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Rhapsody in Blue | 17:14The Bobs - Topic | 851 subscribers | 1,957 views | October 19, 2015

Martha Jones: It's like in those films: if you step on a butterfly, you change the future of the human race. The Doctor: Then don't step on any butterflies. What have butterflies ever done to you? Science fiction writers can't seem to agree on the rules of time travel. Sometimes, as in Doctor Who (above), characters can travel in time and affect small events without appearing to alter the grand course of history. In other stories, such as Back To The Future, even the tiniest of the time travellers' actions in the past produce major ripples that unpredictably change...

As civilization crumbles around us, Bradbury and his fiction offer several primordial lessons we would be prudent to reconsider. In 2013, British writer Neil Gaiman wrote a story entitled “The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury.” It was about exactly what the title says: A man, losing his memory, tells the audience that he can only vaguely remember a writer who hailed from Waukegan, Illinois, who wrote wonderful and macabre fairytales of space and the otherworldly. Gaiman’s story is closer to home than what we might care to remember because, on the century of his birth, the world at large has...

NOTE: I apologize for the absence the past 10 days. Hopefully, this won't be too common an occurrence. Thank you for your patience.Today's Quotefall Puzzle features a quote by Ray Bradbury. Click puzzle (or click here) for full size rendition, then use your browser's print command to print puzzle. Ray Bradbury was an American author and screenwriter. He worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, and mystery fiction. He is predominantly known for writing the iconic dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451, essentially mirroring the statue-toppling thugs of today. All hints, along with the answer, are provided in the first...

The notion of burning books is, or should be, quite repugnant to those with an interest in maintaining a free society. Whether it’s environmentalists setting ablaze a book which challenges man-made global warming theory, or conservatives putting flames to a progressive’s anti-white-themed offering, never should Ray Bradbury’s warning of Fahrenheit 451 be forgotten. But in “equity” consultant Kimya Dennis’s case, she’d likely shrug off that notion — because Bradbury was a white man.

Wayne Cordeiro, pastor of New Hope Christian Fellowship in Honolulu, Hawaii, is praying that American Christians become more like Chinese Christians. In a sermon, the pastor of the Hawaiian megachurch shared an experience he had on a trip to China, where the church went to train leaders. On that particular trip, he brought up twenty-two Christians from the Hunan Province, who road thirteen hours on a train to attend the leadership training. They sat in a 700 square foot hotel room, with no air conditioning, or couches to sit on, with Cordeiro leading the gathering. “If we get caught what...

This is from the Martian Chronicles. Which is a great collection of stores about Mars. Ray Bradbury is one of my personal heroes and his writings greatly influenced me in ways that I am only just now beginning to understand. Here is a story that discusses new starts when the world is Hell-bent on self-destruction. Indeed, it seems quite appropriate today. When I read the crazy American “main-stream” news, I am often reminded of this story. It offers me solace. I think that it is beautifully written and very “delicious”. I love the way that Ray Bradbury brings advanced concepts...

Fahrenheit 451: A Book Review By Philip Cottraux I’ve written two reviews of dystopian future novels, 1984 and Brave New World (click the links to read). This week I decided to tackle Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. The story behind its authorship is almost as fascinating as the book itself; it took years for Bradbury to complete, working feverishly in garages and library basements during his spare time (he admitted in the book’s epilogue that he never quite completed a final story). Although written during the backdrop of the Cold War, it proved to be one of the most prophetic...

I have found this version of the story “Dark they were and Golden Eyed” on the Ray Bradberry library portal in Russia, and I have copied it here exactly as found. Credit to the wonderful people at the Ray Bradberry Library for posting it where a smuck like myself can read it within China. And, of course, credit to the great master; Ray Bradberry for providing this work of art for our inspiration and pleasure. Full Text Here is the full text of the masterpiece. I will let the reader read it and enjoy it themselves. Dark They were, And...

Fahrenheit 451 is based on Ray Bradbury's classic novel. In a future where the media is an opiate, history is rewritten and "firemen" burn books, Jordan plays Guy Montag, a young fireman who struggles with his role as law enforcer and with his "mentor", played by Shannon. Premieres Spring 2018 on HBO.

HBO has become pretty good at adapting successful books into successful TV programs. The cable network has another promising project on the way with an adaptation of Fahrenheit 451. Based on the classic sci-fi novel by Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 is an upcoming TV movie starring Michael B. Jordan and Michael Shannon. We've seen some images from the movie, and now HBO has graced us with the first footage.

FAHRENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury This one, with gratitude, is for DON CONGDON. FAHRENHEIT 451: The temperature at which book-paper catches fire and burns PART I IT WAS A PLEASURE TO BURN IT was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world, the blood pounded in his head, and his hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history. With...

Ray Bradbury lived in his 1937 Cheviot Hills home for more than 50 years. After the author of "Fahrenheit 451" died in 2012, the house was readied for sale ... The home, which was purchased in June for $1.765 million, is being demolished. A permit for demolition was issued Dec. 30, Curbed LA reports, and a fan who visited the house over the weekend found it in the process of being torn down ...

An effort is underway to honor one of Waukegan's favorite sons, the late science fiction pioneer Ray Bradbury. Waukegan Public Library Executive Director Richard Lee said nearly all the details remain to be worked out beyond the basic idea -- a realistic statue or bust of Bradbury, who wrote evocatively of the fictional Green Town, a recognizable stand-in for his hometown. lRelated A history of Waukegan The effort echoes the push for a statue memorializing another Waukegan legend, comedian Jack Benny, a radio and early TV star honored with a downtown statue in 2001.

Libertarians can easily see one of their own in the non-comformist nonagenarian, who, despite moving to Los Angeles in the 1930s, never bothered to learn how to drive. A consummate autodidact, he also never went to college. And good thing too! He hated affirmative action, condemned “all this political correctness that’s rampant on campuses,” and called for an immediate ban of quotas in higher education. “The whole concept of higher education is negated,” he told Playboy in 1996, “unless the sole criterion used to determine if students qualify is the grades they score on standardized tests.” But Bradbury’s antipathy to...

Ray Bradbury is dead. His literary career spanned an incredible 73 years, and his influence was felt across the broad spectrum of American thought. Bradbury was very conscious of the fact that he grew up in almost a pre-technological society; "[w]hen I was born in 1920," he told The New York Times Magazine in 2000, "the auto was only 20 years old. Radio didn't exist. TV didn't exist. I was born at just the right time to write about all of these things."

The year was 1969. I was 18 or so.I stood in front of the small science-fiction section of the Brigham Young University bookstore, taking I Sing the Body Electric from the shelf, hefting it, opening it, reading just a little, then putting it back.I had too much respect for books in general, and for this book in particular, even to imagine reading the whole thing without paying for it.But it was a hardcover. Not a discounted book-club edition — the real thing, at full price. And I was a college student, pretty close to broke. Buying this book would...

Look for our editorial on Sunday, but until then, a few words about the passing of Ray Bradbury. Mr. Bradbury, who died at 91, was a champion of freedom. Through his fanciful lens, he had more to say about conventional reality than most conventional writers can muster. His imaginative tales revealed a world of new ideas, unbound by conventional limitations. It seems only appropriate that he didn’t drive or own an automobile. He operated in a different sphere, so to speak...

Science fiction author Ray Bradbury sits in front of a photo of Mars, presented to him during an 83rd birthday party in his honor on Aug. 23, 2003. Ray Bradbury, master of the sci-fi fantasy and author of Fahrenheit 451, died Tuesday at 91.The man who chronicled dystopian societies had strong political beliefs and spoke as darkly about contemporary politics as he did about burning books. "I think our country is in need of a revolution," the Los Angeles Times quoted him as saying in 2010. "There is too much government today. We've got to remember the government should be...

<p>LOS ANGELES -- Ray Bradbury, the science fiction-fantasy master who transformed his childhood dreams and Cold War fears into telepathic Martians, lovesick sea monsters, and, in uncanny detail, the high-tech, book-burning future of "Fahrenheit 451," has died. He was 91.</p>