Long After "Long After Midnight": Bradbury Reconsidered

[chrisconlon]

Not long ago, in a moment of minor personal crisis, I found myself hungering after the literary equivalent of comfort food.

Something familiar, but not too familiar-not familiar to the point of boredom. Yet something that would give me a predictably pleasant lift.

Wandering our basement library (which contains some 3000 of those bulky pre-Kindle

Comments

[tztony]

Before I comment on your larger point here, two observations

[chrisconlon]

Thanks for that, Tony. As an anthology editor myself, I can tell you that what's interesting about the idea that no collection "fires on all cylinders" is that different people discover different cylinders firing in a given book. I could show you various reviews of POE'S LIGHTHOUSE and HE IS LEGEND in which one reviewer praises a particular story to the skies while the next says it was terrible and by far the worst in the entire book. Go figure.

And I think that pretty much covers Mr. Nightshade & Co...I've never presented my blog essays as anything but my own views, Tony, as you know, and I realize I'm spitting into a hurricane to dare to publicly criticize Bradbury's beloved child characters. But when even someone who defends them admits that "Bradbury doesn't create realistic children," well, that tells me I'm on to something.

That needn't stop anyone from liking anything they like, of course...even those awful paragraphs I quoted in the essay.

review

[sprayfoam11]

Hey man, thanks for the post. Just finished this book and was curious what other people thought of it. Pretty puzzling and unique. Loved "drink entire" and wondered why "the wish" existed at all. Anyway thanks for the thoughtful review.