Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury, Author died this week.

Author of Farenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles, he attributed his talent to his phenomenal memory and “the voices in my head”.

There’s a great [2 mins] clip of him Talking With Terry Wogan on BBC at

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18345350

Fahrenheit 451

Ray Bradbury’s Farenheit 451 is often interpreted as commentary on how authorities often seek to control dissident views by burning books.

Bradbury himself said he thought it was about how TV reduces complex ideas to factoids and makes people not want to read books which he found saddening.

He also resisted for a long time the book being released as an ebook – “smells to me  like books burning”.

Interesting: especially at a time when we have one book [DSM] and the small group of authoritarians behind it seeking to control so much of the ideaspace of how we understand ourselves – and when the internet has become a key way for we “dissidents” to have our voices heard.

As a pertinent example the hearing voices community is growing rapidly round the world, not by organisations who hold money and resources, but by informal networks of people sharing ideas and learning from each other, building connected communities in their cities and on the internet.

If you’re part of the old system maybe it’s time you woke up to the necessary change. Read Bradbury – or watch Truffaut’s movie version – and you just might.

• jump and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall http://lisakessler.wordpress.com/2012/06/07/ray-bradbury-changed-my-life/