A Pleasure to Burn

It is hard to find anything bad to say about anything done by Ray Bradbury. It seems particularly sacrilegious to do so when it involves Fahrenheit 451. And so, in this collection of Bradbury stories that matches the themes of Fahrenheit 451 as well as included stories that were the direct precursors of that book, we have the genius of Bradbury’s writing brought together in a way that somehow diminishes that genius – that actually diminishes the joy of reading his works.

The stories are classic Bradbury – some very familiar, others not so well known. But, by bringing together stories with such common themes, the impact of the stories is lost. There are a number of stories with a Zombie theme. There are a number of stories with allusions to Edgar Allan Poe (in a couple of instances even having similar endings with references to “The Cask of Amontillado”). And, of course, there are a large number that include flames, the end of literacy, and the burning of books.

But the strangest experience in this collection is reading “Long After Midnight” and “The Fireman”. I had known of “The Fireman” as the work that led to Fahrenheit 451, but had never read it. Nor had I heard of “Long After Midnight”. I think that putting them next to each other this way is a big mistake. It is almost like reading the same story. Yes, there are differences, but they are very minor.

And there is your proof that this collection is really nothing more than a book for the completist or scholar – someone who wants it all in one volume.

As I implied at the outset – a collection of Bradbury stories will always show his skill. And you will never go wrong reading Bradbury. However, this collection is not the best way to be introduced to his writing, nor a way to leisurely reconnect with him. ( )

This collection of short stories by Ray Bradbury nicely demonstrates his thematic development leading up to the writing of Fahrenheit 451---from "Pillar of Fire" where all the corpses are burned, to "Bonfire" (and several others) where all the books by Poe are, to "The Pedestrian" where taking a walk is a crime. There are some very good stories here, and that sense of thematic unity heightens the effect of the collection. I had read some of the stories before, but many of them were new to me and anyway it's nice to have them all collected in one volume like this. I almost like it even better than Fahrenheit 451 itself, and would have given it five stars except that the two stories that are supposed to form the collection's core, "Long After Midnight" and "The Fireman", are just earlier versions, almost drafts, of Fahrenheit 451, and while it is interesting to see the development of the novel more specifically itself, they just aren't that good (though of the two, the first is the better version).

I've heard Bradbury called a Luddite, but I think that is a profound misunderstanding of him. This isn't Vonnegut we're talking about here...this is a man with a childlike love of rockets and the idea of traveling to Mars and so forth. Sometimes Bradbury writes as though science and imagination are antitheses, and creativity is the province solely of the arts...but clearly that is not really his view, as shown by the fact that in some of these stories the authors listed whose books were destroyed in the great burning included not only authors such as Poe and Lovecraft, but also scientists such as Galileo and Einstein. (He also singles out a couple of authors to specifically NOT include in the great burning: Hemingway, for his relentless realism, and Dickens, whom he hilariously describes as "uncensorable"!) What he was really against was clearly science and technology *approached without imagination*, and especially the sort of bureaucratic mindset that stifles individual creativity. And what these stories all have in common at the deepest level is a passionate defense of the value of the individual imagination. ( )

Full review posted on Across the Litoverse

Step aside, kids—the Grand Master of October Country and Dystopian Worlds has arrived. In A Pleasure to Burn, readers are walked through Ray Bradbury's creative process and introduced to sixteen shorter works that prefigure the landmark Fahrenheit 451. Immediate favourites include: "Bright Phoenix", where a Chief Censor marvels over the absence of witnesses at his book burning; "The Garbage Collector", where one man's life changes in a single day after learning the gristly details of his job should a nuclear war erupt; and "The Smile", where a young boy joins the men of his town to desecrate an iconic portrait from the past.

Bradbury's cold, sterile, lifeless worlds are punctuated by one colour only—the orange-yellow rage of fire. He burns through the past, through remarkable art, and through the written word with great fury, and he manages to sneak in a few rocket ships and a trip to Mars for all the sci fi kids in the crowd. However, I found the quality of the stories was not consistent—most of these works were originally published in journals, and were therefore refined under the eyes of an editor. But, in some cases, these stories were rough works not intended to reach publication per se. Also, the collection includes two novellas ("Long After Midnight" and "The Fireman") that are actual rough drafts of Fahrenheit 451—the average reader might turn down the collection at this point for its repetitiveness and for the painful, un-Bradbury prose of his rough work. Regardless, I will still champion the man and partake of the pleasure to burn.

Ideal for: Creative writing students who ought to learn from the masters; Editorial students eager to read the rough drafts of Fahrenheit 451; Readers with a mega-crush on all things Bradbury; Kids waiting in line for the official Hunger Games film release. ( )

Bradbury’s 1953 novel “Fahrenheit 451,” a dystopian tale of a grim future in which all intellectual expression and individuality is frowned upon and firemen burn books rather than putting out fires, is rightly considered a classic of the sci-fi genre. In this collection, 16 tales are culled from Bradbury’s own archive, tracing the progression of his work on the themes contained in his masterwork. Some of the tales are lesser known, such as “Bright Phoenix.” Others, like “The Pedestrian” and “The Mad Wizards of Mars,” will be more familiar. Also included are “Long After Midnight,” featuring an early version of the events and characters of “Fahrenheit 451;” and “The Fireman,” the novella Bradbury used as a base for the novel. This collection serves as an essential companion piece to the novel. Highly recommended. ( )