Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
Step inside for those who still have dreams and memories and for those who haven’t yet felt the hypnotic force of its dark poetry. The program is about to start. Every existence touched by Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show will be destroyed when it arrives in Green Town, Illinois. A little after midnight, the circus arrives, bringing a week early Halloween. All are drawn in by the seductive promise of dreams and youth reclaimed by the shrill siren singing of the calliope. Two lads who are friends will soon learn all too well the high price of wishes—and the stuff of nightmares—and will learn the secret of its smoke, mazes, and mirrors.
Something Wicked This Way Comes, one of Ray Bradbury’s best-known and most widely read books, now has a new preface and information about its extensive cultural and genre impact. The literary masterwork Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury has lasted in the mind and heart as few other books have. It is a timeless masterpiece in the American canon, one that is spooky and thrilling.
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
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The science fiction/fantasy book Fahrenheit 451 and other works by Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) are probably his best-known works. Yet, Dandelion Wine* (1957), a lovely “summery” coming-of-age novel that was inspired by the author’s own upbringing, is my particular favourite work of his. On October 24 of that year, a carnival comes to town in the middle of the night, and both boys slip out (as they evidently did occasionally) to have a look. When one is 13 or 14 years old and going out in the middle of the night in search of excitement, who wouldn’t find the environment to be very frightening and witness some strange things?
The Green Town trilogy by Ray Bradbury, which also includes a collection of linked short stories, includes this book. The story develops as a nostalgic coming-of-age yarn with frightening elements featuring two young boys, sort of like a classic tale in its telling. The author focuses on the conflict between temptation and desire. This primarily changes as the contrasting major characters interact. Will and Jim, the primary characters, are best friends with one major difference: Will is a little bit more cautious, whilst Jim is a little bit more daring and has a little bit of a different worldview from his friend. To put it simply, Will’s father, another important character, is elderly.
Charles, who became a father much later in life, is unsure about how to make amends for this as his son’s youth seems to serve simply as a continual reminder of how old he is. The future is set in motion by this dynamic. the horror begins. The language of Bradbury is old-fashioned, purple-coloured lyrical writing.
The narrative is a little bit romanticized, and perhaps at times the voices of the little lads sound too old for them. However, it largely functions. The two get into a lot of mischiefs, yet it all seems realistic and age-appropriate. The juxtaposition between the lovely atmosphere around the lads and the depravity of the Carnival prevents the nostalgia from becoming excessive.
The manner in that Bradbury causes conflict between the boys, who are the best of friends in every sense of the word, is also fantastic. We are genuinely concerned about Jim, just as Will is, because of the absence of his father as well as his curiosity and more daring side.
This is also applicable to Charles, Will’s father, who begins as a pleasant but frail person. Charles must put aside all of his neurotic worries about growing older, accept life, and recognize that his age is what it is as we get to know him, comprehend his sense of powerlessness, and fight through this with him.
The screenplay for this narrative was originally a short fiction that Bradbury thought his buddy Gene Kelly would direct. That never materialized, so Bradbury took the time to develop the treatment into the complete novel that is presented here.
