Bradbury is
neat because he is a study in contrasts...his writing is
intellectual, heady, but under that he is such an
idealist. I love the way he combines science fiction with his own philosophy of life.
We live in a world full of
people who are
afraid to
breathe too hard lest they be somehow injured, where people settle for "
safe" instead of going for their dreams. We are taught when we are young that you can acheive anything...but
life shows us otherwise, and by the time we have reached
adulthood, most of us are too
petrified at the thought of
failing to reach for our dreams. We are too frozen by the "what if" to DO. I like Bradbury's idealism, even if some people are put off by it. He BELIEVES in humanity, in our ability to acheive, despite our flaws and prejudices...I think that comes across very clearly in this quote:
"If we listened to our
intellect we'd never have a love affair. We'd never have a
friendship. We'd never go in business because we'd be
cynical: 'It's gonna go wrong.' Or 'She's going to hurt me.' Or, 'I've had a couple of bad love affairs, so therefore . . .' Well, that's nonsense. You're going to miss
life. You've got to jump off the cliff all the time and build your
wings on the way down."
--Ray Bradbury, Brown Daily Herald. March 24, 1995