Ray Bradbury, We Hardly Know Thee

Mike Gold

ComicMix's award-winning and spectacularly shy editor-in-chief Mike Gold also performs the weekly two-hour Weird Sounds Inside The Gold Mind ass-kicking rock, blues and blather radio show on The Point, www.getthepointradio.com and on iNetRadio, www.iNetRadio.com (search: Hit Oldies) every Sunday at 7:00 PM Eastern, rebroadcast three times during the week – check www.getthepointradio.com above for times and on-demand streaming information.

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43 Responses

  1. Russ Rogers says:

    Bradbury said, “I think our country is in need of a revolution,” and, “There is too much government today. We’ve got to remember the government should be by the people, of the people and for the people.”

    Who the HELL does Bradbury think elected Obama? The Skrull? Sorry. It was the People!

    “We have too many cellphones. We’ve got too many Internets. We have got to get rid of those machines. We have too many machines now.” Bradbury, you dumb-ass Luddite! There will no way to colonize the Moon and then Mars except through the use of the Internets and surrounding ourselves with machines.

    Argh!

    Fuck me, Ray Bradbury!

    http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2010/08/ray-b

  2. Mike Gold says:

    Hmmm. Whereas I don’t think I share your taste in men, your Skrulls idea might account for GWB.

    But his line “there’s too much government today” is historically naive. There’s always been too much government; people get pissed only when their oxen are getting gored.

    And we pay the price. Today, over 100 communities in six states are actually plowing over paved roads because they cannot afford the upkeep. Filling potholes on gravel roads is easier and cheaper than maintaining paved roads.

    Nice work, Tea Baggers! You’re beginning to get exactly what you’ve been asking for. Let’s kill Medicare next.

    Hmmm. I wonder if Ray’s taking Medicare money.

  3. Reg Gabriel says:

    Fingers OFF the MAESTRO, Mike!! Unless you want things to get ugly up in here!

    Seriously tho…the great man’s genius spirited me away to many far and distant places…and I am grateful in the extreme. I can certainly forgive these expressed idiosyncrasies.

    • Mike Gold says:

      As I noted in the piece, me too, Reg. Me too. Ray’s been a major part of the Gold Brain Cocktail.

  4. Russ Rogers says:

    Bradbury said, "I think our country is in need of a revolution," and, "There is too much government today. We've got to remember the government should be by the people, of the people and for the people."Who the HELL does Bradbury think elected Obama? The Skrull? Sorry. It was the People!"We have too many cellphones. We've got too many Internets. We have got to get rid of those machines. We have too many machines now." Bradbury, you dumb-ass Luddite! There will no way to colonize the Moon and then Mars except through the use of the Internets and surrounding ourselves with machines.Argh!Fuck me, Ray Bradbury!http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2010/

  5. Mike Gold says:

    Hmmm. Whereas I don't think I share your taste in men, your Skrulls idea might account for GWB.But his line "there's too much government today" is historically naive. There's always been too much government; people get pissed only when their oxen are getting gored.And we pay the price. Today, over 100 communities in six states are actually plowing over paved roads because they cannot afford the upkeep. Filling potholes on gravel roads is easier and cheaper than maintaining paved roads. Nice work, Tea Baggers! You're beginning to get exactly what you've been asking for. Let's kill Medicare next.Hmmm. I wonder if Ray's taking Medicare money.

  6. Reg Gabriel says:

    Fingers OFF the MAESTRO, Mike!! Unless you want things to get ugly up in here!Seriously tho…the great man's genius spirited me away to many far and distant places…and I am grateful in the extreme. I can certainly forgive these expressed idiosyncrasies.

    • Mike Gold says:

      As I noted in the piece, me too, Reg. Me too. Ray's been a major part of the Gold Brain Cocktail.

  7. Miles Vorkosigan says:

    Thing is, I do agree about the return to the Moon. We should never have left.

  8. Miles Vorkosigan says:

    None of this surprises me. Ray’s always been afraid of cars; I learned that from John Huston’s book. We can’t turn back progress; well, we can, but it wouldn’t be wise. I guess at 90, we can allow him a quirk or two.

    Too many cellphones and Internets, huh? I presume he means computers… and yeah, too much government is very naive. We have as much as we have, the trick is making it better.

    • Reg Gabriel says:

      Miles, now I have to wonder if John Mellencamp is a fan of Dr. Ray’s or if these types of thoughts are something that comes with age…
      http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/19/john-mellencamp-

      p.s. I also agree that we should have pursued staying on the moon…. but these pesky unnecessary wars (‘except for the IMC of course) have the nasty habit of draining the budget, don’t they?

      • Mike Gold says:

        When it comes to the Internet and musicians, you can divide the arguers up into two camps: those who have made it and therefore are understandably threatened by bootlegging, and those who have not and see the Internet as an alternative to the established, soul-crushing, exploitative, culture-leveling, anti-innovative music industry which includes both the record labels and the commercial broadcast outlets. The latter in opposition to, let’s say, ohh, WEIRD SOUNDS INSIDE THE GOLD MIND (getthepointradio.com; we’re doing two hours of Detroit sounds this coming week).

        However, Mellencamp (who I respect as a musician, a storyteller and an activist) sells a LOT of records on iTunes, which alone handles one quarter of all recorded music sales. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, overall music sales declined $1.3 billion in 2009 while digital download income grew $363 million to $4.3 billion, an increase of 9.2%. It’s easy to see which side of the bread has the butter.

        Don’t get me wrong: I miss the old neighborhood record stores. I’ve been turned onto a lot of great music and established some great friendships at those places. But outside of college towns and used vinyl stores in hip districts in large cities, them joints went the way of the penny candy store long before iTunes came along. I remember the day Tower Records built an emporium across the street from my buddy’s record store. Tower was selling CDs for less than it cost my buddy to buy them wholesale. Today, both are out of business.

        Is bootlegging a problem for the established artists and their record companies? Yes, most certainly, particularly overseas. However, keep in mind that EVERY SINGLE PERSON who buys a tune from iTunes or Amazon or the others could just as easily get it for free.

        Without the Internet, musicians might as well be making comic books.

      • Miles Vorkosigan says:

        Reg, I think it’s something that comes with age. And it’s nothing new; As Benedick says in Much Ado About Nothing, a man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age. I’m almost as bad. The music and books that loved in my teens do little for me now. It was years before I could listen to some of them again. But…

        Just because you get old doesn’t mean your brain has to fossilize. Ray, John, and a few others have sand drifting outta their ears. Sorry, old boys, you can’t turn back the clock.

        Yeah, wars kinda screw the pooch for space research. Considering that NASA’s entire budget for the Apollo program was about a year’s black ops funding for Vietnam. Hell, I dunno, somebody prove otherwise. All I know is we’d be on Mars already if we’d not gone quick and dirty on the Mercury program.

  9. Miles Vorkosigan says:

    Thing is, I do agree about the return to the Moon. We should never have left.

  10. Miles Vorkosigan says:

    Out of all the guys who went to the Moon or tried, I think I feel sorriest for the crew of 17, knowing that theirs was the last. Gene Cernan must’ve been heartbroken, knowing he would be the last man on the Moon. I would’ve been.

  11. Miles Vorkosigan says:

    None of this surprises me. Ray's always been afraid of cars; I learned that from John Huston's book. We can't turn back progress; well, we can, but it wouldn't be wise. I guess at 90, we can allow him a quirk or two. Too many cellphones and Internets, huh? I presume he means computers… and yeah, too much government is very naive. We have as much as we have, the trick is making it better.

    • Reg Gabriel says:

      Miles, now I have to wonder if John Mellencamp is a fan of Dr. Ray's or if these types of thoughts are something that comes with age… http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/19/john-mel…p.s. I also agree that we should have pursued staying on the moon…. but these pesky unnecessary wars ('except for the IMC of course) have the nasty habit of draining the budget, don't they?

      • Mike Gold says:

        When it comes to the Internet and musicians, you can divide the arguers up into two camps: those who have made it and therefore are understandably threatened by bootlegging, and those who have not and see the Internet as an alternative to the established, soul-crushing, exploitative, culture-leveling, anti-innovative music industry which includes both the record labels and the commercial broadcast outlets. The latter in opposition to, let's say, ohh, WEIRD SOUNDS INSIDE THE GOLD MIND (getthepointradio.com; we're doing two hours of Detroit sounds this coming week). However, Mellencamp (who I respect as a musician, a storyteller and an activist) sells a LOT of records on iTunes, which alone handles one quarter of all recorded music sales. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, overall music sales declined $1.3 billion in 2009 while digital download income grew $363 million to $4.3 billion, an increase of 9.2%. It's easy to see which side of the bread has the butter.Don't get me wrong: I miss the old neighborhood record stores. I've been turned onto a lot of great music and established some great friendships at those places. But outside of college towns and used vinyl stores in hip districts in large cities, them joints went the way of the penny candy store long before iTunes came along. I remember the day Tower Records built an emporium across the street from my buddy's record store. Tower was selling CDs for less than it cost my buddy to buy them wholesale. Today, both are out of business.Is bootlegging a problem for the established artists and their record companies? Yes, most certainly, particularly overseas. However, keep in mind that EVERY SINGLE PERSON who buys a tune from iTunes or Amazon or the others could just as easily get it for free. Without the Internet, musicians might as well be making comic books.

      • Miles Vorkosigan says:

        Reg, I think it's something that comes with age. And it's nothing new; As Benedick says in Much Ado About Nothing, a man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age. I'm almost as bad. The music and books that loved in my teens do little for me now. It was years before I could listen to some of them again. But… Just because you get old doesn't mean your brain has to fossilize. Ray, John, and a few others have sand drifting outta their ears. Sorry, old boys, you can't turn back the clock. Yeah, wars kinda screw the pooch for space research. Considering that NASA's entire budget for the Apollo program was about a year's black ops funding for Vietnam. Hell, I dunno, somebody prove otherwise. All I know is we'd be on Mars already if we'd not gone quick and dirty on the Mercury program.

  12. Miles Vorkosigan says:

    Thing is, I do agree about the return to the Moon. We should never have left.

  13. Miles Vorkosigan says:

    Out of all the guys who went to the Moon or tried, I think I feel sorriest for the crew of 17, knowing that theirs was the last. Gene Cernan must've been heartbroken, knowing he would be the last man on the Moon. I would've been.

  14. Chuck Fiala says:

    I hope Ray Bradbury gets his wish. We need to colonize both the Moon and Mars, just because it would be cool, and I’d like to see that when I turn on the TV. Imagine, newscasts live from the red planet!

    • Mike Gold says:

      OK, but… what do you say? What sort of news is there on Mars?

      • George Haberberger says:

        This just in: Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids. In fact, it’s cold as hell.Back to you Brian.

      • Chuck Fiala says:

        I think we would have to make up our own news. At least we could broadcast weather reports. They could send one of those Weather Channel roving reporters there. I’d watch it.

  15. Chuck Fiala says:

    I hope Ray Bradbury gets his wish. We need to colonize both the Moon and Mars, just because it would be cool, and I'd like to see that when I turn on the TV. Imagine, newscasts live from the red planet!

    • Mike Gold says:

      OK, but… what do you say? What sort of news is there on Mars?

      • George Haberberger says:

        This just in: Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids. In fact, it's cold as hell.Back to you Brian.

      • Chuck Fiala says:

        I think we would have to make up our own news. At least we could broadcast weather reports. They could send one of those Weather Channel roving reporters there. I'd watch it.

  16. Anonymous says:

    I don’t think that it’s entirely fair to criticize Bradbury and accuse him of being a “technophobe” or “Luddite”. He’s said himself that Fahrenheit 451 is about passive entertainment overtaking the desire for reading, and the book did an excellent job of showing the effect of that on society. If you think about it, we’re rapidly headed towards that future. A lot of people are so focused on the trivialities of the internet that they don’t bother to use the internet to its fullest potential. The internet could be a network of knowledge, but it is instead largely a world of useless, superficial diversions – just like the future in Fahrenheit 451. Don’t get me wrong, I use technology like computers every day of my life, but you can’t deny that most people don’t use the internet to improve themselves or gain any sort of valuable knowledge. Problem isn’t the tech; it’s how we use it.

    And as for the electronic books, I don’t think condemning them is right, either, but let’s not forget the Kindle 1984 incident.

    • Mike Gold says:

      Let’s see if I’ve got this right. Bradbury won’t fly, he’s opposed to the Internet, to cell phones, and to electronic book distribution. Yet you say it’s unfair to suggest he’s a technophobe or a Luddite? You set a pretty high bar there, Anon.

      The Internet, and email and social networking and all that, is not passive entertainment. It is active entertainment. For example, this particular thread has involved seven people in a conversation that has lasted almost a month. Nothing passive about that. And a conversation on a cell phone is exactly the same as a conversation on a land-line, except you’ve got to watch out for police cars (unless the policeman is on his cell phone while driving). I assume — but I do not know for a fact — that Ray has a telephone. If not, then he’s certainly a Luddite and, at his age (or even mine), a fool.

      Yes. The Kindle 1984 incident. Let’s look at that. Amazon removed 1984 — and Animal Farm — when they were served notice that the people they purchased the rights from did not, in fact, have those rights to sell. I think they handled this poorly, but it was the first time with such a big property and mistakes in handling difficult situations are easy to make. But it was rectified.

      Trust me. I’ve been in publishing since 1967 (I was a small child covering prep sports for the Skokie News) and I’ve seen LOTS of mistakes made in publishing. I’ve seen authors fucked over massively. I’ve been an author who was fucked over massively. I don’t know any authors who HAVEN’T been fucked over massively by at least one publisher. The Kindle incident isn’t even a fart in a blizzard.

  17. Anonymous says:

    I don't think that it's entirely fair to criticize Bradbury and accuse him of being a "technophobe" or "Luddite". He's said himself that Fahrenheit 451 is about passive entertainment overtaking the desire for reading, and the book did an excellent job of showing the effect of that on society. If you think about it, we're rapidly headed towards that future. A lot of people are so focused on the trivialities of the internet that they don't bother to use the internet to its fullest potential. The internet could be a network of knowledge, but it is instead largely a world of useless, superficial diversions – just like the future in Fahrenheit 451. Don't get me wrong, I use technology like computers every day of my life, but you can't deny that most people don't use the internet to improve themselves or gain any sort of valuable knowledge. Problem isn't the tech; it's how we use it.And as for the electronic books, I don't think condemning them is right, either, but let's not forget the Kindle 1984 incident.

    • Mike Gold says:

      Let's see if I've got this right. Bradbury won't fly, he's opposed to the Internet, to cell phones, and to electronic book distribution. Yet you say it's unfair to suggest he's a technophobe or a Luddite? You set a pretty high bar there, Anon.The Internet, and email and social networking and all that, is not passive entertainment. It is active entertainment. For example, this particular thread has involved seven people in a conversation that has lasted almost a month. Nothing passive about that. And a conversation on a cell phone is exactly the same as a conversation on a land-line, except you've got to watch out for police cars (unless the policeman is on his cell phone while driving). I assume — but I do not know for a fact — that Ray has a telephone. If not, then he's certainly a Luddite and, at his age (or even mine), a fool. Yes. The Kindle 1984 incident. Let's look at that. Amazon removed 1984 — and Animal Farm — when they were served notice that the people they purchased the rights from did not, in fact, have those rights to sell. I think they handled this poorly, but it was the first time with such a big property and mistakes in handling difficult situations are easy to make. But it was rectified. Trust me. I've been in publishing since 1967 (I was a small child covering prep sports for the Skokie News) and I've seen LOTS of mistakes made in publishing. I've seen authors fucked over massively. I've been an author who was fucked over massively. I don't know any authors who HAVEN'T been fucked over massively by at least one publisher. The Kindle incident isn't even a fart in a blizzard.

  18. Miles Vorkosigan says:

    Mike, until a few years ago, and now I think it’s still with some reluctance, Bradbury hated to ride in cars. John Huston punked him heroically in the early Sixties, in fact; Ray did the script for Moby Dick, and John picked Ray up at Grand Central. In the cab, John noticed that Ray was nervous. Shaking, in fact. And you know how Huston was…

    He leaned forward, and in a stage whisper that only Ray could hear, said, “Uh, driver, don’t you think we’re going a bit fast?”

    And Ray screamed, “YES, FOR GOD’S SAKE, SLOW DOWN BEFORE YOU KILL US ALL!”

    By the time the cab reached the Waldorf, they were doing five miles an hour and Ray was a weeping, quivering wreck. And oh yeah, the cabby had no clue what was going on…

    John, of course, was stifling giggles.

  19. Miles Vorkosigan says:

    Mike, until a few years ago, and now I think it's still with some reluctance, Bradbury hated to ride in cars. John Huston punked him heroically in the early Sixties, in fact; Ray did the script for Moby Dick, and John picked Ray up at Grand Central. In the cab, John noticed that Ray was nervous. Shaking, in fact. And you know how Huston was… He leaned forward, and in a stage whisper that only Ray could hear, said, "Uh, driver, don't you think we're going a bit fast?" And Ray screamed, "YES, FOR GOD'S SAKE, SLOW DOWN BEFORE YOU KILL US ALL!" By the time the cab reached the Waldorf, they were doing five miles an hour and Ray was a weeping, quivering wreck. And oh yeah, the cabby had no clue what was going on… John, of course, was stifling giggles.

  20. Voltaire Malaise says:

    Coming from a hack writer like Bradbury, that comment is a badge of honor.

    • mike weber says:

      Coming from someone who takes his pseudonym from a hack writer like Smith, that comment is irrelevant.

      (Just fore curiosity sake – do you understand the multi-lingual pun?)

  21. Voltaire Malaise says:

    Coming from a hack writer like Bradbury, that comment is a badge of honor.

    • mike weber says:

      Coming from someone who takes his pseudonym from a hack writer like Smith, that comment is irrelevant.(Just fore curiosity sake – do you understand the multi-lingual pun?)