Grumpy Ray Bradbury

[cema]

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

Comments

[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.