, 2024
The Stories of Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury is one of the most famous and prolific authors of the 20th century. I read that he didn’t attend college because he was too poor to afford it. This was also during the Great Depression. But Bradbury did spend his formative years “living” at the library. He read many books by those famous authors of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. And Bradbury had a profoundly curious and imaginative mind. His ability to write so captivatingly about such a wide range of situations, some in sci-fi settings, some in the horror genre, and some solely about nostalgia is quite remarkable. It is of little doubt that this self education in reading the great works were instrumental to his success
As anyone who’s read Fahrenheit 451 can tell you — it’s not Bradbury’s science writing that is particularly special but rather his ability to imagine our situations in the universe, often dysfunctional ones. Perhaps this is why his writing has held up so well. He reveals the potential of human nature, often the dark side, which is a pretty timeless concept.
One of the attributes that I like about his writing is how he often telegraphs ominous endings far in advance. The drama then builds in tandem with the transparency of his storytelling. There are no unfair plot twists. The stories are engaging and well wrought and you savor the endings — especially the ones where you already have an inkling of how they’ll turn out.
The 100 stories in this collection only average ten pages in length. I read them all. Below are my short listed favorites. Most are quite famous — so no surprises there. I also have read most of these short listed stories out loud to my daughters — and we can’t stop talking about them. Some are admittedly quite dark and my kids seemed to enjoy those stories more than maybe I was anticipating. Their favorite story was the Veldt which is very dark.
Favorite Ones
1. The Lake. A boy needs to finish the sand castle years after his friend drowns. Nostalgic and tragic tale.
2. The Coffin. A deliciously macabre tale about two brothers who hate each other. As the title suggests it does not end well.
3. Mars is Heaven. A wonderfully creepy tale about a third wave of explorers who visit Mars. Quite a famous story. Also included in The Martian Chronicles.
4. Marionettes, Inc. A husband, who is frequently gone away on business trips, orders an animated marionette that looks identical to him to keep his wife company. What could possibly go wrong when he finds out the marionette is sentient?
5. The City. A city waits twenty thousand years to get its revenge on the Earthlings who killed its original inhabitants.
6. The Veldt. A famous story about two spoiled children in whose technology room they have recreated a violent African savannah. The children will go to any lengths to stop their parents from shutting down their technology room!
7. The Fire Balloons. A thought provoking story about two clergymen who travel to Mars to spread Christianity amongst the Martians — analogous to our missionaries here on Earth. One problem for the space traveling clergymen — the Martian bodies are amorphous globes of light. One priest has a plan, “Content is everything. We cannot expect these Martians to accept an alien form. We shall give them Christ in their own image..... Christ will fill any vessel that is offered. Bodies or globes. He is there, and each will worship the same thing in a different guise. What is more, we must believe in this globe we give the Martians. We must believe in a shape which is meaningless to us as a form. The spheroid will be Christ.”
8. April Witch - young woman (or witch) Cecy invades another woman’s body and tries to persuade her to marry her suitor against her wishes.
9. A Sound of Thunder - Time travel story about Killing a T-Rex and how the butterfly effect can change the future in unplanned ways.
10. The Playground - man fears for his young son’s safety at the playground. He is offered a deal by a stranger so the father can swap places with his son and spare him the cruelty of childhood.
11. The Small Assassin - can’t do better than this chilling short story.
12. The Next in Line - woman and husband are in Mexico tourist town. They visit the catacombs and woman is disturbed and fears for her life in Mexico. Husband seems fascinated about the mummies and doesn’t want to leave. Woman is afraid she’ll die in the town and end up on display in the catacombs. The husband does little to reassure her.
13. Jack-in-the-box - A wealthy boy living in a massive mansion has an attachment to his manipulative mother. He eventually escapes the mansion and enters the world of death — the outside world. He is now happy but does not understand the significance of his mother’s manipulation. Very thought provoking story. The stuck jack-in-the-box he tries to open is symbolic of his struggle to escape the house
14. So Died Riabouchinska - ventriloquist is arrested for murder. His puppet has an interesting story to tell the detective. Very clever tale.
15. Some Live Like Lazarus - one of the very best stories. Man is under his mother’s thumb, he wants to kill her so he can marry but he waits nearly fifty more years? Or does he?
16. The Body Electric - android grandmother takes care of family for thirty years after the real mother dies. Surprisingly profound story about hope and love.
17. Punishment without Crime - fascinating story about murdering a look alike android.
18. The Utterly Perfect Murder - man travels across the country to commit a murder 36 years after a begrudging incident. But can he pull the trigger?
5 stars. Easy. One of the best, if not the very best, short story collections that I’ve read by any author.
Ray Bradbury is one of the most famous and prolific authors of the 20th century. I read that he didn’t attend college because he was too poor to afford it. This was also during the Great Depression. But Bradbury did spend his formative years “living” at the library. He read many books by those famous authors of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. And Bradbury had a profoundly curious and imaginative mind. His ability to write so captivatingly about such a wide range of situations, some in sci-fi settings, some in the horror genre, and some solely about nostalgia is quite remarkable. It is of little doubt that this self education in reading the great works were instrumental to his success
As anyone who’s read Fahrenheit 451 can tell you — it’s not Bradbury’s science writing that is particularly special but rather his ability to imagine our situations in the universe, often dysfunctional ones. Perhaps this is why his writing has held up so well. He reveals the potential of human nature, often the dark side, which is a pretty timeless concept.
One of the attributes that I like about his writing is how he often telegraphs ominous endings far in advance. The drama then builds in tandem with the transparency of his storytelling. There are no unfair plot twists. The stories are engaging and well wrought and you savor the endings — especially the ones where you already have an inkling of how they’ll turn out.
The 100 stories in this collection only average ten pages in length. I read them all. Below are my short listed favorites. Most are quite famous — so no surprises there. I also have read most of these short listed stories out loud to my daughters — and we can’t stop talking about them. Some are admittedly quite dark and my kids seemed to enjoy those stories more than maybe I was anticipating. Their favorite story was the Veldt which is very dark.
Favorite Ones
1. The Lake. A boy needs to finish the sand castle years after his friend drowns. Nostalgic and tragic tale.
2. The Coffin. A deliciously macabre tale about two brothers who hate each other. As the title suggests it does not end well.
3. Mars is Heaven. A wonderfully creepy tale about a third wave of explorers who visit Mars. Quite a famous story. Also included in The Martian Chronicles.
4. Marionettes, Inc. A husband, who is frequently gone away on business trips, orders an animated marionette that looks identical to him to keep his wife company. What could possibly go wrong when he finds out the marionette is sentient?
5. The City. A city waits twenty thousand years to get its revenge on the Earthlings who killed its original inhabitants.
6. The Veldt. A famous story about two spoiled children in whose technology room they have recreated a violent African savannah. The children will go to any lengths to stop their parents from shutting down their technology room!
7. The Fire Balloons. A thought provoking story about two clergymen who travel to Mars to spread Christianity amongst the Martians — analogous to our missionaries here on Earth. One problem for the space traveling clergymen — the Martian bodies are amorphous globes of light. One priest has a plan, “Content is everything. We cannot expect these Martians to accept an alien form. We shall give them Christ in their own image..... Christ will fill any vessel that is offered. Bodies or globes. He is there, and each will worship the same thing in a different guise. What is more, we must believe in this globe we give the Martians. We must believe in a shape which is meaningless to us as a form. The spheroid will be Christ.”
8. April Witch - young woman (or witch) Cecy invades another woman’s body and tries to persuade her to marry her suitor against her wishes.
9. A Sound of Thunder - Time travel story about Killing a T-Rex and how the butterfly effect can change the future in unplanned ways.
10. The Playground - man fears for his young son’s safety at the playground. He is offered a deal by a stranger so the father can swap places with his son and spare him the cruelty of childhood.
11. The Small Assassin - can’t do better than this chilling short story.
12. The Next in Line - woman and husband are in Mexico tourist town. They visit the catacombs and woman is disturbed and fears for her life in Mexico. Husband seems fascinated about the mummies and doesn’t want to leave. Woman is afraid she’ll die in the town and end up on display in the catacombs. The husband does little to reassure her.
13. Jack-in-the-box - A wealthy boy living in a massive mansion has an attachment to his manipulative mother. He eventually escapes the mansion and enters the world of death — the outside world. He is now happy but does not understand the significance of his mother’s manipulation. Very thought provoking story. The stuck jack-in-the-box he tries to open is symbolic of his struggle to escape the house
14. So Died Riabouchinska - ventriloquist is arrested for murder. His puppet has an interesting story to tell the detective. Very clever tale.
15. Some Live Like Lazarus - one of the very best stories. Man is under his mother’s thumb, he wants to kill her so he can marry but he waits nearly fifty more years? Or does he?
16. The Body Electric - android grandmother takes care of family for thirty years after the real mother dies. Surprisingly profound story about hope and love.
17. Punishment without Crime - fascinating story about murdering a look alike android.
18. The Utterly Perfect Murder - man travels across the country to commit a murder 36 years after a begrudging incident. But can he pull the trigger?
5 stars. Easy. One of the best, if not the very best, short story collections that I’ve read by any author.
August 5, 2017
Bradbury's short stories are quick reads. The story starts from the very first sentence setting up minimal context and in most of the stories, he holds off on the punch line till the very end - the factor that changes the tone of the story completely. With this style in place and the way he titles the story, the narration is already half there. Witty, colloquial and often banter styled dialogues moves the stories very fast to an eventual conclusion. Even in this small space, he insists on start-middle-end format that works to his benefit.
The collection scatters across various genres, science fiction and fantasy being a constant recurring theme. Though themes vary, the characters remain utterly humane and almost every story is these humans salvaging sense of morality. Without an explanation as to why or how, Bradbury delves into wonderland of Science fiction especially involving time travel or some variant of it. Any story involving technology has elements of crime, dissolution of common sense and void of basic human emotions - be it building a robotic body double or finding a machine that makes people happy. When there are children involved, the theme is almost always adult and deeply disturbing - a baby that kills to a boy who lives with an entity that shape shifts. The underlying theme in this case however is juxtaposition of innocence and experience, and the knowledge that lies in the middle.
Though Bradbury explores various themes and genres, the foundation of his stories always lie in everyday human emotions - relationships between various familial and social structures, parenting, friendships, alienation, ambition, survival, adaptation and so forth. The basic human emotions drive Bradbury's stories and aren't easily visible at a superficial glance. These stories make one think and feel entertained at the same time. When the theme of a story is examined in the context of the characters, familiar emotions can be recognized.
The most enjoyable format to read a collection like this is to read a story or two everyday. With the number of short stories under his belt, there is enough to go around an entire year's worth.
1. The Night - 3/5
2. Homecoming - 3/5
3. Uncle Eniar - 3/5
4. The Traveler - 4/5
5. The Lake - 3/5
6. The Coffin - 5/5
7. The Crowd - 3/5
8. The Scythe - 4/5
9. There was an old woman - 3/5
10. There will come soft rains - 2/5
11. Mars is heaven - 3/5
12. The silent towns - 3/5
13.The Earth Men - 4/5
14. The Off Season - 3/5
15. The Million Year Picnic - 3/5
16. The Fox and the Forest - 3/5
17. Kaleidoscope - 3/5
18. The Rocket Man - 3/5
19. Marionettes, Inc - 4/5
20. No particular night or morning - 4/5
21. The City - 3/5
22. The Fire Balloon - 3/5
23. The last night of the world - 3/5
24. The Veldt - 3/5
25. The Long Rain - 3/5
26. The Great Fire - 3/5
27. The Wilderness - 3/5
28. The Sound of Thunder -4/5
29. The Murder - 3/5
30. The April Witch - 3/5
31. Invisible Boy - 3/5
32. The Golden Kite, the silver wind - 3/5
33. The Fog Horn - 4/5
34. The Black and White Game - 3/5
35. Embroidery - 3/5
36. The Golden Apples of the sun - 3/5
37. Powerhouse - 3/5
38. Hail and Farewell - 3/5
39. The Great wide world over there - 3/5
40. The Playground -3/5
41. Skeleton - 4/5
42. The man upstairs - 3/5
43. Touched with Fire - 3/5
44. The Emissary - 3/5
45. The Jar - DNF
46. The Small Assassin - 5/5
47. The Next in line - 3/5
48. Jack-In-The-Box - 3/5
49. The Leave-Taking - 3/5
50. Exorcism - 3/5
51. The Happiness Machine - 3/5
52. Calling Mexico - 3/5
53. The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit - 3/5
54. Dark They were, and Golden-Eyed - 4/5
55. The Strawberry Window - 3/5
56. A scent of Sarsaparilla - 3/5
57. The Picasso Summer - 3/5
58. The Day It Rained forever - 3/5
59. A medicine for melancholy - 3/5
60. The Shoreline at Sunset - 3/5
61. Fever Dream - 3/5
62. The town where no one got off - 3/5
63. All summer in a day - 3/5
64. Frost and Fire - 3/5
65. The Anthem Sprinters - 3/5
66. And so Died Riabouchinska - 3/5
67. Boys! Raise Giant Mushrooms in your Cellar - 3/5
68. The Vacation - 3/5
69. The Illustrated Woman - 3/5
70. Some Live like Lazarus - 3/5
71. The best of all possible worlds - 3/5
72. The one who waits - 3/5
73. T Rex - 3/5
74. The Screaming Woman - 3/5
75. The terrible conflagration up at the place - 3/5
76. Night call, collect - 5/5
77. The tombling day - 3/5
78. The haunting of the new - 3/5
79. Tomorrow's child - 3/5
80. I sing the body electric - 3/5
81. The women - 3/5
82. The inspired chicken motel - 3/5
83. Yes, we'll gather at the river - 3/5
84. Have I got a chocolate bar for you - 3/5
85. A story of love - 3/5
86. The parrot who met papa - 3/5
87. The October game - 3/5
88. Punishment without crime - 3/5
89. A piece of wood - 3/5
90. The blue bottle - 3/5
91. Long after midnight - 3/5
92. The utterly perfect murder - 4/5
93. The better part of wisdom - 3/5
94. Interval in sunlight - 3/5
95. The black Ferris - 3/5
96. Farewell Summer - 3/5
97. McGillahee's brat - 3/5
98. The Aqueduct - 3/5
99. Gotcha! - 3/5
100. The End of the Beginning - 3/5
[6] The Coffin: One of the best short stories I've come across in recent years. Bradbury manages to deliver a powerful story without indulging in banality of backstory.
[7] The Crowd: Minutes after a traffic accident, bystanders gather and discuss the nature of life's promiscuity and the jarring opinions that rip out of them without filter.
[8]The Scythe: A man tied to the scythe and as he harvests the ripe wheat in the field behind his house, all the souls that are neither living nor dead move out of their limbo.
Made me wonder - is he moving the souls from limbo or is the scythe reason for their dying in the first place?
[9]There was an old woman: Only Bradbury can make death so funny.
[13]The Earth Men: Where "Martian Chronicles" began, in a not-so-cute meet-greet setting.
[16]The Fox and the Forest: A suspense thriller, a statement on war, a love story and sacrifices. All done in a span of 12 pages.
[19]Marionettes, Inc. : Bradbury mixes romance, science fiction and crime in a neatly packed little story which ends with a punch that's obvious with its arrival from the very first paragraph but still manages to surprise in the way it gets delivered.
[20]No particular night or morning: Bradbury's brand of existentialism.
[21]The City: The City, an anthropomorphic entity, avenges its people who were left in destitute by people of Earth during time of mass epidemic and eventual extinction. Its a revenge story is like no other.
[28]A sound of Thunder: Time machine, butterfly effect and end of rational thinking.
[33]The Fog Horn:Probably summary of every superhero story ever. A hero is as heroic as evil the villain is. Without a villain, what purpose does a hero serve?
[41]Skeleton:A fantasy-horror rendition of Stephen King's Thinner where a man loses his skeleton to a weird doctor for $2 after complaining about invisible bone aches.
[45]The Jar: The shifting tone of the story as short as it already is made a confusing start even more confusing and three pages later, I gave up.
[46]The Small Assassin: Before there was Children of the Corn, Child's Play, Chucky and plethora of other children based horror movies, there was Small Assassin. Excellent mood setting that plays on post natal exhaustion, new baby excitement and the overwhelming sense of responsibility that hits new parents when they take new born in their arms.
[51]The Happiness machine: Incredibly melancholic, the characters discover happiness through various moments of joy.
[54]Dark they were, and golden-eyed: Surprisingly charming with mutability of a species and the way nature, even in mars, forces adaptation on everything encompassing it. Including humans.
[76]Night call, collect: An intelligent way to address the paradox of contacting one's future self and dealing with the aftermath, RB narrates a stellar story of man on Mars contacted by his younger self who resolutely makes different choices than his future self, thus meeting another future self of his. Though it sounds complicated, narration is incredibly simple.
[92]The utterly perfect murder: A man plans a perfect murder to save his younger self. The story feels choppy with first person narrative but the murder is, perfect.
The collection scatters across various genres, science fiction and fantasy being a constant recurring theme. Though themes vary, the characters remain utterly humane and almost every story is these humans salvaging sense of morality. Without an explanation as to why or how, Bradbury delves into wonderland of Science fiction especially involving time travel or some variant of it. Any story involving technology has elements of crime, dissolution of common sense and void of basic human emotions - be it building a robotic body double or finding a machine that makes people happy. When there are children involved, the theme is almost always adult and deeply disturbing - a baby that kills to a boy who lives with an entity that shape shifts. The underlying theme in this case however is juxtaposition of innocence and experience, and the knowledge that lies in the middle.
Though Bradbury explores various themes and genres, the foundation of his stories always lie in everyday human emotions - relationships between various familial and social structures, parenting, friendships, alienation, ambition, survival, adaptation and so forth. The basic human emotions drive Bradbury's stories and aren't easily visible at a superficial glance. These stories make one think and feel entertained at the same time. When the theme of a story is examined in the context of the characters, familiar emotions can be recognized.
The most enjoyable format to read a collection like this is to read a story or two everyday. With the number of short stories under his belt, there is enough to go around an entire year's worth.
1. The Night - 3/5
2. Homecoming - 3/5
3. Uncle Eniar - 3/5
4. The Traveler - 4/5
5. The Lake - 3/5
6. The Coffin - 5/5
7. The Crowd - 3/5
8. The Scythe - 4/5
9. There was an old woman - 3/5
10. There will come soft rains - 2/5
11. Mars is heaven - 3/5
12. The silent towns - 3/5
13.The Earth Men - 4/5
14. The Off Season - 3/5
15. The Million Year Picnic - 3/5
16. The Fox and the Forest - 3/5
17. Kaleidoscope - 3/5
18. The Rocket Man - 3/5
19. Marionettes, Inc - 4/5
20. No particular night or morning - 4/5
21. The City - 3/5
22. The Fire Balloon - 3/5
23. The last night of the world - 3/5
24. The Veldt - 3/5
25. The Long Rain - 3/5
26. The Great Fire - 3/5
27. The Wilderness - 3/5
28. The Sound of Thunder -4/5
29. The Murder - 3/5
30. The April Witch - 3/5
31. Invisible Boy - 3/5
32. The Golden Kite, the silver wind - 3/5
33. The Fog Horn - 4/5
34. The Black and White Game - 3/5
35. Embroidery - 3/5
36. The Golden Apples of the sun - 3/5
37. Powerhouse - 3/5
38. Hail and Farewell - 3/5
39. The Great wide world over there - 3/5
40. The Playground -3/5
41. Skeleton - 4/5
42. The man upstairs - 3/5
43. Touched with Fire - 3/5
44. The Emissary - 3/5
45. The Jar - DNF
46. The Small Assassin - 5/5
47. The Next in line - 3/5
48. Jack-In-The-Box - 3/5
49. The Leave-Taking - 3/5
50. Exorcism - 3/5
51. The Happiness Machine - 3/5
52. Calling Mexico - 3/5
53. The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit - 3/5
54. Dark They were, and Golden-Eyed - 4/5
55. The Strawberry Window - 3/5
56. A scent of Sarsaparilla - 3/5
57. The Picasso Summer - 3/5
58. The Day It Rained forever - 3/5
59. A medicine for melancholy - 3/5
60. The Shoreline at Sunset - 3/5
61. Fever Dream - 3/5
62. The town where no one got off - 3/5
63. All summer in a day - 3/5
64. Frost and Fire - 3/5
65. The Anthem Sprinters - 3/5
66. And so Died Riabouchinska - 3/5
67. Boys! Raise Giant Mushrooms in your Cellar - 3/5
68. The Vacation - 3/5
69. The Illustrated Woman - 3/5
70. Some Live like Lazarus - 3/5
71. The best of all possible worlds - 3/5
72. The one who waits - 3/5
73. T Rex - 3/5
74. The Screaming Woman - 3/5
75. The terrible conflagration up at the place - 3/5
76. Night call, collect - 5/5
77. The tombling day - 3/5
78. The haunting of the new - 3/5
79. Tomorrow's child - 3/5
80. I sing the body electric - 3/5
81. The women - 3/5
82. The inspired chicken motel - 3/5
83. Yes, we'll gather at the river - 3/5
84. Have I got a chocolate bar for you - 3/5
85. A story of love - 3/5
86. The parrot who met papa - 3/5
87. The October game - 3/5
88. Punishment without crime - 3/5
89. A piece of wood - 3/5
90. The blue bottle - 3/5
91. Long after midnight - 3/5
92. The utterly perfect murder - 4/5
93. The better part of wisdom - 3/5
94. Interval in sunlight - 3/5
95. The black Ferris - 3/5
96. Farewell Summer - 3/5
97. McGillahee's brat - 3/5
98. The Aqueduct - 3/5
99. Gotcha! - 3/5
100. The End of the Beginning - 3/5
[6] The Coffin: One of the best short stories I've come across in recent years. Bradbury manages to deliver a powerful story without indulging in banality of backstory.
[7] The Crowd: Minutes after a traffic accident, bystanders gather and discuss the nature of life's promiscuity and the jarring opinions that rip out of them without filter.
[8]The Scythe: A man tied to the scythe and as he harvests the ripe wheat in the field behind his house, all the souls that are neither living nor dead move out of their limbo.
Made me wonder - is he moving the souls from limbo or is the scythe reason for their dying in the first place?
[9]There was an old woman: Only Bradbury can make death so funny.
[13]The Earth Men: Where "Martian Chronicles" began, in a not-so-cute meet-greet setting.
[16]The Fox and the Forest: A suspense thriller, a statement on war, a love story and sacrifices. All done in a span of 12 pages.
[19]Marionettes, Inc. : Bradbury mixes romance, science fiction and crime in a neatly packed little story which ends with a punch that's obvious with its arrival from the very first paragraph but still manages to surprise in the way it gets delivered.
[20]No particular night or morning: Bradbury's brand of existentialism.
[21]The City: The City, an anthropomorphic entity, avenges its people who were left in destitute by people of Earth during time of mass epidemic and eventual extinction. Its a revenge story is like no other.
[28]A sound of Thunder: Time machine, butterfly effect and end of rational thinking.
[33]The Fog Horn:Probably summary of every superhero story ever. A hero is as heroic as evil the villain is. Without a villain, what purpose does a hero serve?
[41]Skeleton:A fantasy-horror rendition of Stephen King's Thinner where a man loses his skeleton to a weird doctor for $2 after complaining about invisible bone aches.
[45]The Jar: The shifting tone of the story as short as it already is made a confusing start even more confusing and three pages later, I gave up.
[46]The Small Assassin: Before there was Children of the Corn, Child's Play, Chucky and plethora of other children based horror movies, there was Small Assassin. Excellent mood setting that plays on post natal exhaustion, new baby excitement and the overwhelming sense of responsibility that hits new parents when they take new born in their arms.
[51]The Happiness machine: Incredibly melancholic, the characters discover happiness through various moments of joy.
[54]Dark they were, and golden-eyed: Surprisingly charming with mutability of a species and the way nature, even in mars, forces adaptation on everything encompassing it. Including humans.
[76]Night call, collect: An intelligent way to address the paradox of contacting one's future self and dealing with the aftermath, RB narrates a stellar story of man on Mars contacted by his younger self who resolutely makes different choices than his future self, thus meeting another future self of his. Though it sounds complicated, narration is incredibly simple.
[92]The utterly perfect murder: A man plans a perfect murder to save his younger self. The story feels choppy with first person narrative but the murder is, perfect.
May 8, 2017
3.75
All right... I'm not going to sit here and say I read this whole thing, because I didn't. However, I read the majority of it and from what I read, it was pretty good! Now, I'm not much of a short-story reader because I love getting to know characters and their backgrounds and whatnot's, and you just can't do that with short-stories. Regardless, there were a few really good one's in here that actually made me feel concerned for the characters. So that was cool.
On the flip-side, there were a handful of stories that were not for me. And I mean they were so very boring - I almost felt like I was reading something dreadful for school. So yes, those particular stories are to blame for the non-whole 4 stars, because they were truly quite terrible.
Overall, this is definitely something I will pick up from time to time, because why not, and I recommend it to those who enjoy quick reads!
All right... I'm not going to sit here and say I read this whole thing, because I didn't. However, I read the majority of it and from what I read, it was pretty good! Now, I'm not much of a short-story reader because I love getting to know characters and their backgrounds and whatnot's, and you just can't do that with short-stories. Regardless, there were a few really good one's in here that actually made me feel concerned for the characters. So that was cool.
On the flip-side, there were a handful of stories that were not for me. And I mean they were so very boring - I almost felt like I was reading something dreadful for school. So yes, those particular stories are to blame for the non-whole 4 stars, because they were truly quite terrible.
Overall, this is definitely something I will pick up from time to time, because why not, and I recommend it to those who enjoy quick reads!
July 18, 2010
It's been a long time since I remember reading the work of a writer who writes like no other person. So many writers are "like" Jane Austen, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Joyce Carol Oates, etc, and we read them because we've run out of the real thing. Ray Bradbury is only like himself. He puts things in a way no one else could put them. Primarily, his creativity and his prose glimmers real. He is the reason I was drawn to read in the first place: to visit other worlds.
The story that blew me away the most, however, was this insignificant portrayal of a few moments of fear, The Night. A boy doesn't come home on time, and his mother spends about ten minutes wondering where he is, but this time brings her face to face with the great chasm of fear in the unknown that we all face:
“But this is more than death. This summer night wading deep in time and stars and warm eternity. It is an essence of all the things you will ever feel or see or hear in your life again, being brought steadily home to you all at once.”
“The essential impact of life’s loneliness crushes your beginning-to-tremble body. Mother is alone, too. She cannot look to the sanctity of marriage, the protection of her family’s love, she cannot look to the United States Constitution or the City Police, she cannot look anywhere in this very instant, save into her heart, and there she’ll find nothing but uncontrollable repugnance and a will to fear. In this instant it is an individual problem seeking an individual solution. You must accept being alone and work on from here."
...For once, all I can say is Wow.
The story that blew me away the most, however, was this insignificant portrayal of a few moments of fear, The Night. A boy doesn't come home on time, and his mother spends about ten minutes wondering where he is, but this time brings her face to face with the great chasm of fear in the unknown that we all face:
“But this is more than death. This summer night wading deep in time and stars and warm eternity. It is an essence of all the things you will ever feel or see or hear in your life again, being brought steadily home to you all at once.”
“The essential impact of life’s loneliness crushes your beginning-to-tremble body. Mother is alone, too. She cannot look to the sanctity of marriage, the protection of her family’s love, she cannot look to the United States Constitution or the City Police, she cannot look anywhere in this very instant, save into her heart, and there she’ll find nothing but uncontrollable repugnance and a will to fear. In this instant it is an individual problem seeking an individual solution. You must accept being alone and work on from here."
...For once, all I can say is Wow.
June 17, 2018
Cento racconti che non è possibile riassumere ed elencare come fosse una lista della spesa.
Taglio, incollo e sistemo qui una parte dei numerosi appunti che ho preso in quasi tre mesi di lettura.
Ovviamente non mi sono piaciuti tutti allo stesso modo (alcuni per niente) ma l’emozione di molti tra loro e le affermazioni che Bradbury ha fatto nell’introduzione e nell’intervista riportata accendono senza dubbio, per me, le
★★★★★
Quattro parole
Fantascienza, vampiri, fantastico, infanzia: ecco le quattro parole chiave che aprono questo scrigno contenente cento racconti dell’americano Ray Bradbury, classe 1920 e noto perlopiù per l’ormai classico Fahrenheit 451 .
Un’autoantologia e, pertanto, una scelta fatta dall’autore stesso delle produzioni da lui ritenute più significative rispetto ai quattro temi citati.
Nell’introduzione Bradbury sottolinea come li suo scrivere sia stato un cammino di crescita personale:
” Ce ne sono cento, quasi quarant’anni della mia vita. Contengono metà delle verità sgradevoli sospettate a mezzanotte e metà di quelle gradevoli riscoperte a mezzodì del giorno successivo. Se c’è una cosa che in questo libro ho inteso fornire, questa è semplicemente la mappa della vita di un uomo che a un certo punto si è messo in viaggio verso una qualche meta, e poi ha continuato ad andare. La mia vita non è stata tanto il risultato di una serie di riflessioni quanto piuttosto di una serie di azioni che, una volta compiute, mi hanno permesso di capire che cosa avevo fatto e chi ero. Ogni racconto è stato un modo di trovare aspetti del mio io, ciascuno un po’ diverso da quello trovato ventiquattr’ore prima.
I racconti sono, infatti, produzioni che vanno dagli ’40 agli anni ’80 ma nella raccolta non c’è ordinamento né cronologico né tematico e si possono dunque leggere liberamente.
Ubriaco alla guida di una bicicletta
L’introduzione alla prima edizione dell’opera del 1980 (intitolata “Ubriaco alla guida di una bicicletta” ) è preceduta dall’intervista che Bradbury rilasciò nel 1976 al “Paris News” ma che non fu mai pubblicata a causa di alcune affermazioni che attaccavano il mondo intellettuale.
” Il fatto è che nella vita io sono sempre stato guidato dai miei racconti. Loro lanciano un richiamo e io li seguo. Mi balzano addosso e mi azzannano a una gamba: io reagisco mettendo sulla carta tutto quello che succede mentre ho i loro denti piantati nel polpaccio. Quando ho finito, le idee mollano la presa e filano via. (…)
------
Ecco com’è stata la mia vita. Ubriaco alla guida di una bicicletta, come diceva il verbale di un poliziotto irlandese. Ubriaco di vita, cioè, e senza la minima idea di quale sarà la prossima destinazione. Ma prima dell’alba sei per strada. E il viaggio? Esattamente a metà tra il terrore e l’ebbrezza.”
Fantascienza
Come si può definire la fantascienza di Bradbury?
Cito quello che lui stesso ha scritto:
”(…) Quando parlo di fantascienza uso spesso la metafora di Perseo e della testa di Medusa. Invece di guardare in faccia Medusa, cioè la verità, ti giri e guardi alle tue spalle il riflesso nel lucido bronzo dello scudo, poi allunghi la spada dietro di te e tagli la testa di Medusa. La fantascienza finge di guardare dentro il futuro ma in realtà guarda il riflesso della verità che è davanti a noi. Si ha quindi una visione di rimbalzo, una verità di rimbalzo, che si può mandare giù e con cui ci si può divertire, invece di sentirsi intelligenti e superintellettuali.”
Dunque il pretesto di raccontare il futuro non è altro che un’analisi, una riflessione sul presente.
Le ambientazioni ipertecnologiche piuttosto che ultraterrene sono, dunque, scenografie dove protagonista è l’umanità nelle sue espressioni di superbia, ambizione, paura, ossessione, senso di fallimento o anche l’orgoglio…
Qualche esempio
Un racconto per me memorabile è IL CALEIDOSCOPIO (1949). Un incidente ad un razzo getta nello spazio gli astronauti (” come una decina di pesciolini d’argento che si dibattevano nel mare nero…”) e mentre cadono comunicano via radio (” Cadevano come sassi nei pozzi, dispersi come dadi buttati da una mano immensa, finché non ci furono più uomini ma soltanto voci.”). Terrore e rassegnazione. E’ la fine e man mano che ne prendono coscienza i ricordi trascorrono come un film e se, in un primo momento, prende il sopravvento l’istinto rabbioso ci si rende poi conto che la medesima sorte non può che generare comprensione….
Un altro racconto s’intitola La MACCHINA DELLA FELICITA’ (1957).
Bradbury, anche qui, sfrutta la fantascienza per riflessioni esistenziali a largo raggio. Siamo in un’epoca in cui ci si poteva ancora immaginare di tutto: parliamo del ventennio tra il 1940 ed il ’60.
Ventennio che contiene il boom economico degli anni ’50 dove è proprio la tecnologia la protagonista che agisce soprattutto sulla vita domestica che cambia nelle forme, nei contenuti e nei tempi.
B., tuttavia, si chiede se tutto questo progresso possa aiutare l’uomo ad essere veramente felice.
Ecco che in questa storia un padre di famiglia costruisce la macchina della felicità. Da notare che Bradbury non perde tempo nello snocciolare i meccanismi dei fantasiosi apparecchi che introduce nelle storie. L’importante è descriverne l’aspetto e le principali funzioni.
Leo Aufman, munito di martello, chiodi e chiavi inglesi si dà da fare e costruisce questa scatola, una sorta di rifugio dove sperimentare la perfezione di un momento, di una giornata.
Nessun dolore, preoccupazione, ansia o quant’altro ma solo una profonda serenità del vivere.
Ma poi?
Perché suo figlio e sua moglie escono dalla macchina piangendo come disperati?
Cosa sta succedendo?
A queste domande la moglie risponde così: «Leo, l’errore che hai commesso è che hai dimenticato che a una certa ora di un certo giorno bisogna pur uscire da quella cosa e tornare ai piatti sporchi e ai letti da rifare. Finché sei là dentro, certo, un tramonto dura in eterno, l’aria profuma e la temperatura è perfetta. Tutte le cose che vuoi far durare, durano. Ma fuori, i bambini aspettano la colazione, i vestiti hanno bisogno di bottoni. E poi, per essere franchi, Leo, per quanto tempo si può guardare un tramonto? E chi vuole che un tramonto duri tanto? Chi vuole una temperatura perfetta? Chi vuole che l’aria profumi in continuazione? E poi, dopo un po’, chi se ne accorgerebbe più? È meglio un tramonto che duri solo un paio di minuti. Dopo di che, avremo qualcos’altro. La gente è fatta così, Leo. Come hai potuto dimenticarlo?» .
Il fantastico
I racconti del fantastico e del vampiresco (che non sono il mio genere) si suddividono tra ambientazioni misteriose dove aleggiano strane presenze, ad altre quasi comiche come ad esempio una serie di tre/quattro racconti che hanno come protagonista una gruppo di strani personaggi stile Famiglia Addams.
Un esempio
Sul genere misterioso c’è un racconto del 1943 intitolato LA FALCE: una macchina con a bordo una famiglia che cerca un posto dove stare. Scappano dalla povertà e trovano una florida fattoria. Un uomo moribondo all’interno della casa dice che lascerà loro tutta la proprietà. Non possono credere a tanta fortuna e rimangono. Ben presto, però le cosa prendono una piega strana a partire da una falce che ha sul manico incise le parole: “chi mi regge, regge il mondo!” e poi un campo dove magicamente il grano ricresce poco dopo essere tagliato….
Un racconto che mette al centro l’ineluttabilità del destino.
Essere bambini: una paurosa fatica..
Il tema dell’infanzia è molto emotivo.
Legato agli incubi, le insicurezze, le paure incombe l’atmosfera notturna, il buio che nasconde l’ignoto. Oppure semplicemente la difficoltà dell’essere bambini e il non essere ascoltati e compresi.
Qualche esempio…
Il racconto che apre l’opera s’intitola LA SERA (1946).
Credo che anche solo l’incipit rendere l’idea:
”Sei un bambino in una piccola città. Per essere esatti, hai otto anni, e si sta facendo tardi. Tardi per te, abituato ad andare a letto alle nove, nove e mezzo; anche se magari di tanto in tanto preghi mamma e papà di lasciarti stare alzato un po’ di più per ascoltare Sam e Henry a quella strana radio tanto di moda in quest’anno 1927. Ma per lo più, a quest'ora sei rannicchiato sotto le lenzuola. È una calda sera d’estate. Vivi in una casetta su una stradina alla periferia della città, dove ci sono pochi lampioni stradali. C’è un solo negozio aperto, a un isolato di distanza: il negozio della signora Singer. Durante la calda serata la mamma ha stirato il bucato di lunedì e tu hai continuato a chiedere, a intermittenza, un gelato, fissando il buio.”
Per ultimo cito un racconto (sempre del ’46) che unisce fantascienza (in una declinazione distopica) ed il tema dell’infanzia. Il titolo è GHIACCIO E FUOCO i due elementi che determinano la vita di ciò che rimane della razza umana intrappolata s’un pianeta extraterrestre:
” Si trovavano su un pianeta più vicino al sole. Le notti erano gelide, i giorni bruciavano come fuoco. Era un mondo violento, impossibile. La gente viveva nelle caverne per sfuggire alla morsa di ghiaccio e al giorno infuocato. Solo all’alba e al tramonto l’aria diventava respirabile, profumata…” .
Non solo si è costretti a vivere nelle caverne ma la vita scorre molto più velocemente: dalla nascita si hanno a disposizione solo 8 giorni!!
”La nascita fu improvvisa come una coltellata. L’infanzia sarebbe finita in un lampo. L’adolescenza era un temporale breve e la vita adulta un sogno. La maturità era un mito, la vecchiaia una realtà cui era impossibile sfuggire e che durava poco, la morte un’improvvisa certezza.” .
Quando Sim nasce i suoi genitori hanno solo qualche ora di tempo (” «Un’ora è metà della vita.») e poi moriranno.
C’è una speranza, però: una navicella che si trova dall’altra parte del pianeta.
I genitori al tramonto muoiono e rimane con la sorella.
Succedono cose assurde: la vita è un lampo e nonostante ciò gli uomini gridano la parola Guerra!. “Perché?”
Continua a chiedere e a chiedersi Sim.
Perché?
Anche nella brevità del tempo a disposizione, la lotta per la sopravvivenza determina amici e nemici.
Sim non vuole spendere quella breve vita nell’inerzia e si reca dagli odiati scienziati.
Ma cosa si può fare in così poco tempo?
--------------------
Passo e chiudo…
Taglio, incollo e sistemo qui una parte dei numerosi appunti che ho preso in quasi tre mesi di lettura.
Ovviamente non mi sono piaciuti tutti allo stesso modo (alcuni per niente) ma l’emozione di molti tra loro e le affermazioni che Bradbury ha fatto nell’introduzione e nell’intervista riportata accendono senza dubbio, per me, le
★★★★★
Quattro parole
Fantascienza, vampiri, fantastico, infanzia: ecco le quattro parole chiave che aprono questo scrigno contenente cento racconti dell’americano Ray Bradbury, classe 1920 e noto perlopiù per l’ormai classico Fahrenheit 451 .
Un’autoantologia e, pertanto, una scelta fatta dall’autore stesso delle produzioni da lui ritenute più significative rispetto ai quattro temi citati.
Nell’introduzione Bradbury sottolinea come li suo scrivere sia stato un cammino di crescita personale:
” Ce ne sono cento, quasi quarant’anni della mia vita. Contengono metà delle verità sgradevoli sospettate a mezzanotte e metà di quelle gradevoli riscoperte a mezzodì del giorno successivo. Se c’è una cosa che in questo libro ho inteso fornire, questa è semplicemente la mappa della vita di un uomo che a un certo punto si è messo in viaggio verso una qualche meta, e poi ha continuato ad andare. La mia vita non è stata tanto il risultato di una serie di riflessioni quanto piuttosto di una serie di azioni che, una volta compiute, mi hanno permesso di capire che cosa avevo fatto e chi ero. Ogni racconto è stato un modo di trovare aspetti del mio io, ciascuno un po’ diverso da quello trovato ventiquattr’ore prima.
I racconti sono, infatti, produzioni che vanno dagli ’40 agli anni ’80 ma nella raccolta non c’è ordinamento né cronologico né tematico e si possono dunque leggere liberamente.
Ubriaco alla guida di una bicicletta
L’introduzione alla prima edizione dell’opera del 1980 (intitolata “Ubriaco alla guida di una bicicletta” ) è preceduta dall’intervista che Bradbury rilasciò nel 1976 al “Paris News” ma che non fu mai pubblicata a causa di alcune affermazioni che attaccavano il mondo intellettuale.
” Il fatto è che nella vita io sono sempre stato guidato dai miei racconti. Loro lanciano un richiamo e io li seguo. Mi balzano addosso e mi azzannano a una gamba: io reagisco mettendo sulla carta tutto quello che succede mentre ho i loro denti piantati nel polpaccio. Quando ho finito, le idee mollano la presa e filano via. (…)
------
Ecco com’è stata la mia vita. Ubriaco alla guida di una bicicletta, come diceva il verbale di un poliziotto irlandese. Ubriaco di vita, cioè, e senza la minima idea di quale sarà la prossima destinazione. Ma prima dell’alba sei per strada. E il viaggio? Esattamente a metà tra il terrore e l’ebbrezza.”
Fantascienza
Come si può definire la fantascienza di Bradbury?
Cito quello che lui stesso ha scritto:
”(…) Quando parlo di fantascienza uso spesso la metafora di Perseo e della testa di Medusa. Invece di guardare in faccia Medusa, cioè la verità, ti giri e guardi alle tue spalle il riflesso nel lucido bronzo dello scudo, poi allunghi la spada dietro di te e tagli la testa di Medusa. La fantascienza finge di guardare dentro il futuro ma in realtà guarda il riflesso della verità che è davanti a noi. Si ha quindi una visione di rimbalzo, una verità di rimbalzo, che si può mandare giù e con cui ci si può divertire, invece di sentirsi intelligenti e superintellettuali.”
Dunque il pretesto di raccontare il futuro non è altro che un’analisi, una riflessione sul presente.
Le ambientazioni ipertecnologiche piuttosto che ultraterrene sono, dunque, scenografie dove protagonista è l’umanità nelle sue espressioni di superbia, ambizione, paura, ossessione, senso di fallimento o anche l’orgoglio…
Qualche esempio
Un racconto per me memorabile è IL CALEIDOSCOPIO (1949). Un incidente ad un razzo getta nello spazio gli astronauti (” come una decina di pesciolini d’argento che si dibattevano nel mare nero…”) e mentre cadono comunicano via radio (” Cadevano come sassi nei pozzi, dispersi come dadi buttati da una mano immensa, finché non ci furono più uomini ma soltanto voci.”). Terrore e rassegnazione. E’ la fine e man mano che ne prendono coscienza i ricordi trascorrono come un film e se, in un primo momento, prende il sopravvento l’istinto rabbioso ci si rende poi conto che la medesima sorte non può che generare comprensione….
Un altro racconto s’intitola La MACCHINA DELLA FELICITA’ (1957).
Bradbury, anche qui, sfrutta la fantascienza per riflessioni esistenziali a largo raggio. Siamo in un’epoca in cui ci si poteva ancora immaginare di tutto: parliamo del ventennio tra il 1940 ed il ’60.
Ventennio che contiene il boom economico degli anni ’50 dove è proprio la tecnologia la protagonista che agisce soprattutto sulla vita domestica che cambia nelle forme, nei contenuti e nei tempi.
B., tuttavia, si chiede se tutto questo progresso possa aiutare l’uomo ad essere veramente felice.
Ecco che in questa storia un padre di famiglia costruisce la macchina della felicità. Da notare che Bradbury non perde tempo nello snocciolare i meccanismi dei fantasiosi apparecchi che introduce nelle storie. L’importante è descriverne l’aspetto e le principali funzioni.
Leo Aufman, munito di martello, chiodi e chiavi inglesi si dà da fare e costruisce questa scatola, una sorta di rifugio dove sperimentare la perfezione di un momento, di una giornata.
Nessun dolore, preoccupazione, ansia o quant’altro ma solo una profonda serenità del vivere.
Ma poi?
Perché suo figlio e sua moglie escono dalla macchina piangendo come disperati?
Cosa sta succedendo?
A queste domande la moglie risponde così: «Leo, l’errore che hai commesso è che hai dimenticato che a una certa ora di un certo giorno bisogna pur uscire da quella cosa e tornare ai piatti sporchi e ai letti da rifare. Finché sei là dentro, certo, un tramonto dura in eterno, l’aria profuma e la temperatura è perfetta. Tutte le cose che vuoi far durare, durano. Ma fuori, i bambini aspettano la colazione, i vestiti hanno bisogno di bottoni. E poi, per essere franchi, Leo, per quanto tempo si può guardare un tramonto? E chi vuole che un tramonto duri tanto? Chi vuole una temperatura perfetta? Chi vuole che l’aria profumi in continuazione? E poi, dopo un po’, chi se ne accorgerebbe più? È meglio un tramonto che duri solo un paio di minuti. Dopo di che, avremo qualcos’altro. La gente è fatta così, Leo. Come hai potuto dimenticarlo?» .
Il fantastico
I racconti del fantastico e del vampiresco (che non sono il mio genere) si suddividono tra ambientazioni misteriose dove aleggiano strane presenze, ad altre quasi comiche come ad esempio una serie di tre/quattro racconti che hanno come protagonista una gruppo di strani personaggi stile Famiglia Addams.
Un esempio
Sul genere misterioso c’è un racconto del 1943 intitolato LA FALCE: una macchina con a bordo una famiglia che cerca un posto dove stare. Scappano dalla povertà e trovano una florida fattoria. Un uomo moribondo all’interno della casa dice che lascerà loro tutta la proprietà. Non possono credere a tanta fortuna e rimangono. Ben presto, però le cosa prendono una piega strana a partire da una falce che ha sul manico incise le parole: “chi mi regge, regge il mondo!” e poi un campo dove magicamente il grano ricresce poco dopo essere tagliato….
Un racconto che mette al centro l’ineluttabilità del destino.
Essere bambini: una paurosa fatica..
Il tema dell’infanzia è molto emotivo.
Legato agli incubi, le insicurezze, le paure incombe l’atmosfera notturna, il buio che nasconde l’ignoto. Oppure semplicemente la difficoltà dell’essere bambini e il non essere ascoltati e compresi.
Qualche esempio…
Il racconto che apre l’opera s’intitola LA SERA (1946).
Credo che anche solo l’incipit rendere l’idea:
”Sei un bambino in una piccola città. Per essere esatti, hai otto anni, e si sta facendo tardi. Tardi per te, abituato ad andare a letto alle nove, nove e mezzo; anche se magari di tanto in tanto preghi mamma e papà di lasciarti stare alzato un po’ di più per ascoltare Sam e Henry a quella strana radio tanto di moda in quest’anno 1927. Ma per lo più, a quest'ora sei rannicchiato sotto le lenzuola. È una calda sera d’estate. Vivi in una casetta su una stradina alla periferia della città, dove ci sono pochi lampioni stradali. C’è un solo negozio aperto, a un isolato di distanza: il negozio della signora Singer. Durante la calda serata la mamma ha stirato il bucato di lunedì e tu hai continuato a chiedere, a intermittenza, un gelato, fissando il buio.”
Per ultimo cito un racconto (sempre del ’46) che unisce fantascienza (in una declinazione distopica) ed il tema dell’infanzia. Il titolo è GHIACCIO E FUOCO i due elementi che determinano la vita di ciò che rimane della razza umana intrappolata s’un pianeta extraterrestre:
” Si trovavano su un pianeta più vicino al sole. Le notti erano gelide, i giorni bruciavano come fuoco. Era un mondo violento, impossibile. La gente viveva nelle caverne per sfuggire alla morsa di ghiaccio e al giorno infuocato. Solo all’alba e al tramonto l’aria diventava respirabile, profumata…” .
Non solo si è costretti a vivere nelle caverne ma la vita scorre molto più velocemente: dalla nascita si hanno a disposizione solo 8 giorni!!
”La nascita fu improvvisa come una coltellata. L’infanzia sarebbe finita in un lampo. L’adolescenza era un temporale breve e la vita adulta un sogno. La maturità era un mito, la vecchiaia una realtà cui era impossibile sfuggire e che durava poco, la morte un’improvvisa certezza.” .
Quando Sim nasce i suoi genitori hanno solo qualche ora di tempo (” «Un’ora è metà della vita.») e poi moriranno.
C’è una speranza, però: una navicella che si trova dall’altra parte del pianeta.
I genitori al tramonto muoiono e rimane con la sorella.
Succedono cose assurde: la vita è un lampo e nonostante ciò gli uomini gridano la parola Guerra!. “Perché?”
Continua a chiedere e a chiedersi Sim.
Perché?
Anche nella brevità del tempo a disposizione, la lotta per la sopravvivenza determina amici e nemici.
Sim non vuole spendere quella breve vita nell’inerzia e si reca dagli odiati scienziati.
Ma cosa si può fare in così poco tempo?
--------------------
Passo e chiudo…
February 7, 2017
This has many good stories in it. although some are better than others.
Some of the science fiction tales are still enjoyable while others haven't held up as well over time. For instance the stories set on Mars convey a feeling of desolation and insidious, insanity-inducing weirdness which still works for me, in spite of details which may have been proven wrong by subsequent scientific discovery. The Venus stories, on the other hand, are a little too out to left field: this planet is presented as a giant hyperactive Amazonian rainforest.
But many of the stories which take place down here on the home planet are just as interesting. There are a few recurring themes and it's interesting to see what Bradbury does with them. There is a preoccupation with machines which in later science fiction would be called androids, and these are used to explore what it is exactly that makes us human. There are people who get stuck in eternal youth, which, it seems, is not all it's cracked up to be. There is some exploration of deep-seated human depravity: children and even babies can be ruthless killers, teenagers harbour festering resentments and adults try to perpetrate the perfect crime. There are zombies, vampires and other monsters lurking on the fringes of society. It is possible to travel backwards and forwards through time, and even across dimensions--but let the traveler beware, for the results may be bizarre.
Not all is doom and gloom, however. There are some light and funny stories, such as the one about the hen who lays oracular eggs, or the the one about the young man obsessed with chocolate.
Ray Bradbury was a man of great vision who looked not only up, down and all around, but also within. His writings attest to a certain nostalgia for the past and intense speculations about the possibilities of the future.
Some of the science fiction tales are still enjoyable while others haven't held up as well over time. For instance the stories set on Mars convey a feeling of desolation and insidious, insanity-inducing weirdness which still works for me, in spite of details which may have been proven wrong by subsequent scientific discovery. The Venus stories, on the other hand, are a little too out to left field: this planet is presented as a giant hyperactive Amazonian rainforest.
But many of the stories which take place down here on the home planet are just as interesting. There are a few recurring themes and it's interesting to see what Bradbury does with them. There is a preoccupation with machines which in later science fiction would be called androids, and these are used to explore what it is exactly that makes us human. There are people who get stuck in eternal youth, which, it seems, is not all it's cracked up to be. There is some exploration of deep-seated human depravity: children and even babies can be ruthless killers, teenagers harbour festering resentments and adults try to perpetrate the perfect crime. There are zombies, vampires and other monsters lurking on the fringes of society. It is possible to travel backwards and forwards through time, and even across dimensions--but let the traveler beware, for the results may be bizarre.
Not all is doom and gloom, however. There are some light and funny stories, such as the one about the hen who lays oracular eggs, or the the one about the young man obsessed with chocolate.
Ray Bradbury was a man of great vision who looked not only up, down and all around, but also within. His writings attest to a certain nostalgia for the past and intense speculations about the possibilities of the future.
June 28, 2018
I started reading this book nearly a month back. It is a chunkster at nearly 900 pages, but still I didn't think it would take so long. But I refused to give up or get distracted by other shiny new books, and I persisted. Yesterday, when I read the last word, on the last page, I was very happy and thrilled.
I have always thought that Ray Bradbury was a science fiction writer. I hadn't read any of his stories or books when I thought that. Then one of my friends who was a huge fan of Bradbury introduced 'Dandelion Wine' to me. I read it and I loved it and it immediately found a place on my list of favourite books. It was the most beautiful evocation of summer that I have ever read. Then I thought that Bradbury wrote science fiction and stories about small-town America. Then someone told me about 'Fahrenheit 451'. Then I thought - "Okay. Bradbury writes science fiction + small town America + dystopia". Then I read this book. And now I realize that whatever I thought about Bradbury was wrong. He was a writer who refused to get slotted into one genre, refused to be pigeon-holed. He wrote about anything and everything which caught his fancy and he defied other's attempts to classify his stories. This book has 100 stories, all selected by Ray Bradbury himself. There is science fiction, there are stories of small town America. But there are also horror stories, stories about vampires, dinosaur stories, noir crime stories, detective stories, murder mysteries, love stories, family stories, Irish stories, Mexican stories. Even the science fiction is diverse - the regular space travel stuff is there, there are Martian stories, there are time travel stories, there are stories of dinosaurs and strange sea creatures, and other stories which are hard to classify. There are science fiction stories which offer commentary on our modern networked world in which we are connected all the time through social media. Bradbury wrote that story decades back, before the advent of the smartphone and the internet, and the insights the story offers are amazing. This story is called 'The Murderer'. The Irish stories show beautiful aspects of Irish culture and how people took pleasure and got happiness from the small things when their country was going through a tough time. My favourite Irish story was 'The Anthem Sprinters'. There were many stories which bore a close resemblance to longer novels by other authors and movies, which came later. I am wondering whether these authors and movie makers were inspired by Bradbury's stories. 'The Small Assassin' looked remarkably similar to the movie 'The Omen', but without the religious connotations.
I liked most of the stories in the book and it is impossible to write about them all. So, I am giving below a brief description of some of my favourites.
The Night - It is the first story in the book and Bradbury hits the ball straight out of the park, in the first story itself. It is about the fear of the night, the fear of the dark, that many of us have, when we are children. It is very scary. It had one of my favourite passages which went like this -
"You realize you are alone. You and your mother. Her hand trembles.
Her hand trembles.
Your belief in your private world is shattered. You feel Mother tremble. Why? Is she, too, doubtful? But she is bigger, stronger, more intelligent than yourself, isn't she? Does she, too, feel that intangible menace, that groping out of darkness, that crouching malignancy down below? Is there, then, no strength in growing up? no solace in being an adult? no sanctuary in life? no flesh citadel strong enough to withstand the scrabbling assault of midnights? Doubts flush you."
Homecoming - There is a strange family who look like humans during normal times. We are never told what they are, but we suspect that they are vampires. They are having a great gathering and celebration and all their relatives are visiting. There are all kinds of creatures among their relatives. The youngest member of the family, Timothy, is different from the rest. He sleeps during the night, is awake during the day, eats normal food. How this outsider lives his life in a family filled with people who have strange powers forms the rest of the story.
The Scythe - It is a story in which a man and his family, who are struggling to make ends meet, find a house in the middle of nowhere, with everything they want, and a document which says that the house and surrounding lands belong to them now. But, of course, nothing comes for free in life, and there is a deep horror lurking there in the house and around.
Kaleidoscope - A rocket explodes and the astronauts inside are thrown out in different directions. They have a short period of radio time left, before they lose contact, and in that time they start discussing the meaning of life and they start saying nice things and mean things to each other. What starts as a science fiction story, ends up becoming a story which asks the big questions about life and it is incredibly beautiful.
The Veldt - A couple get a futuristic playroom for their kids. But when the playroom door is closed, it looks like something scary has stepped into the room, like a real life version of 'Jumanji'.
The Fire Balloons - A group of priests go to Mars to meet Martians and initiate them into the ways of religion. But they are in for a surprise.
The Fog Horn - A beautiful science fiction story which is also a love story. It is one of my alltime favourites and one of Bradbury's finest. Please do read it. You can find it here - https://archive.org/stream/TheFogHorn...
Hail and Farewell - A beautiful story of a boy who doesn't grow up.
The Great Wide World Over There - A story of a middle-aged woman who can't read and write, who discovers the pleasures of receiving letters. Very beautiful. I cried after I read the story.
The Small Assassin - A story about a newborn baby who is fully aware of his surroundings, doesn't have any moral sense of right and wrong, hates his parents for bringing him into the world, and tries to hurt them. Very scary. Very similar to 'The Omen'.
Calling Mexico - A story about an old man in his last days, who tries to bring back his past with a small act. Very beautiful and poignant.
The Day it Rained Forever - A story about three old men who are waiting for the rain and then something happens. You have to read the story to find out what happened.
The Town Where No One Got Off - A travelling salesman gets off the train, one day, at a town where no one gets off. Surprising things happen then. A very interesting, philosophical noir crime story.
The Anthem Sprinters - A beautiful depiction of Irish culture.
The One Who Waits - A very scary science fiction story. And the narrator - I can't tell you more...
The Terrible Conflagration up at the Place - a story about a few young men who want to burn down an Irish lord's house. What happens is beautiful and charming.
Tomorrow's Child - A couple have a child. But the child has an unusual appearance (can't tell you more). What happens after that - you have to read and find out. A beautiful story about parents and children, family and love.
I Sing the Body Electric! - in which the narrator talks about his unusual grandma. She is one of my favourite grandma characters ever.
A Story of Love - a beautiful, unusual live story.
The Better Part of Wisdom - another beautiful, unusual love story. What is left unsaid is so beautiful. I don't think I would have understood this story when I was in my teens.
Interval in Sunlight - it describes the life of a couple and how the husband harasses the wife everyday, with every word he speaks. It made me angry more and more as I read the story. I hated that husband character. But the way Bradbury makes it all look so real - it is scary. Full marks to him.
I loved 'The Stories of Ray Bradbury'. It was 894 pages of pure reading pleasure! There is something in it for everyone. I am glad I finally read it. If you get a chance do read it.
I have always thought that Ray Bradbury was a science fiction writer. I hadn't read any of his stories or books when I thought that. Then one of my friends who was a huge fan of Bradbury introduced 'Dandelion Wine' to me. I read it and I loved it and it immediately found a place on my list of favourite books. It was the most beautiful evocation of summer that I have ever read. Then I thought that Bradbury wrote science fiction and stories about small-town America. Then someone told me about 'Fahrenheit 451'. Then I thought - "Okay. Bradbury writes science fiction + small town America + dystopia". Then I read this book. And now I realize that whatever I thought about Bradbury was wrong. He was a writer who refused to get slotted into one genre, refused to be pigeon-holed. He wrote about anything and everything which caught his fancy and he defied other's attempts to classify his stories. This book has 100 stories, all selected by Ray Bradbury himself. There is science fiction, there are stories of small town America. But there are also horror stories, stories about vampires, dinosaur stories, noir crime stories, detective stories, murder mysteries, love stories, family stories, Irish stories, Mexican stories. Even the science fiction is diverse - the regular space travel stuff is there, there are Martian stories, there are time travel stories, there are stories of dinosaurs and strange sea creatures, and other stories which are hard to classify. There are science fiction stories which offer commentary on our modern networked world in which we are connected all the time through social media. Bradbury wrote that story decades back, before the advent of the smartphone and the internet, and the insights the story offers are amazing. This story is called 'The Murderer'. The Irish stories show beautiful aspects of Irish culture and how people took pleasure and got happiness from the small things when their country was going through a tough time. My favourite Irish story was 'The Anthem Sprinters'. There were many stories which bore a close resemblance to longer novels by other authors and movies, which came later. I am wondering whether these authors and movie makers were inspired by Bradbury's stories. 'The Small Assassin' looked remarkably similar to the movie 'The Omen', but without the religious connotations.
I liked most of the stories in the book and it is impossible to write about them all. So, I am giving below a brief description of some of my favourites.
The Night - It is the first story in the book and Bradbury hits the ball straight out of the park, in the first story itself. It is about the fear of the night, the fear of the dark, that many of us have, when we are children. It is very scary. It had one of my favourite passages which went like this -
"You realize you are alone. You and your mother. Her hand trembles.
Her hand trembles.
Your belief in your private world is shattered. You feel Mother tremble. Why? Is she, too, doubtful? But she is bigger, stronger, more intelligent than yourself, isn't she? Does she, too, feel that intangible menace, that groping out of darkness, that crouching malignancy down below? Is there, then, no strength in growing up? no solace in being an adult? no sanctuary in life? no flesh citadel strong enough to withstand the scrabbling assault of midnights? Doubts flush you."
Homecoming - There is a strange family who look like humans during normal times. We are never told what they are, but we suspect that they are vampires. They are having a great gathering and celebration and all their relatives are visiting. There are all kinds of creatures among their relatives. The youngest member of the family, Timothy, is different from the rest. He sleeps during the night, is awake during the day, eats normal food. How this outsider lives his life in a family filled with people who have strange powers forms the rest of the story.
The Scythe - It is a story in which a man and his family, who are struggling to make ends meet, find a house in the middle of nowhere, with everything they want, and a document which says that the house and surrounding lands belong to them now. But, of course, nothing comes for free in life, and there is a deep horror lurking there in the house and around.
Kaleidoscope - A rocket explodes and the astronauts inside are thrown out in different directions. They have a short period of radio time left, before they lose contact, and in that time they start discussing the meaning of life and they start saying nice things and mean things to each other. What starts as a science fiction story, ends up becoming a story which asks the big questions about life and it is incredibly beautiful.
The Veldt - A couple get a futuristic playroom for their kids. But when the playroom door is closed, it looks like something scary has stepped into the room, like a real life version of 'Jumanji'.
The Fire Balloons - A group of priests go to Mars to meet Martians and initiate them into the ways of religion. But they are in for a surprise.
The Fog Horn - A beautiful science fiction story which is also a love story. It is one of my alltime favourites and one of Bradbury's finest. Please do read it. You can find it here - https://archive.org/stream/TheFogHorn...
Hail and Farewell - A beautiful story of a boy who doesn't grow up.
The Great Wide World Over There - A story of a middle-aged woman who can't read and write, who discovers the pleasures of receiving letters. Very beautiful. I cried after I read the story.
The Small Assassin - A story about a newborn baby who is fully aware of his surroundings, doesn't have any moral sense of right and wrong, hates his parents for bringing him into the world, and tries to hurt them. Very scary. Very similar to 'The Omen'.
Calling Mexico - A story about an old man in his last days, who tries to bring back his past with a small act. Very beautiful and poignant.
The Day it Rained Forever - A story about three old men who are waiting for the rain and then something happens. You have to read the story to find out what happened.
The Town Where No One Got Off - A travelling salesman gets off the train, one day, at a town where no one gets off. Surprising things happen then. A very interesting, philosophical noir crime story.
The Anthem Sprinters - A beautiful depiction of Irish culture.
The One Who Waits - A very scary science fiction story. And the narrator - I can't tell you more...
The Terrible Conflagration up at the Place - a story about a few young men who want to burn down an Irish lord's house. What happens is beautiful and charming.
Tomorrow's Child - A couple have a child. But the child has an unusual appearance (can't tell you more). What happens after that - you have to read and find out. A beautiful story about parents and children, family and love.
I Sing the Body Electric! - in which the narrator talks about his unusual grandma. She is one of my favourite grandma characters ever.
A Story of Love - a beautiful, unusual live story.
The Better Part of Wisdom - another beautiful, unusual love story. What is left unsaid is so beautiful. I don't think I would have understood this story when I was in my teens.
Interval in Sunlight - it describes the life of a couple and how the husband harasses the wife everyday, with every word he speaks. It made me angry more and more as I read the story. I hated that husband character. But the way Bradbury makes it all look so real - it is scary. Full marks to him.
I loved 'The Stories of Ray Bradbury'. It was 894 pages of pure reading pleasure! There is something in it for everyone. I am glad I finally read it. If you get a chance do read it.
August 7, 2017
Ah, Ray!
Vorrei ricordarmi quando ti ho conosciuto. Per alcuni autori che amo in maniera particolare è così: rammento il primo incontro, o almeno quello che mi ha fatto innamorare di loro. Con te no.
Avrò preso qualche tuo libro in una bancarella dell’usato? O l’avrò trovato nell’alloggio dove andavo a passare le vacanze millemila anni fa? Oppure avevo letto qualcosa su un’antologia scolastica? Buio totale.
Ma non è poi così importante; l’importante è che, dopo tanti anni, io abbia ancora nuovi tuoi racconti da scoprire.
Di racconti del buon Ray in questo librone ce ne sono cento; molti li conoscevo, tanti altri no. Non posso dire che mi siano piaciuti tutti allo stesso modo: molti sono belli, alcuni sono capolavori, parecchi sono geniali… qualcuno è un po’ stucchevole, qualcuno non mi è piaciuto per nulla. Ma come faccio ad assegnare meno di cinque stelline, a questa raccolta? Se non già per gratitudine e affetto e motivi puramente soggettivi, lo faccio anche per la sconfinata fantasia di quest’uomo, per la sua capacità di spaziare nelle emozioni, dal poetico all’inquietante. Sentirlo definire ‘scrittore di fantascienza’ è riduttivo (e pure ignorante): Ray Bradbury è ‘scrittore dell’animo umano’.
Vorrei ricordarmi quando ti ho conosciuto. Per alcuni autori che amo in maniera particolare è così: rammento il primo incontro, o almeno quello che mi ha fatto innamorare di loro. Con te no.
Avrò preso qualche tuo libro in una bancarella dell’usato? O l’avrò trovato nell’alloggio dove andavo a passare le vacanze millemila anni fa? Oppure avevo letto qualcosa su un’antologia scolastica? Buio totale.
Ma non è poi così importante; l’importante è che, dopo tanti anni, io abbia ancora nuovi tuoi racconti da scoprire.
Di racconti del buon Ray in questo librone ce ne sono cento; molti li conoscevo, tanti altri no. Non posso dire che mi siano piaciuti tutti allo stesso modo: molti sono belli, alcuni sono capolavori, parecchi sono geniali… qualcuno è un po’ stucchevole, qualcuno non mi è piaciuto per nulla. Ma come faccio ad assegnare meno di cinque stelline, a questa raccolta? Se non già per gratitudine e affetto e motivi puramente soggettivi, lo faccio anche per la sconfinata fantasia di quest’uomo, per la sua capacità di spaziare nelle emozioni, dal poetico all’inquietante. Sentirlo definire ‘scrittore di fantascienza’ è riduttivo (e pure ignorante): Ray Bradbury è ‘scrittore dell’animo umano’.
August 16, 2019
When I was halfway through I was ready to name Ray Bradbury as the best American short story writer. There are over 800 pages of short stories here. I sampled the last third of them.
May 11, 2020
This is a masterful collection. The epitome of the classic. It deserves to be in every library, to be cherished forever. The Lake is one of the saddest stories i have ever read and it came back to haunt me in my dreams. Highly recommended!
May 3, 2019
Vivere mille vite
"Perché? Che sia anche lei dubbiosa? Ma è più grande, più forte, più intelligente di te, non è vero? Che senta anche lei quella minaccia intangibile, quel protendersi fuori dal buio, quell'accucciarsi malignamente là in fondo? Ma allora, nel crescere non c'è forza? nessun sollievo, nell'essere adulti? nessun rifugio nella vita? nessuna cittadella di carne abbastanza forte da resistere all'assalto raspante delle notti?"
"Finché sei là dentro, nella Macchina della Felicità, un tramonto dura in eterno, l'aria profuma e la temperatura è perfetta. Tutte le cose che vuoi far durare, durano. Ma fuori, i bambini aspettano la colazione, i vestiti hanno bisogno di bottoni. E poi, per essere franchi, per quanto tempo si può guardare un tramonto? E chi vuole che un tramonto duri tanto? Chi vuole una temperatura perfetta? Chi vuole che l'aria profumi in continuazione? E poi, dopo un po', chi se ne accorgerebbe più? E' meglio un tramonto che duri solo un paio di minuti. Dopo di che, avremo qualcos'altro. La gente è fatta così, Leo. Come hai potuto dimenticarlo?"
"Così è la vita. Qualcuno aspetta sempre qualcuno che non arriva mai. Sempre qualcuno che ama qualcosa più di quanto questo qualcosa ami lui...e il mostro? Non torno più. È tornato nelle profondità; ha imparato che a questo mondo non si può amare niente troppo a lungo."
Corri a perdifiato per i passi sterrati che nelle afosi estati parevano traversate infinite; ti aggiri, curioso e brancolante, all'interno di una biblioteca per saziare la tua fame di letture; e in quei libri scopri una famiglia di vampiri con strane abitudini domestiche, mostri marini attratti dalla luce di un faro per trovare l'amore di una vita, funghi giganti da coltivare nella propria cantina, macchine del tempo e astronauti trascinati alla deriva nello spazio profondo.
Vedi nei tuoi genitori la paura di una realtà non più solida, quante promesse false elargite; vedi tua nonna pronta al congedo terreno, quel giorno prima o poi sarebbe dovuto arrivare; vedi in quella maestra delle elementari il primo guizzo d'amore capace di lasciar un'impronta duratura nel tuo animo; vedi in televisione un film con dei mostri animati in modo strano - chiamasi stop-motion, lo scoprirai più avanti - e ti fai la caccona nei pantaloni per la fifa; vedi te stesso relegato a letto per l'influenza, tremenda prigione la cui unica fuga può essere la lettura di un altro libro: un Tirannosauro Rex fa capolino da un portale sul passato; pioggia ininterrotta su un pianeta illuminati da soli artificiali; una sirena malinconica spiaggiata sul bagnasciuga; l'entità millenaria in agguato nel pozzo laggiù.
Siamo diventati grandi, non c'è più tempo per vivere altre vite.
Ma noi siamo tutto ciò che abbiamo vissuto. Noi non dimentichiamo. Noi saremo vita per chi verrà dopo.
"Perché? Che sia anche lei dubbiosa? Ma è più grande, più forte, più intelligente di te, non è vero? Che senta anche lei quella minaccia intangibile, quel protendersi fuori dal buio, quell'accucciarsi malignamente là in fondo? Ma allora, nel crescere non c'è forza? nessun sollievo, nell'essere adulti? nessun rifugio nella vita? nessuna cittadella di carne abbastanza forte da resistere all'assalto raspante delle notti?"
"Finché sei là dentro, nella Macchina della Felicità, un tramonto dura in eterno, l'aria profuma e la temperatura è perfetta. Tutte le cose che vuoi far durare, durano. Ma fuori, i bambini aspettano la colazione, i vestiti hanno bisogno di bottoni. E poi, per essere franchi, per quanto tempo si può guardare un tramonto? E chi vuole che un tramonto duri tanto? Chi vuole una temperatura perfetta? Chi vuole che l'aria profumi in continuazione? E poi, dopo un po', chi se ne accorgerebbe più? E' meglio un tramonto che duri solo un paio di minuti. Dopo di che, avremo qualcos'altro. La gente è fatta così, Leo. Come hai potuto dimenticarlo?"
"Così è la vita. Qualcuno aspetta sempre qualcuno che non arriva mai. Sempre qualcuno che ama qualcosa più di quanto questo qualcosa ami lui...e il mostro? Non torno più. È tornato nelle profondità; ha imparato che a questo mondo non si può amare niente troppo a lungo."
Corri a perdifiato per i passi sterrati che nelle afosi estati parevano traversate infinite; ti aggiri, curioso e brancolante, all'interno di una biblioteca per saziare la tua fame di letture; e in quei libri scopri una famiglia di vampiri con strane abitudini domestiche, mostri marini attratti dalla luce di un faro per trovare l'amore di una vita, funghi giganti da coltivare nella propria cantina, macchine del tempo e astronauti trascinati alla deriva nello spazio profondo.
Vedi nei tuoi genitori la paura di una realtà non più solida, quante promesse false elargite; vedi tua nonna pronta al congedo terreno, quel giorno prima o poi sarebbe dovuto arrivare; vedi in quella maestra delle elementari il primo guizzo d'amore capace di lasciar un'impronta duratura nel tuo animo; vedi in televisione un film con dei mostri animati in modo strano - chiamasi stop-motion, lo scoprirai più avanti - e ti fai la caccona nei pantaloni per la fifa; vedi te stesso relegato a letto per l'influenza, tremenda prigione la cui unica fuga può essere la lettura di un altro libro: un Tirannosauro Rex fa capolino da un portale sul passato; pioggia ininterrotta su un pianeta illuminati da soli artificiali; una sirena malinconica spiaggiata sul bagnasciuga; l'entità millenaria in agguato nel pozzo laggiù.
Siamo diventati grandi, non c'è più tempo per vivere altre vite.
Ma noi siamo tutto ciò che abbiamo vissuto. Noi non dimentichiamo. Noi saremo vita per chi verrà dopo.
April 9, 2011
Ray Bradbury is my favorite author. His use of descriptive language and non-conventional character development and plot are what makes him to be one of the best science fiction writers of all time.
The Stories of Ray Bradbury captures the very essence of what makes him so brilliant. The book features a methodical mix of both long and short stories that give the reader great choice. A Bradbury short story can take anywhere from fifteen minutes to an hour to read. Bradbury, more than any other author I’ve ever read, paints a picture in my mind about the events in the book. He, more than any other author I’ve ever read, leaves the reader completely satisfied with the visual and sensory aspects of the story while at the same time leaving us begging for more of his quirky, deliciously flawed characters.
His use of character and plot dynamic bends what is acceptable for literature, often spiting the traditional “exposition-conflict-climax-resolution” format of most literary accounts. “There Will Come Soft Rains,” for instance, features no human characters. It describes a house run entirely by robots, and its daily routine. Over the course of time, the reader deduces that the owners are dead due to a nuclear war, and the slow realization is where Bradbury applies the concept of “plot.”
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. His ability to apply his signature style to each story while maintaining complete individuality for each one is unprecedented. Bradbury can say more in a short story than most authors do in an entire novel.
The Stories of Ray Bradbury captures the very essence of what makes him so brilliant. The book features a methodical mix of both long and short stories that give the reader great choice. A Bradbury short story can take anywhere from fifteen minutes to an hour to read. Bradbury, more than any other author I’ve ever read, paints a picture in my mind about the events in the book. He, more than any other author I’ve ever read, leaves the reader completely satisfied with the visual and sensory aspects of the story while at the same time leaving us begging for more of his quirky, deliciously flawed characters.
His use of character and plot dynamic bends what is acceptable for literature, often spiting the traditional “exposition-conflict-climax-resolution” format of most literary accounts. “There Will Come Soft Rains,” for instance, features no human characters. It describes a house run entirely by robots, and its daily routine. Over the course of time, the reader deduces that the owners are dead due to a nuclear war, and the slow realization is where Bradbury applies the concept of “plot.”
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. His ability to apply his signature style to each story while maintaining complete individuality for each one is unprecedented. Bradbury can say more in a short story than most authors do in an entire novel.
May 28, 2014
I'm ashamed to confess that I've never read Farenheit 451. (My seventh grader made a video book report for class, and viewing it is as far as I've gotten.)
These stories are SO GOOD. I'm more of a science-fiction-is-a-metaphor-for-our-times reader than a lightyears-and-technology science fiction reader, and I didn't know what to expect. Stylistically, his writing is just beautiful. Many times, I caught my breath at a turn of phrase, a heart-wrenchingly familiar characterization, a sentence that makes you go "ooh," and then you stop and read it over again.
As for the science fiction aspect--you can't really pigeonhole Ray Bradbury, the man was a storymaking machine. So, yes, in this book, people land on Mars, but it's what they do once they get to Mars that makes the story matter to us. He creates situations familiar to us from our lives, or from the headlines; he writes about the loneliness and isolation of being far away from home, about being forced into exile, about being the last person left on the planet. But these are also stories about hope and family and friendship, even if they are often flavored with the anxiety of the nuclear age.
There were stories that made me think, stories that made me smile, and there were stories that made my the hairs at the back of my neck rise and stand at attention.
Go read it!
These stories are SO GOOD. I'm more of a science-fiction-is-a-metaphor-for-our-times reader than a lightyears-and-technology science fiction reader, and I didn't know what to expect. Stylistically, his writing is just beautiful. Many times, I caught my breath at a turn of phrase, a heart-wrenchingly familiar characterization, a sentence that makes you go "ooh," and then you stop and read it over again.
As for the science fiction aspect--you can't really pigeonhole Ray Bradbury, the man was a storymaking machine. So, yes, in this book, people land on Mars, but it's what they do once they get to Mars that makes the story matter to us. He creates situations familiar to us from our lives, or from the headlines; he writes about the loneliness and isolation of being far away from home, about being forced into exile, about being the last person left on the planet. But these are also stories about hope and family and friendship, even if they are often flavored with the anxiety of the nuclear age.
There were stories that made me think, stories that made me smile, and there were stories that made my the hairs at the back of my neck rise and stand at attention.
Go read it!
June 8, 2012
The Master died this week, and the world is a lesser place. I have a list of people who should never have been allowed to die, and now Ray Bradbury joins Leonard Bernstein, Victor Borge, and Jim Henson.
I bought this book in 1983, and I bought a second copy to give to my best friend. When I married her in 1989, suddenly I had two copies in my possession!
Here is magic. Bradbury made magic when he wrote. He could bring tears to my eyes for sheer beauty. Read "The April Witch". Read "The Picasso Summer".
If you're ever depressed and think life not worth living, "The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit" will pull you all the way to joy.
Did you ever fall in love with a teacher? "A Story of Love"
Afraid of death? "The Leave-taking" Or its delightful, whimsical opposite, "There Was an Old Woman"
Here is horror. "Gotcha!", "The Coffin", "The Skeleton", "The Screaming Woman", "Boys! Raise Giant Mushrooms in Your Cellar!"
Just pick up anything by Bradbury. What an imagination that man had! And how he could write! Aldous Huxley was right--Bradbury was a poet.
How will we ever get by without him?
I bought this book in 1983, and I bought a second copy to give to my best friend. When I married her in 1989, suddenly I had two copies in my possession!
Here is magic. Bradbury made magic when he wrote. He could bring tears to my eyes for sheer beauty. Read "The April Witch". Read "The Picasso Summer".
If you're ever depressed and think life not worth living, "The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit" will pull you all the way to joy.
Did you ever fall in love with a teacher? "A Story of Love"
Afraid of death? "The Leave-taking" Or its delightful, whimsical opposite, "There Was an Old Woman"
Here is horror. "Gotcha!", "The Coffin", "The Skeleton", "The Screaming Woman", "Boys! Raise Giant Mushrooms in Your Cellar!"
Just pick up anything by Bradbury. What an imagination that man had! And how he could write! Aldous Huxley was right--Bradbury was a poet.
How will we ever get by without him?
December 6, 2020
I consider this a must-read/must-own book for Bradbury fans. If you are a Bradbury fan, then you have probably read most of this, but there are a lot of stories in here that I have not seen collected anywhere else. Including Mars stories not in The Martian Chronicles, and Green Town stories not in Dandelion Wine. Also includes classics and favorites like Mars is Heaven, The Foghorn, and A Sound of Thunder. Of course, you'll still have to read the other collections, which have great stories that aren't included in this monster of a book.
My only complaint is edition specific. I just read the 2010 Everyman's Library edition. I used to have a 1980 Knopf edition. The Knopf edition has an introduction by Bradbury called Drunk and in Charge of a Bicycle. For some reason, this was cut from the 2010 edition I have now.
My only complaint is edition specific. I just read the 2010 Everyman's Library edition. I used to have a 1980 Knopf edition. The Knopf edition has an introduction by Bradbury called Drunk and in Charge of a Bicycle. For some reason, this was cut from the 2010 edition I have now.
September 14, 2015
Simply the quintessential Bradbury collection of short stories. Some are better than others, but by and large all are good, with some being so fabulous that you remember them always. A must for anyone who loves to read.
September 12, 2008
An old housemate I had scratched with an indelible marker a paragraph out a story called Kaleidoscope on his bedroom wall.
"What's that?" I asked.
He showed me this gigantic book. I read the story. Men were drifting into the oblivion of space as it began. One of the men told the captain how he had betrayed him, and now there was nothing either of them could do about it. Another struggled to fasten the valve on his wrist because a meteor had calmly ripped away his left hand. One man had gone mad on impact while another nearby sacrificed precious energy to reach him and put a hole in his glass face. When the story begins, you learn immediately every character is doomed to die. I was feverish as I read. Dialogue ensued through a shared channel that some wished they could shut off, and words heated their tempers as everything drifted further and further. I was locked in from then on.
Through odd circumstances I obtained the book that once belonged to someone else. I have read most of the 100+ stories in its covers and have never experienced fiction like Bradbury's. The stories are whimsical and charming with their humor, or often captively mysterious. Bradbury's prose-like stories never fall away from their theories into pieces. Though absolute in their fiction, they remain attatched to the reality of their individual circumstances.
"What's that?" I asked.
He showed me this gigantic book. I read the story. Men were drifting into the oblivion of space as it began. One of the men told the captain how he had betrayed him, and now there was nothing either of them could do about it. Another struggled to fasten the valve on his wrist because a meteor had calmly ripped away his left hand. One man had gone mad on impact while another nearby sacrificed precious energy to reach him and put a hole in his glass face. When the story begins, you learn immediately every character is doomed to die. I was feverish as I read. Dialogue ensued through a shared channel that some wished they could shut off, and words heated their tempers as everything drifted further and further. I was locked in from then on.
Through odd circumstances I obtained the book that once belonged to someone else. I have read most of the 100+ stories in its covers and have never experienced fiction like Bradbury's. The stories are whimsical and charming with their humor, or often captively mysterious. Bradbury's prose-like stories never fall away from their theories into pieces. Though absolute in their fiction, they remain attatched to the reality of their individual circumstances.
September 29, 2013
Probably my favorite single book of all time...this specific edition. No filler or lesser works in sight. Pure gold.
February 9, 2021
I hope there are university courses who still study Bradbury for his style and structure. Simply brilliant.
These stories are a bit dated but overall this is shaded by the breadth of his writings covering sci-fi, horror and social concerns. I liked that his sci-fi stories did not rely on invented technologies rather they focused on telling a good yarn. It was like watching a champion 10 metre diver in action - a good takeoff, some spins and spilts followed by perfect ending.
These stories are a bit dated but overall this is shaded by the breadth of his writings covering sci-fi, horror and social concerns. I liked that his sci-fi stories did not rely on invented technologies rather they focused on telling a good yarn. It was like watching a champion 10 metre diver in action - a good takeoff, some spins and spilts followed by perfect ending.
December 3, 2010
There may have been other Bradbury anthologies since this huge (100 stories!!!) 1980 collection, but I sincerely doubt any could be half as fine as this one. This is the ultimate collection of Bradbury's short fiction including nearly every important tale from this seminal American writer. It also includes a terrific introduction by the author titled "Drunk, and in Charge of a Bicycle".
May 19, 2021
I'm marking this specific volume down a point because although there's a nice biographical timeline as a prologue, there's no actual information about the stories themselves so I can't tell when they were written or which series (The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, etc) they originated in.
May 3, 2019
L'ARTE DEL POSSIBILE (CON TOP 10 PT. 2)
Dopo la rigenerante esperienza di "Cronache marziane", raccolta di racconti che ho trovato davvero illuminante, questa antologia era d'obbligo. Sarò breve, non ripeterò la solita solfa di quanto sia difficile la valutazione rispetto a quella di un romanzo per l'ovvia diversità tra una storia e l'altra. Mi basterà menzionare quanto queste ultime mi abbiano fatto ridere di gusto, emozionare, sgranare gli occhi, sorridere amaramente, riflettere... Confermandomi, alla fine, la grandiosità di Bradbury come autore di fantascienza.
"La fantascienza è qualunque idea ti venga in mente che non esiste ancora, ma presto esisterà e cambierà ogni cosa per tutti e niente sarà più come prima. Appena ti viene un'idea che cambia una qualche piccola parte del mondo, stai scrivendo fantascienza. È sempre l'arte del possibile, mai dell'impossibile."
Di seguito la mia top 10, come già per le novelle pirandelliane (grazie alle quali, tra parentesi, mi è saltato in mente di leggere questo libro. Prossima tappa: il "Decameron"!):
10) "Il bambino del futuro"
9) "La bara"
8) "C'era una volta una vecchina"
7) "I terrestri"
6) "Il piccolo assassino"
5) "La terza spedizione"
4) "Io canto il corpo elettrico!"
3) "La Macchina della Felicità"
2) "La folla"
1) "La falce"
Dopo la rigenerante esperienza di "Cronache marziane", raccolta di racconti che ho trovato davvero illuminante, questa antologia era d'obbligo. Sarò breve, non ripeterò la solita solfa di quanto sia difficile la valutazione rispetto a quella di un romanzo per l'ovvia diversità tra una storia e l'altra. Mi basterà menzionare quanto queste ultime mi abbiano fatto ridere di gusto, emozionare, sgranare gli occhi, sorridere amaramente, riflettere... Confermandomi, alla fine, la grandiosità di Bradbury come autore di fantascienza.
"La fantascienza è qualunque idea ti venga in mente che non esiste ancora, ma presto esisterà e cambierà ogni cosa per tutti e niente sarà più come prima. Appena ti viene un'idea che cambia una qualche piccola parte del mondo, stai scrivendo fantascienza. È sempre l'arte del possibile, mai dell'impossibile."
Di seguito la mia top 10, come già per le novelle pirandelliane (grazie alle quali, tra parentesi, mi è saltato in mente di leggere questo libro. Prossima tappa: il "Decameron"!):
10) "Il bambino del futuro"
9) "La bara"
8) "C'era una volta una vecchina"
7) "I terrestri"
6) "Il piccolo assassino"
5) "La terza spedizione"
4) "Io canto il corpo elettrico!"
3) "La Macchina della Felicità"
2) "La folla"
1) "La falce"
June 21, 2014
I'm not really sure how to even start with a review of this book, with its table of contents stretching to three pages. And even taking three months to read it was too short a time. Bradbury shorts need to be read slowly and savoured. I binged a bit here.
There are Martian stories in this collection, there are Mexican stories, Irish stories, stories about the supernatural Family and the joys of childhood. There are the famous stories (A Sound of Thunder, The Fog Horn etc) and so many more.
There are creepy stories of childhood and children (exemplified by The Small Assassin) and stories of the joys. Stories of happy marriage and stories showing it falling apart in slow motion. Every aspect of human life is examined by Bradbury in this collection and turned into a gem. Some stories are better than others (I really didn't like Interval in Sunlight very much, for example) but taken as a whole, there's no denying the power of Bradbury's work.
Learn from my example, though, and don't read more than a couple of stories a week, for maximum effect.
There are Martian stories in this collection, there are Mexican stories, Irish stories, stories about the supernatural Family and the joys of childhood. There are the famous stories (A Sound of Thunder, The Fog Horn etc) and so many more.
There are creepy stories of childhood and children (exemplified by The Small Assassin) and stories of the joys. Stories of happy marriage and stories showing it falling apart in slow motion. Every aspect of human life is examined by Bradbury in this collection and turned into a gem. Some stories are better than others (I really didn't like Interval in Sunlight very much, for example) but taken as a whole, there's no denying the power of Bradbury's work.
Learn from my example, though, and don't read more than a couple of stories a week, for maximum effect.
Currently reading
November 23, 2008I have not yet finished this book, but feel that some commentary is needed on it.
I have been reading this book for about 3 years now.
1) because it is 884 pages long
2) because it is nothing but short stories
3) because I love it
I find that when I read too many short stories in a row, I begin to think of them as separate chapters in a connected book, and don't pay the proper attention to each story as its own entity, so I force myself to read a couple then set the book down.
I can easily start arguments with people over Bradbury being the pinnacle of short story author ever.
I love short stories as an art form.
I believe Bradbury is a master of them.
I believe that Gaiman is also a master, as was Zelazny.
I recommend all of their short story collections.
I have been reading this book for about 3 years now.
1) because it is 884 pages long
2) because it is nothing but short stories
3) because I love it
I find that when I read too many short stories in a row, I begin to think of them as separate chapters in a connected book, and don't pay the proper attention to each story as its own entity, so I force myself to read a couple then set the book down.
I can easily start arguments with people over Bradbury being the pinnacle of short story author ever.
I love short stories as an art form.
I believe Bradbury is a master of them.
I believe that Gaiman is also a master, as was Zelazny.
I recommend all of their short story collections.
July 29, 2012
Man, I love Ray Bradbury. I really, really do. But I couldn't get through a lot of the stories in this collection. Too many choices, maybe? It's a honkin big book. Maybe these were mostly B sides? I didn't recognize a good many of them. Not in the right mood, perhaps? Entirely possible.
2 stars. But I don't blame Bradbury. I blame myself.
2 stars. But I don't blame Bradbury. I blame myself.
January 11, 2020
Gostei de alguns contos, de outros nem tanto.. porém eles realmente fazem refletir muito sobre a sociedade em que vivemos e seus absurdos!
Muitos ficaram com final em aberto, alguns me prenderam tanto que eu gostaria que tivessem sido ainda maiores!
Muitos ficaram com final em aberto, alguns me prenderam tanto que eu gostaria que tivessem sido ainda maiores!
March 1, 2021
I have to thank my book club for this, as it's not one I would ever have chosen to read on my own. It surprised me. First, I mean, he's a genius. I will never cease to be amazed and impressed at how SF/F writers predict the future; in two stories in particular, "the veldt" and "the great fire (i think"), Bradbury - in the 1950's - is writing fully realised worlds where AI is controlling homes and a google glass type of object exists to read the newspaper on. The moral and ethical issues brought up in "the veldt," in particular, are very much issues society is questioning today, 70 years later.
"Marionettes, inc." is a delight and probably my favourite short story in this collection, and I absolutely loved every story in "The Illustrated Man" collection. "Fog Horn" and "The Fire Balloons" will linger. (again...he wrote these in the 50's! just...wow.)
Here are my gripes: for all of Bradbury's inventiveness, his creativity, his vision...how could he not imagine a world, or worlds, set in the 2100's and beyond, where women did more than cook and clean?? And I don't accept that that was "just the era"; Ursula LeGuin, writing in the 60's, wrote worlds where men gave birth and non-binary folks exist. So...if she could imagine a world of more equal status back then, he could have, too. The women in these stories, with very few exceptions, function only to serve the men (Marionettes, inc is one wonderful exception) and are locked in traditional roles. I did not enjoy that.
As for race, in only a very few stories does he explicitly define the characters in terms race: "ice cream suit," "earth men," maybe a few others. In all of the other stories, there is absolutely no mention of it. Which was a positive, in a way, as I imagined each story's (male) characters as whatever I wanted and there was no text to stop me, and I made almost all of them from different backgrounds in my mind. But the implication is that white was the default, which is problematic.
Despite the lack of strong women and diversity, I often found myself startled by where his stories went to, and I was definitely entertained.
"Marionettes, inc." is a delight and probably my favourite short story in this collection, and I absolutely loved every story in "The Illustrated Man" collection. "Fog Horn" and "The Fire Balloons" will linger. (again...he wrote these in the 50's! just...wow.)
Here are my gripes: for all of Bradbury's inventiveness, his creativity, his vision...how could he not imagine a world, or worlds, set in the 2100's and beyond, where women did more than cook and clean?? And I don't accept that that was "just the era"; Ursula LeGuin, writing in the 60's, wrote worlds where men gave birth and non-binary folks exist. So...if she could imagine a world of more equal status back then, he could have, too. The women in these stories, with very few exceptions, function only to serve the men (Marionettes, inc is one wonderful exception) and are locked in traditional roles. I did not enjoy that.
As for race, in only a very few stories does he explicitly define the characters in terms race: "ice cream suit," "earth men," maybe a few others. In all of the other stories, there is absolutely no mention of it. Which was a positive, in a way, as I imagined each story's (male) characters as whatever I wanted and there was no text to stop me, and I made almost all of them from different backgrounds in my mind. But the implication is that white was the default, which is problematic.
Despite the lack of strong women and diversity, I often found myself startled by where his stories went to, and I was definitely entertained.
December 23, 2020
1. The Mars-centered stories are simply phenomenal and highly introspective, painting a canvas of human psychology and morality.
2. Bradbury proves that he can weave his writing through an astonishing amount of different themes and styles, rarely failing to amaze.
3. The overall literary level of each story in this collection is extremely high. I would say that eight out of ten stories are amazing, one is mediocre and one is mundane/weird. By all accounts, those are some impressive stats.
2. Bradbury proves that he can weave his writing through an astonishing amount of different themes and styles, rarely failing to amaze.
3. The overall literary level of each story in this collection is extremely high. I would say that eight out of ten stories are amazing, one is mediocre and one is mundane/weird. By all accounts, those are some impressive stats.
November 25, 2018
Ler esse livro em qualquer outro momento da minha vida não teria sido a mesma experiência.
Dentre os contos destaco "O Lixeiro", "A Autêntica Múmia Egípcia Feita em Casa" e a "A Cidade Inteira Dorme".
Dentre os contos destaco "O Lixeiro", "A Autêntica Múmia Egípcia Feita em Casa" e a "A Cidade Inteira Dorme".
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