let them eat stale cake
[Reason via Joanne Jacobs]
Ray Bradbury is 83 today. Happy birthday to a man who understands the fight against censorship dressed up as multiculturalism:
For it is a mad world and it will get madder if we allow the minorities, be they dwarf or giant, orangutan or dolphin, nuclear-head or water-conversationalist, pro-computerologist or Neo-Luddite, simpleton or sage, to interfere with aesthetics. The real world is the playing ground for each and every group, to make or unmake laws. But the tip of the nose of my book or stories or poems is where their rights and my territorial imperatives begin, run and rule. If Mormons do not like my plays, let them write their own. If the Irish hate my Dublin stories, let them rent typewriters. If teachers and grammar school editors find my jawbreaker sentences shatter their mushmild teeth, let them eat stale cake dunked in weak tea of their own ungodly manufacture. If the Chicano intellectuals wish to re-cut my "Wonderful Ice Cream Suit" so it shapes "Zoot," may the belt unravel and the pants fall.
Bravo, Mr. Bradbury. And happy birthday.
Comments
I agree! Bravo and Happy Birthday to Mr. Bradbury.
Posted by: etherian | August 23, 2003 07:09 PM
I was driving around LA yesterday, and heard about his birthday on the radio. He is a unique talent, and is as important to our culture as F. Scott Fitzgerald or Mark Twain.
Posted by: Dark Avenger | August 24, 2003 12:44 AM
I had the immense pleasure of meeting Mr. Bradbury at a book signing, hmmm... 6 years ago? At a Barnes & Noble... near Christmas time. I was chatting a bit with him as he signed my books, and an eager young employee bounded up, intent on picking up the hug mug on the table with a "Can I get you more coffee, Mr. Bradbury?" He quickly covered the cup with his hand, a quick smile, "No thank you, son. I'm quite fine." I took a second look at the cup and realized the liquid was not coffee. "A mug of Christmas cheer?" I asked. His smile reached into his eyes, "Yes, my dear. Couldn't have that sweet boy take it away."
What a talent. And a nice gentleman wrapped around it.
Posted by: darleen | August 24, 2003 04:13 AM
I wonder if, at booh signings, pretty young women ever ask him to sign their breasts.
I would like to think that they do.
Anyway, Happy Birthday Mr. Bradbury!!
Posted by: the_same_old_Ross | August 24, 2003 04:51 AM
That is an amzing quote. And an amazing man.
Posted by: Sunidesus | August 24, 2003 02:53 PM
Despite the problems of an aging body, it appears that he's still going strong.
Posted by: Dark Avenger | August 24, 2003 07:25 PM