Grumpy Ray Bradbury

[cema]

Ray Bradbury: We've got too many internets! Also, need a revolution.

Comments

[mme-n-b.livejournal.com]

Sorry for the misunderstanding - I do like some visionaries. Especially Bradbury.
They are often useful and lovely. In general they seem to make the world better about as often or even more often than they make it worse (notice I'm staying away from discussing "how much" better).

And yes, he is a good author and a defining author, one of the people who made this century what it is.

[cema.livejournal.com]

Lovely, yes. Not all.

So called visionaries usually are not. Ray Bradbury is.

[mme-n-b.livejournal.com]

No, not all. Many are downright scary. Usually the ones whom people accept as guides become very scary very fast. Good thing a poet in America is no more than a poet, isn't it?

[cema.livejournal.com]

Can be a poet laureate!

[mme-n-b.livejournal.com]

But surely that's less?

[cema.livejournal.com]

Less than one!

[mme-n-b.livejournal.com]

Put down the square root and step away from the negative numbers.

[cema.livejournal.com]

Come on, it's Brodsky! A past poet-laureate! The one who wrote these unforgettable rhymes:

Well, you are tough and I am tough,
But who will write whose epitaph?

Nothing imaginary about him. Always squarely in the realm of the real.

[mme-n-b.livejournal.com]

First I heard that one, thanks. Real and poets are about as likely to be found together as genius and villainy. If a poet tells you he knows reality he's lying.

[cema.livejournal.com]

Brodsky knew reality but did not boast about it.

С красавицей налаживая связь,
вдоль стен тюрьмы, где отсидел три года,
лететь в такси, разбрызгивая грязь,
с бутылкой в сетке — вот она, свобода!

Щекочет ноздри невский ветерок.
Судьба родных сознания не гложет.
Ах! только соотечественник может
постичь очарованье этих строк!..

[mme-n-b.livejournal.com]

Only a poet can think that this is reality, rather than a mirage.