The horror writer Ray Bradbury always maintained that he could remember in vivid detail his own circumcision. It was his first brush with stark terror. But the odd thing is he was only two days old at the time. I'd don't mean to challenge his honesty but do you believe this is true.

https://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/24/book ... icles.html

Yeah..... I have to call BS on this "memory". As for me, once I turned 40 I had a hard time remembering what I had for supper the night before, much less what happened to me a few days after I was born.

Atreyu69 (imported) wrote: Sun Mar 07, 2021 11:37 am The horror writer Ray Bradbury always maintained that he could remember in vivid detail his own circumcision. It was his first brush with stark terror. But the odd thing is he was only two days old at the time. I'd don't mean to challenge his honesty but do you believe this is true.

https://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/24/book ... icles.html

I'm not sure that I think he can remember his circ from when he was two days old.

Maybe he is remembering an infection or perhaps a skin bridge that required some painful manipulation or a quick pull to detach the bridge. If that happened around three and a half to four years old, he might have a memory of it and be confusing it with his RIC.

I never thought of Bradbury as a horror writer - much more of a SciFi writer.

Bradbury always was difficult for me to like, even though I can see his genius.

Something about his writing always seemed somehow... and I say this with embarrassment because it's just NOT true... but they felt lame, in a sort of 70's-Canadian-Television way; sort of nerdy, sort of too eager, sort of laughable in it's wide-eyed innocence.

I mean, he just doesn't deserve to be thought of that way! But even my faves of his, F451 and the short story about the circus where people are ridden backwards or forwards in time, have that not-ready-for-prime-time feel to them to me.

Oh, and yeah, I think it's pretentious and silly of him to think he can remember a circumcision at 2 days of age.

jamiepan (imported) wrote: Sun Mar 07, 2021 10:29 pm Bradbury always was difficult for me to like, even though I can see his genius.

Something about his writing always seemed somehow... and I say this with embarrassment because it's just NOT true... but they felt lame, in a sort of 70's-Canadian-Television way; sort of nerdy, sort of too eager, sort of laughable in it's wide-eyed innocence.

I mean, he just doesn't deserve to be thought of that way! But even my faves of his, F451 and the short story about the circus where people are ridden backwards or forwards in time, have that not-ready-for-prime-time feel to them to me.

Oh, and yeah, I think it's pretentious and silly of him to think he can remember a circumcision at 2 days of age.

Bradbury's short story, The Fog Horn was fantastic.

jamiepan (imported) wrote: Sun Mar 07, 2021 10:29 pm but they felt lame, in a sort of 70's-Canadian-Television way; sort of nerdy, sort of too eager, sort of laughable in it's wide-eyed innocence.

Kind of like "The Ray Bradbury Theater?"

jamiepan (imported) wrote: Sun Mar 07, 2021 10:29 pm Bradbury always was difficult for me to like, even though I can see his genius.

Something about his writing always seemed somehow... and I say this with embarrassment because it's just NOT true... but they felt lame, in a sort of 70's-Canadian-Television way; sort of nerdy, sort of too eager, sort of laughable in it's wide-eyed innocence.

I mean, he just doesn't deserve to be thought of that way! But even my faves of his, F451 and the short story about the circus where people are ridden backwards or forwards in time, have that not-ready-for-prime-time feel to them to me.

Oh, and yeah, I think it's pretentious and silly of him to think he can remember a circumcision at 2 days of age.

There were other SciFi authors I liked much better.

F451 was good and I remember the flat screen "walls" that were TV. The Fireman's wife wanted another wall and he couldn't afford it. I think of that every time I see a computer set up with multiple monitors.

The Illustrated Man was good because it was really a collection of short stories and I like SciFi short stories.

But, really my favorite SciFi authors were Frank Herbert and Robert Heinlein.

I know the Dune Trilogy was Herbert's most famous work but, his other works including his short stories are really good.

Heinlein was fun and interesting. I read "The Cat Who Walks Through Walls" first and didn't really know that much about him. Later, I read more and at last figured out where that annoying term, "grok" came from. I don't think I could ever grok the meaning of grok.

Lastly, I have to mention David Brin's Uplift Trilogy. Find the original. It's my understanding that it has been edited to bring it up to modern times. But, the original was so good, I can't see screwing around with it. Also, I think there are four books in the newer version (which makes it not a trilogy any longer). I tried to read his series on Mars. I think it was Red Mars, Green Mars, and then lastly Blue Mars. But, oddly, I just did not get into it the way I did the Uplift Trilogy.

Getting back to circumcision. I have very much a love/hate relationship with it. Although I like being circumcised - I'm kinda not happy it was done to me. Although I like the way a cut looks and enjoy having sex with cut guys - I'm opposed to infant circ. As with many things I've encountered in my life, I've just had to come to the conclusion that some things can be contradictory and true at the same time.

If not for Ray Bradbury there'd be no Atreyu69. However one unfortunate thing about Bradbury is that although he loved seeing he stories adapted by EC Comics and was happy to cash they checks he didn't want his name to appear on the covers. In other words he felt he was too good to be on the cover of a horror comic book but had no problem contributing.

And now to silence all you Ray Bradbury naysayers let's all grab our popcorn, sit back and enjoy a true screen classic by the master himself. I give you, The Black Farris.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkctA0wymMU

:redbounce

At the risk of going off-topic again, here is a bit of info about the story "The Black Ferris". It's too hard to copy and paste with all the images and such, so read it while it's there:

The Haunted Closet: The Black Ferris (1953, Ray Bradbury) (the-haunted-closet.blogspot.com) (https://the-haunted-closet.blogspot.com ... dbury.html)

It's interesting to note that this story came BEFORE the more popular "Something Wicked This Way Comes," which was inspired by "Black Ferris".

Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) - IMDb (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086336/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0)

SWTWC was published as a novel in 1962, and later adapted into a movie. It would not be immediately released, though, and many fans noted that in the dream sequence the boys have, they appear older and their voices are breaking. This is because it would a couple years later, that the boy actors were called back to add the scene in, when the movie was finally "ready" for release. It cost $19 million to make, and only made back $8.4 million on the theatrical run.

I've always enjoyed Bradbury, but it seems to me as if he began telling the same stories over and over again.

As for this one, well, let's just say that Cinema Sins would have a heyday with this episode.

There are many things in this world that I can't understand or have never experienced.

I can only base my opinion on what I remember of my own childhood. We moved when I was six and I can place most childhood memories as being before the move or after the move. The best that I can guess is that my earliest memories are when I was four. It is possible, I might remember something from when I was three, but have no way to put a date to the memory.

So, based on my own experiences, I have a hard time imagining that someone could have memories of their birth. I don't know how the brain works for babies, but I can't imagine a baby who doesn't yet have a vocabulary or enough life experiences can preserve details of events they have never experienced before. My guess is his memory is based on hearing stories, watching a sibling/cousin/etc. being born or circumcised, or a dream. But, I don't have any background in the study of earliest memories to know if this is common or totally unique.