Julia KellerCULTURAL CRITICJune 20, 2010
Ray Bradbury's ferocious love of life comes roaring out of "Listen to the Echoes: The Ray Bradbury Interviews" (Stop Smiling/Melville House), compiled by Chicago author Sam Weller, who follows up on his superb 2005 biography of Bradbury with this surprising, inspiring book.
Did I call it a book? "Listen to the Echoes" is not a book. It's a shout of joy. It's a crack of thunder. It's a talisman. A magic key. A moon rock. A road map. A compass. A ladder to the stars. It's filled with passion and vigor and insight from Bradbury, the native of Waukegan who went on to become a major American artist, the man who wrote "The Martian Chronicles" (1950) and "Fahrenheit 451" (1953) and "Dandelion Wine" (1957) and so many other great works.
"All my life I've been running through the fields and picking up bright objects. I turn it over and say, 'Hey, there's a story,'" Bradbury says in one of the interviews in "Listen to the Echoes." Later he declares, "I'm interested in having fun with ideas, throwing them up in the air like confetti and then running under them."
On the record with Ray Bradbury
Bradbury on books: "You cannot hold a computer in your hand like you can a book. I don't care what they say about e-books. A computer does not smell. There are two perfumes in a book: a book is new, it smells great; a book is old, it smells even better. It smells like ancient Egypt. So a book has got to smell. You have to hold it in your hands and pray to it. You put it in your pocket and you walk around with it. And it stays with you forever."
Bradbury on his talent: "Every so often, late at night, I come downstairs, open one of my books, read a paragraph and say, 'My God.' I sit there and cry because I haven't done any of this. It's a God-given thing, and I'm so grateful — so, so grateful … It's a God-given gift, and I'll be damned where any of it came from."
Bradbury on movies: "The secret of films is screenplays. It always has been. And when an actor who is not known gets a screenplay that's brilliant, overnight he's famous. Like Russell Crowe, who won an Academy Award for his role in 'Gladiator.' He's not a great actor. He's a nice, bland character player, but he has good taste in screenplays."
Bradbury on Jackson Pollock: "Jackson Pollock didn't know how to paint. There's nothing to see there."br/>
Read the complete article here.
Permalink Reply by Shirley Durr on
Permalink Reply by Ryan Goble on
