Ray Bradbury
"The Parrot Who Met Papa"
from Long After Midnight
"The Parrot Who Met Papa" is the second story I have read by Ray Bradbury that centers on Ernest Hemingway, sometimes familiarly known as Papa. The first I read was "The Kilimanjaro Device," a time-traveling tale. My post on that story is at http://tinyurl.com/y7xt9t4h. I wonder if there's any more about Hemingway and why he chose to write about him. I also wonder if he has any other stories about real people. I guess I will just have to read more stories by Bradbury.
I suppose most people back then knew that Hemingway spent considerable time in Cuba. That was the problem, for so many people knew this that Hemingway became a tourist attraction when he was there. When the staring got to be too much, Hemingway would absent himself from his usual watering holes and hide out in a small local bar, the Cuba Libre. At one end of the bar was a parrot in a cage, an ancient parrot to be sure. Hemingway grew to like the parrot and would spend much time talking to it. In fact, the question was whether Hemingway ended up talking like the parrot or the parrot sounded like him. Rumor had it that Hemingway had taught the parrot a word-for-word record of his last unpublished novel.
This parrot became famous, almost as famous as Hemingway himself. So, although it was a shock to many, the reasons why El Cordoba, that was the parrot's name, was birdnapped? should have been obvious. But, the real reason wasn't known, until much later.
Ray (the name of the teller of the tale, a coincidence, no doubt) decids to investigate and flies down to Cuba. Upon interrogating the bar owner, he decides he knows the identity of the birdnapper. He had asked the bar owner if someone strange or peculiar or eccentric had recently been there. The bar owner then described such a person who had been there the day before the parrot had disappeared:
"What a creature!. . . He was very small. And he spoke like this: very high-eeee. Like a muchacha in a school play, eh? Like a canary swallowed by a witch! And he wore a blue-velvet suit with a big yellow tie. . .And he had a small very round face. . . and his hair was yellow. . .he was like a Kewpie doll."
Ray recognizes him and blurts out, "Shelley Capon!" (a capon is a castrated domestic rooster fattened for eating). Ray knew that Shelley Capon hated Hemingway and now was very concerned about the fate of El Cordoba.
Perhaps I'm wrong here, but that description and the name reminds me of Truman Capote. Unfortunately I don't know anything about the relationship between Hemingway and Capote, so I can't offer that as evidence.
Ray then decides to confront Shelley Capon and rescue El Cordoba. Shelly Capon is the most interesting character in the story. If you have read the story or read it sometime in the future, let me know if you agree or disagree with my speculation regarding the identity of Shelly.
It took a while for me to realize this, but this is a detective story! El Cordoba is a victim of a kidnapping, and Ray comes to his rescue. Shelly Capon is the unique and fascinating bad guy with his henchmen about him in the hotel room when Ray confronts him. Their meeting gives us a clue:
Shelly greets him: "'Raimundo, sit down! No . . . fling yourself into an interesting position.'
Ray responds: "'Sorry,' I said in my best Dashiell Hammett manner, sharpening my chin and steeling my eyes. 'No time.'"
The tone is almost noir. Ray senses a threat from those gathered in the hotel room. Will he be allowed to leave, on his own two feet? He responds with a threat of his own, clearly a hard-boiled detective tale. Bradbury later introduces a very familiar element from a Hammett story, just to remind us of this story's antecedents.
Overall, it's a light-hearted work, not to be taken seriously. But, on the other hand, it is written by Ray Bradbury . . .
Showing posts with label Long After Midnight. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Long After Midnight. Show all posts
Sunday, July 9, 2017
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
Ray Bradbury: Long After Midnight, "One Timeless Spring"
Ray Bradbury
"One Timeless Spring"
Long After Midnight
"One Timeless Spring" is the second story in the collection, Long After Midnight. Just as the first story, "The Blue Bottle," could have been a part of The Martian Chronicles, this story, at first glance, could have been included in Dandelion Wine (DW) . It's the story of a young boy who lives in a small town. Moreover, his name is Doug, just as the young boy in DW is named Doug Spaulding.
One difference between this story and the others in DW is that it is a flashback tale. Doug is looking back at the events whereas the others are told in the present, if I remember correctly. I think it would take a bit of revision to fit it in. Perhaps another reason is the tone of the tale. It doesn't seem to quite mesh with the overall tone of DW.
For example, the story begins
That week, so many years ago, I thought my mother an father were poisoning me. And now, twenty years later, I'm not so sure they didn't. There's no way of telling.
He begins a journal.
"'I didn't know I was sick until this week,' I wrote. 'I've been sick for a long time. Since I was ten. I'm twelve now.'"
Doug then decides he doesn't want to grow up (the Peter Pan Principle?); he wishes to remain twelve. Is he afraid of growing up, of joining that mysterious and possibly dangerous world of the adults? He remains adamant about freezing at that age, and then he meets Clarisse.
Since I read this story, I heard about and eventually read Bradbury's sequel to Dandelion Wine, the title of which is Farewell Summer and have come to the conclusion that "One Timeless Spring" actually fits in better with Farewell Summer. The overall theme is the same: a fear of growing up.
"One Timeless Spring"
Long After Midnight
"One Timeless Spring" is the second story in the collection, Long After Midnight. Just as the first story, "The Blue Bottle," could have been a part of The Martian Chronicles, this story, at first glance, could have been included in Dandelion Wine (DW) . It's the story of a young boy who lives in a small town. Moreover, his name is Doug, just as the young boy in DW is named Doug Spaulding.
One difference between this story and the others in DW is that it is a flashback tale. Doug is looking back at the events whereas the others are told in the present, if I remember correctly. I think it would take a bit of revision to fit it in. Perhaps another reason is the tone of the tale. It doesn't seem to quite mesh with the overall tone of DW.
For example, the story begins
That week, so many years ago, I thought my mother an father were poisoning me. And now, twenty years later, I'm not so sure they didn't. There's no way of telling.
He begins a journal.
"'I didn't know I was sick until this week,' I wrote. 'I've been sick for a long time. Since I was ten. I'm twelve now.'"
Doug then decides he doesn't want to grow up (the Peter Pan Principle?); he wishes to remain twelve. Is he afraid of growing up, of joining that mysterious and possibly dangerous world of the adults? He remains adamant about freezing at that age, and then he meets Clarisse.
Since I read this story, I heard about and eventually read Bradbury's sequel to Dandelion Wine, the title of which is Farewell Summer and have come to the conclusion that "One Timeless Spring" actually fits in better with Farewell Summer. The overall theme is the same: a fear of growing up.
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Ray Bradbury: Long After Midnight, "The Blue Bottle"
Ray Bradbury
Long After Midnight
Long After Midnight is a collection of short stories that I had read many years ago, but as usual, I had forgotten what stories it contained. I sat down yesterday and began. What I found surprised me. I am a great admirer of Bradbury's short works, but I missed recognizing just how good these simple little tales are.
Since this collection contains 22 stories, I will comment on a number of them in several subsequent posts. "The Blue Bottle" is the first story in the collection. .
"The Blue Bottle"
This story takes place on Mars. To be sure, I checked my copy of The Martian Chronicles, but it wasn't in there. After reading the story, I wouldn't have been surprised to find it there because it contained elements reminiscent of those tales.
The story begins with two men searching for the Blue Bottle.
"The sundials were tumbled into white pebbles. The birds of the air flew in ancient skies of rock and sand, buried, their songs. stopped. The dead sea bottoms were currented with dust which flooded the land when the wind bade it reenact an old tale of engulfment. The cities were deep laid with granaries of silence, time stored and kept, pools and fountains of quietude and memory.
Mars was dead.
Then, out of the large stillness, from a great distance, there was an insect sound which grew large among the cinnamon hills and moved in the sun-blazed air until the highway trembled and dust was shook whispering down in the old cities.
The sound ceased.
In the shimmering silence of midday, Albert Beck and Leonard Craig sat in an ancient landcar, eyeing a dead city which did not move under their gaze but waited for their shout:
'Hello!'
A crystal tower dropped into soft dusting rain.
'You there!'
And another tumbled down.
And another and another fell as Beck called, summoning them to death. In shattering flights, stone animals with vast granite wings dived to strike the courtyards and fountains. His cry summoned them like living beasts and the beast gave answer, groaned, cracked, leaned up, tilted over, trembling, hesitant, then split the air and swept down with grimaced mouths and empty eyes, with sharp, eternally hungry teeth suddenly seized out and strewn like shrapnel on the tiles."
They were searching for the Blue Bottle, a mysterious Martian artifact which legends claimed that it held that which one most wanted. Craig came along for the ride; it was Beck who drove the two of them from one deserted city to the next. Many had found the bottle, according to various tales, and many had died, but still the Blue Bottle remained elusive.
Beck's search, though intensive and driven, was a strange one: "Only after he had heard of the Blue Bottle. . .had life begun to take on a purpose. The fever had lit him and he had burned steadily ever since. If he worked it properly, the prospect of finding the bottle might fill his entire life to the brim. Another thirty years, if he was careful and not too diligent, of search, never admitting aloud that it wasn't the bottle that counted at all, but the search, the running and the hunting, the dust and the cities and the going-on."
It is Craig who finds the Blue Bottle, but he doesn't recognize it. He opens it to discover that the bottle is filled with bourbon; he takes a drink from it and discards it. Beck, however, realizes what it is and places "it on the table. Sunlight spearing through a side window struck blue flashes off the slender container. It was the blue of a star held in the hand. It was the blue of a shallow ocean at at noon. It was the blue of a diamond at morning."
Beck picks it up and shakes it: Craig hears it gurgle (some bourbon is still in there), but Beck hears nothing. He is about to open it when a man appears with a gun (another fanatic searcher obviously), takes the bottle, and drives off. Beck and Craig give chase. They find him, by the side of the road, his body dissolving away. They see three men hurrying up a hill. Craig decides enough is enough and is no longer interested in the search, but Beck goes on after them. He finds them, dead, their bodies also dissolving. Beck now realizes what is in the Bottle. It is what each searcher most desires, and now he knows what he most desires.
Beck's search for the Blue Bottle reminds me of the Arthurian tales of the Search for the Holy Grail. Those who find it will recognize it, as Beck recognizes the Blue Bottle, his Holy Grail, but that's only part of the story. Why the search that absorbs so many people? The mystery of both is the meaning of the Bottle and the Grail--what the Blue Bottle and the Holy Grail signify and that seems to differ for each searcher.
I think this story could well have been included in The Martian Chronicles. The tone, the setting, the causal destruction of Martian cities and structures by humans, and those strange almost recognizable artifacts that possess an alien aura. In this story it is the Blue Bottle. Blue bottles are not alien to earth cultures, but what it contains may be.
Long After Midnight
Long After Midnight is a collection of short stories that I had read many years ago, but as usual, I had forgotten what stories it contained. I sat down yesterday and began. What I found surprised me. I am a great admirer of Bradbury's short works, but I missed recognizing just how good these simple little tales are.
Since this collection contains 22 stories, I will comment on a number of them in several subsequent posts. "The Blue Bottle" is the first story in the collection. .
"The Blue Bottle"
This story takes place on Mars. To be sure, I checked my copy of The Martian Chronicles, but it wasn't in there. After reading the story, I wouldn't have been surprised to find it there because it contained elements reminiscent of those tales.
The story begins with two men searching for the Blue Bottle.
"The sundials were tumbled into white pebbles. The birds of the air flew in ancient skies of rock and sand, buried, their songs. stopped. The dead sea bottoms were currented with dust which flooded the land when the wind bade it reenact an old tale of engulfment. The cities were deep laid with granaries of silence, time stored and kept, pools and fountains of quietude and memory.
Mars was dead.
Then, out of the large stillness, from a great distance, there was an insect sound which grew large among the cinnamon hills and moved in the sun-blazed air until the highway trembled and dust was shook whispering down in the old cities.
The sound ceased.
In the shimmering silence of midday, Albert Beck and Leonard Craig sat in an ancient landcar, eyeing a dead city which did not move under their gaze but waited for their shout:
'Hello!'
A crystal tower dropped into soft dusting rain.
'You there!'
And another tumbled down.
And another and another fell as Beck called, summoning them to death. In shattering flights, stone animals with vast granite wings dived to strike the courtyards and fountains. His cry summoned them like living beasts and the beast gave answer, groaned, cracked, leaned up, tilted over, trembling, hesitant, then split the air and swept down with grimaced mouths and empty eyes, with sharp, eternally hungry teeth suddenly seized out and strewn like shrapnel on the tiles."
They were searching for the Blue Bottle, a mysterious Martian artifact which legends claimed that it held that which one most wanted. Craig came along for the ride; it was Beck who drove the two of them from one deserted city to the next. Many had found the bottle, according to various tales, and many had died, but still the Blue Bottle remained elusive.
Beck's search, though intensive and driven, was a strange one: "Only after he had heard of the Blue Bottle. . .had life begun to take on a purpose. The fever had lit him and he had burned steadily ever since. If he worked it properly, the prospect of finding the bottle might fill his entire life to the brim. Another thirty years, if he was careful and not too diligent, of search, never admitting aloud that it wasn't the bottle that counted at all, but the search, the running and the hunting, the dust and the cities and the going-on."
It is Craig who finds the Blue Bottle, but he doesn't recognize it. He opens it to discover that the bottle is filled with bourbon; he takes a drink from it and discards it. Beck, however, realizes what it is and places "it on the table. Sunlight spearing through a side window struck blue flashes off the slender container. It was the blue of a star held in the hand. It was the blue of a shallow ocean at at noon. It was the blue of a diamond at morning."
Beck picks it up and shakes it: Craig hears it gurgle (some bourbon is still in there), but Beck hears nothing. He is about to open it when a man appears with a gun (another fanatic searcher obviously), takes the bottle, and drives off. Beck and Craig give chase. They find him, by the side of the road, his body dissolving away. They see three men hurrying up a hill. Craig decides enough is enough and is no longer interested in the search, but Beck goes on after them. He finds them, dead, their bodies also dissolving. Beck now realizes what is in the Bottle. It is what each searcher most desires, and now he knows what he most desires.
Beck's search for the Blue Bottle reminds me of the Arthurian tales of the Search for the Holy Grail. Those who find it will recognize it, as Beck recognizes the Blue Bottle, his Holy Grail, but that's only part of the story. Why the search that absorbs so many people? The mystery of both is the meaning of the Bottle and the Grail--what the Blue Bottle and the Holy Grail signify and that seems to differ for each searcher.
I think this story could well have been included in The Martian Chronicles. The tone, the setting, the causal destruction of Martian cities and structures by humans, and those strange almost recognizable artifacts that possess an alien aura. In this story it is the Blue Bottle. Blue bottles are not alien to earth cultures, but what it contains may be.
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