I have a had a ridiculous amount of fun reading this book and would like to share a commentary I’m writing on it orally. I’m treating Bradbury as if he wrote with logographic necessity (=every word is exactly where it needs to be in order to convey the teaching of the book) and the care I’ve paid to his text has been richly rewarded.
This session covers the first 10 chapters of the book.
If you have ever loved the summer as a boy you will love this book. It presents America as it once was and someday will be again. If Bradbury’s more famous book, Fahrenheit 451, shows us how we might lose something beautiful, then this book shows us what we stand to lose or what that beautiful thing is. It shows us as well how unscientifically a child looks at the world and the virtues and vices that attend that mode of perception.
This project is a labor of love that emerged out of nowhere. I hope that you enjoy it and that you read Dandelion Wine.
Discoveries and Revelations: A Commentary on Bradbury's Dandelion Wine