Dandelion Wine: A Final Discussion; Preparing for Martian Chronicles

Period 3: Discussion

A moment to discuss some comments from your blogs concerning Dandelion Wine.

• "This particular novel is set in Green Town, Illinois, 1928. It follows a sort of "alter ego" based on Ray Bradbury himself, Douglas Spaulding. Douglas sees the world with an optimistic and naive outlook on the world. Summers for children [are] usually just sweating, air conditioned rooms, video games, and sticky hands from melting ice cream. Ray Bradbury truly captures being a simple kid again in the summer of 1928 through evocative language and vivid story telling."
• "Dandelion Wine's stronger traits include its language, imagery. Ray Bradbury is a very unique writer in terms of being able to do these things and format it into a story. Dandelion Wine also amazingly includes an interesting cast of characters...from a lurking and menacing murderer to a seemingly enchanted woman. Another thing that can be enjoyed is the book's philosophy on life and death and being a human...Douglas comes to an epiphany that he is really here, living on Earth. Heart beating, lungs expanding and contracting, lying in the flowing grass..."
• "It was almost like a collection of stories that all intertwined with each other. As a writer and reader, I respect the format of the story and enjoy how they all connect."
• "Dandelion Wine is a beautiful written, and poetic book, but it's somewhat of an acquired taste. I enjoyed many of the stories but it took me a long time to get into them."
• The things that caught my eye about the [novel] "Dandelion Wine" was the way [Bradbury] used the killer, The lonely one...making it interesting and...suspens[ful].
• "I think the title is clever...since it's a recollection of all summer memories in the form of dandelion wine."
• "There wasn't any plot or point to many of the stories. Many characters are brought in but never return again. I didn't like how detailed some parts were because I didn't feel that it contributed to anything. Some chapters were dragged out. Because the story was so detailed, it slowed the story and I didn't find anything worth mentioning in Douglas's summer."
• "The author used good description and good characterization. The book got more interesting closer to the end."
• "I didn't really understand the book. At all. I mean, sure it was pretty descriptive and well written, but I just really didn't understand some of the stories (like the lawnmower one for example, or the one that's about buying ice cream). I couldn't really read into the meaning behind the words sometimes, which isn't something that I liked."
• "I was a confused being that there was so much figurative language and I just was not interested in the book when I first started it. As you get more and more into the novel, though, the different stories become interesting and a good read. I love the fact that each chapter was like a different story and that it was like reading a diary being that this book was about Ray Bradbury's childhood. Then the stories themselves were great stories and well written."
• "Overall I'd say this book would probably be better for an older audience."
• There were moments where I wanted to stop reading and where I couldn't bring myself to even open a book. I would read one page and turn the next page to a completely different story, having no idea what just happened. You could miss one sentence and be completely thrown off. Which is also a reason I liked the book."
• "You can't skim a page and get away with [it]. Every paragraph, every sentence, has something that adds to the gist of the story. If you miss an important detail, you miss the story. I liked this because it taught me to read the full story...I skipped some stories because I thought they were irrelevant to the book. When I got to an interesting story, I would be confused because it contain[ed] details from the story I skipped."
• "The author was constantly jacking off to metaphors and 5 syllable words...it gets annoying when it's every other sentence and it completely limits [my] ability to understand...if you are constantly trying to understand what a sentence means literally, it is generally very hard to translate that into what it means in the context of the story, or [its] deeper meaning. I also noticed that it seemed to change topic very suddenly... for instance, one time the [author] was describing the interaction between Douglas and Mr. Sanderson, the owner of the shoe store, and he only went on for a few sentences before saying, "There was a sound of growing thunder." Which, by the way, added nothing to the story."
• I did not like this book very much it was really boring to me and it was very confusing...like every chapter was a whole new story based on the story before"
• "it seemed very...redundant. It was all about people who have experienced different things during the summer of 1928. To me, I want something with a little more action."

Some things to consider when reading a book:

• We might not be the audience the author intended. [This is often the case for required school reading...] When we choose books ourselves, we can select books we think we might like. When we're required to read, we often resent it.
• Teenagers generally resent anything they are told or forced to do. This will likely clear up as you mature. Teenager's are also developing their abstract brains. This makes symbols, metaphors, and abstract ideas found in literary themes hard to comprehend sometimes. 
• There is a bargain that all writers must make with their audience. A writer promises to tell a story as honestly and as skillfully as talent allows. A reader is hoping for something--sometimes unknown. A reader usually does not trust an author until well into the book, if at all. Unless a book hooks our attention or offers us something we need or want, we are less inclined to continue reading. This can be used to our advantage as writers of genre fiction.
• Books do not handle action like movies or plays do. They are more inclined to develop character, setting, theme, or plot instead of action.
• Inexperienced readers (having read very little literature) may find vocabulary difficult, thus making the experience of reading tedious or stressful. Yes, it takes time and effort to read and understand--especially when the reader encounters words he or she is not familiar with. As a metaphor, unless you're introduced to it effectively, eating sushi for the first time is horrible. The more you get used to the "taste", the more you might like the flavor. Having no time to eat it is another problem.
• Books written outside our contemporary time period can be difficult to read. Understanding some context can help us appreciate what the author is attempting to do with his or her art.

Strategies to help us read actively:

• Read actively by thinking about how and why the author wrote a sentence, scene, chapter, or part of a book like he or she did. By thinking like a writer, you will learn a lot more from your reading. This is essential practice for would-be writers.
• Ask questions. Your teachers are trained to read closely and have a little more experience concerning life than you might. If something doesn't make sense, it is your responsibility to ask. There are no stupid questions...
• Take notes. Make lists. Draw. Use graphic organizers. Write down quotes or page #'s of effective or confusing passages.
• Manage your time. This may be extremely difficult for students, but it's essential. Set time aside in your life to read. Especially if you want to be a professional writer. [You'll never become a professional football player if you don't practice and work out! The same goes for any profession or art...no motivation to excel or learn, no progress. It's just that simple.] 

Some things to consider before you forget about Dandelion Wine forever...

• Titles are important. Dandelion wine is a symbol or metaphor. Bradbury isn't trying to hide this fact. He's ringing a loud bell about what's important in the book by printing the metaphor in big letters on the cover. Dandelion wine is the distillation (the action of purifying liquid by heating and cooling; or 2nd meaning: the extraction of essential meaning--Bradbury intends both these definitions) of Bradbury's memories of his childhood. Each dandelion is a memory of his life. Distilled wine is preserved. What better way to preserve our childhood memories but to make a wine out of them to drink later when we get old? Children don't like wine. It doesn't taste good to them. But when you're older, it's pretty fine. 
• This book, like most of Bradbury's writing, is all about death. The dynamic change in Bradbury's alter-ego character [Douglas] is that 1928 was an important summer for him because he learned about death. It is the summer he realizes he is mortal. When did you discover that?
• Technology and magic cannot make us happy. No happiness machine exists. No time machine but our elders telling us stories about what it was like to live in a different time and place, no machine can save us, no magic spell can change us, nothing but family and love and friendship seems to matter--that's what happiness is. The lonely one is the absence of family, love, and friendship. He is quite literally 'death'--the absence of these essential things.
• Most stories in his collection end with an ellipsis. The ellipsis...omits [leaves out] words that conclude an idea. An unfinished life is left unfinished...it is a fragment, a memory, a part of the whole experience...the ellipsis suggests this. Hence Bradbury's use of it.
• Memory is fragmentary. Hence the structure of this book being told in snippets or fragments.
• Overall, the book is a coming of age story. Douglas goes through the 4 stages of all coming of age stories: REALIZATION -- changing, emotional and mental preparation, growing, physical changes. He has to deal with the loss of his best friend, the realization that he is alive, and balance this happy idea with the deaths of friends and family members. 
• REMOVAL -- change of status quo or familiar environment; separation from support units (family, friends, social institutions). The ravine, for example, is a physical symbol of removal.
• CHALLENGE --- proving oneself; overcome a major problem or resolve a major conflict. Many of the adults have to face challenges in each story. Most overcome a problem, thus teaching Douglas that he, too, can overcome obstacles--like getting over his sickness...
• and REINTEGRATION - protagonist comes back into society; character undergoes a rebirth, new status, or new understanding or epiphany of his/her situation. Douglas learns this summer that he is mortal. He, like others he loves, will die. All his memories will be washed away to sea, but what matters is what he passes on to his family. Happiness machine! Tada!
• Characteristics of a Coming of Age experience or story: Usually the protagonist is between the ages of 12-18, but can be younger (Douglas and Tom and John Huff, etc.)
• Adults are either "bad guys" or not important--they represent society or laws or rules--the natural order of things; in some stories a parent is missing, absent, or dead. Authority figures are often antagonists to the protagonist. Bradbury turns this one on its head. Adults are nice, caring, and warm people--although some like the Lonely One (the name says it all) or characters like Elmira Brown might occasionally take the place of an antagonist. But it's really the end of summer that's the antagonist. Summer is a time of peace and tranquility, of freedom and warmth and sunshine and love, etc. What comes after the summer of our lives, if not the autumn of age and a winter of death?
• Protagonists must confront self-induced fears or weaknesses. Yep. Death. Lavinia, Miss Fern, Mrs. Loomis, Bill Forrester, Colonel Freighley, Great grandma, etc.
• The protagonist learns something important (usually about him/herself): we are mortal. 
• The ending may be bittersweet--there is often a loss of innocence as a protagonist matures. 

And now? When reading The Martian Chronicles, you will be treated to the same kind of themes and issues. Death. Exploration. Understanding. All science fiction includes the exploration or questioning spirit of the human race. It often criticizes our own social or technical mistakes and human flaws.

Title: Martian (someone who lives or comes from Mars, the 4th planet from the sun in our galaxy) + Chronicles (a "factual" account of important historical events in the order of their occurrence)

To help you find your footing while reading this book, please return to the lab to do the following:

• Please read the following article: "How Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles Changed Science Fiction (and Literature)"
• Watch a few film clips about movies we've made about Mars, the red planet:
• The Martian (2016)
• John Carter of Mars and the Mars books author: Edgar Rice Burroughs
• Red Planet and its author: Robert Heinlein.
• Mission to Mars (Brian De Palma)
• Life on Mars (David Bowie); and if you can't get enough of Bowie: Space Oddity
• The Martians Discover a Telephone (Sesame Street); Bert & Ernie Meet the Martians
• Learn about some Authors who have written about life on Mars. (website article)
• Learn a little science and astronomy: Mars: Crash Course (video)
• Why Should We Go to Mars? (video)

CONTEXT: Here's a little important history to help you understand how Bradbury uses issues of his day and infuses them into his work:

• The Frontier in American History
• 1940's American History
• Sputnik
• 1950's (look particularly at 1957 & 1959)

Please continue reading The Martian Chronicles.

You may also continue working on your suspense story draft.

HOMEWORK: Please read The Martian Chronicles. As you read, use graphic organizers, keep track of questions and passages, page #'s, look for examples of what we're talking about as fine writing in class in his book, enjoy the stories, apply the linked material I have set out for you to help you understand the novel. Dare to learn a lot!