Kaleidoscope bradbury12/12/2023 ![]() Hollis had only dreams, unfulfilled desires. Lespere had a history that he could look back on and be happy, content as death quickly approaches. There were differences between memories and dreams. The lesson is similar to that of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. And while I may disagree with Bradbury on the well-spent life (Bradbury admires Lespere, who had several wives, made a lot of money, enjoyed life – but this is only one short story), I wouldn’t disagree that living only for yourself and caring not a whit about those around you is not a well-spent life. Its a story about a life either spent well or selfishly. In death he becomes a “falling star” sparking the imagination of a child on Earth.Īgain, (in line with The Veldt) we have a science fiction backdrop for a very human-centered story. The central character, Hollis, struggles with his wasted life and dies wishing he could do just one good thing for someone. All we have is their radio conversation and Bradbury’s description of some of their thoughts and backgrounds. The men survive in their space-suits but are left to float to their deaths – crashing into the earth, moon, space debris or else floating off to die of starvation or thirst. The story opens with the tragic destruction of a rocket carrying several men in the not-too-distant future. Still, I wanted to go a little deeper in the the short fiction of Bradbury, so I picked up a copy of The Illustrated Man (published in 1951), a collection of 18 short stories. I’ve posted on a few of the short stories from it. It was published later than a lot of his other more well-known fiction. James Margaret Mitchell Marilynne Robinson Mark Twain Michael Chabon Midnight's Children Moby-Dick Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Philbrick Nick Adams Stories Nine Stories Oscar Wilde Ray Bradbury Richard B.I’ve discussed some of Bradbury’s longer works but last year my brother gave me a more recent collection of his short stories called Quicker Than The Eye. Tolkien Jack London James Baldwin James Thurber Jane Austen John Cheever John Green John Steinbeck John Updike Joyce Carol Oates Junot Diaz Katherine Anne Porter Ken Liu Kurt Vonnegut Langston Hughes Leo Tolstoy Little Women Louisa May Alcott M. Chesterton George Eliot Geraldine Brooks Gilead Gone With The Wind Graham Greene Hans Christian Andersen Haruki Murakami Herman Melville Isaac Asimov J.D. Scott Fitzgerald Father Brown Mysteries Flannery O'Connor G.K. ![]() Tags A Christmas Memory Alice Munro Annie Proulx A Silver Dish Bagombo Snuff Box Banned Books Banned Book Week Baseball Stories Bernard Malamud Boone County Public Library of Northern Kentucky Caroline Gordon Chaim Potok Charles Dickens Charlotte Bronte Close Range Crystal Wilkinson C S Lewis Edgar Allan Poe Edith Wharton Emily Bronte Ernest Hemingway F. Other Websites That Interest Me - Maybe They Will Interest You ![]() The next time I see a shooting star, I won’t be able to help but think of this story. The natural world of space takes center stage and the descriptions are beautiful, but this doesn’t come at the expense of heart, emotion, psychology…or regrets. It may sound cliche, but I would consider this story a “feast for the imagination”. With only words, he puts human faces on a space story. With only words, he blends comedy, tragedy, horror and…regrets. But back to words – Bradbury manages to create what movie wizardry creates, but he does it with only words. He may not have been completely against it, but I get the feeling that he would have been a man of words first – then maybe pictures. I don’t know what Bradbury would think of his stories being filmed. ![]() The premise of this story is one that could easily be made into a movie with lots of special effects (actually, a movie has been made recently that is similar to this story – with lots of special effects). Of course, the lineup is a group of astronauts instead of baseball players and they were easier to keep track of.īradbury’s use of words amazes me. Space, distance, speed, screaming, lost appendages…and regrets – all get included in Ray Bradbury’s story “Kaleidoscope” which has a lineup of characters similar to the baseball story I read last week.
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