ATTITUDE

Ray Bradbury was something of a philosopher, similar to ancient story-teller, Aesop and his fables. Some of Bradbury's tales will set readers trembling, some will leave them curious and wondering. A select few of his stories could cause serious re-thinks of a reader's previous attitudes.

Two of Ray Bradbury's stories, adapted to short TV dramas, have reminded me of something that self-help guides have often dictated, but without the same impact, i.e. that attitude is everything. These two stories paint pictures, a far more effective strategy than mere paragraphs of advice and instructions.

First story The Toynbee Convector:
The inventor and time traveller at centre of the tale comes from a time of imminent environmental collapse - and an economically and creatively stagnant late 20th century society. In his time machine, The Toynbee Convector, he travels forward one hundred years. On returning to the 20th century he shows evidence in films and other records of his trip. One hundred years hence man had managed to develop a beautiful world - better life style, and a restored natural environment.

Initially, the people, unable to disprove validity of the records brought from the future, are inspired by the prospect and begin projects likely to fulfill the vision and create the world the time traveller has seen.

A hundred years later, that more perfect world has come to pass. On a day the public has been told to expect to see the young time traveller arrive to meet his aged self, the time traveller recounts his story to a reporter, during the first interview he has ever granted. He reveals what really happened many years ago: "I lied."

Suspecting that the world's people had it in them to create a better world, he brought them the illusion of one, to give humanity a goal, and a hope. The imagined future became reality. After his admission, the time traveller dies, but leaves with the reporter proof of what he has told him, expecting the reporter would tell people the truth. They would understand that they had actually saved themselves. But the reporter decides to maintain the illusion, destroys the evidence the time traveller left for him to reveal.

Second story, The Day it Rained Forever, tells of three men who have been living in an old hotel in an Arizona desert ghost town for more than 20 years. Oppressive heat, dust and constant drought is the norm, rain comes at most once a year, and is eagerly awaited as the story opens. This particular year has been exceptionally hot. The men bemoan their fate constantly; one of them retires to his bed and intends to remain there, without sustenance until he dies. Towards evening, with no prospect of rain appearing on this day when it was historically expected, a car approaches. The woman driver, a lady no longer young stops her vehicle, and in the process damages the already aged and battered car, which is carrying a covered oddly-shaped object on the roof rack.

The woman introduces herself and chats to the two men. They invite her into the hotel for a meal. They seem to immediately start feeling better, spruce themselves up a bit, and over dinner she tells them she is a musician. She waxes lyrical about her love of music. The object atop her car is a harp. They bring it into the hotel and she plays - a beautiful melody. As she plays she seems to become younger, more beautiful. The attitude of the two men changes from depressed to uplifted. The woman goes to the third man, who hopes to die, and offers him soup. He refuses. Later it starts to rain heavily. It's as though the changed attitudes of the two men had caused the helpful and much wished-for change in the weather.



These two tales, were placed one after the other, on a DVD, part of a set we have in our collection: The Ray Bradbury Theater. It took a moment, but I realised that their message is one and the same: a change of attitude can change many things.

PS: For more about Ray Bradbury, and his natal chart, click on link to read my post from 2009.

PLANTED PLENTIES

Ray Bradbury left us earlier this summer, but his stories will never leave, they'll echo on, seeded for decades to come. Some tales will set succesive generations trembling, some will leave them curious and wondering. A select few, very special examples, could cause serious re-thinks of previous attitudes.

Two of Ray Bradbury's stories, later adapted to short TV dramas watched recently, reminded me of something that self-help guides, philosophers and the like have often dictated, but without the same impact: that attitude is everything. The two stories in question paint pictures, far more effective than mere paragraphs of instructions.

First story The Toynbee Convector:
The inventor and time traveller at centre of the tale comes from a time of imminent environmental collapse - and an economically and creatively stagnant late 20th century society. In his time machine, The Toynbee Convector, he travels forward one hundred years. On returning to the 20th century he shows evidence in films and other records of his trip. One hundred years hence man had managed to develop a beautiful world - better life style, and a restored natural environment.

Initially, the people, unable to disprove validity of the records brought from the future, are inspired by the prospect and begin projects likely to fulfill the vision and create the world the time traveller has seen.

A hundred years later, that more perfect world has come to pass. On a day the public has been told to expect to see the young time traveller arrive to meet his aged self, the time traveller recounts his story to a reporter, during the first interview he has ever granted. He reveals what really happened many years ago: "I lied."

Suspecting that the world's people had it in them to create a better world, he brought them the illusion of one, to give humanity a goal, and a hope. The imagined future became reality. After his admission, the time traveller dies, but leaves with the reporter proof of what he has told him, expecting the reporter would tell people the truth. They would understand that they had actually saved themselves. But the reporter decides to maintain the illusion, destroys the evidence the time traveller left for him to reveal.


Second story, The Day it Rained Forever, tells of three men who have been living in an old hotel in an Arizona desert ghost town for more than 20 years. Oppressive heat, dust and constant drought is the norm, rain comes at most once a year, and is eagerly awaited as the story opens. This particular year has been exceptionally hot. The men bemoan their fate constantly; one of them retires to his bed and intends to remain there, without sustenance until he dies. Towards evening, with no prospect of rain appearing on this day when it was historically expected, a car approaches. The woman driver, a lady no longer young stops her vehicle, and in the process damages the already aged and battered car, which is carrying a covered oddly-shaped object on the roof rack.

The woman introduces herself and chats to the two men. They invite her into the hotel for a meal. They seem to immediately start feeling better, spruce themselves up a bit, and over dinner she tells them she is a musician. She waxes lyrical about her love of music. The object atop her car is a harp. They bring it into the hotel and she plays - a beautiful melody. As she plays she seems to become younger, more beautiful. The attitude of the two men changes from depressed to uplifted. The woman goes to the third man, who hopes to die, and offers him soup. He refuses. Later it starts to rain heavily. It's as though the changed attitudes of the two men had caused the helpful and much wished-for change in the weather.

These two tales, were placed one after the other, on a DVD, part of a set we have: The Ray Bradbury Theater. It took a moment, but I realised that their message was one and the same: a change in attitude can change many things.

Mr Bradbury was something of a philosopher, just like another story-teller, Aesop long before him, was he not?

PS: for more about Ray Bradbury, and his natal chart, see my post from 2009.

PPS: Heading of current post was (kind of) suggested by yet another of Mr Bradbury's titles Colonel Stonesteel and the "Desperate Empties":

LARRY McMURTRY ~ Gemini Sun - Son of the West

Larry McMurtry, born 3 June 1936, Wichita Falls, Texas, celebrated his 76th birthday this month.

Lonesome Dove is the work I know best by this author. I read the book years ago, watched the TV series, bought VHS tapes and DVDs, watched them countless times until I could almost recite the lines along with the actors. I was enthralled by this tale of the old West, almost as enthralled as I was by James Michener's Centennial. How strange that I should find myself, at a fairly late stage in life, not too far from the settings of these novels.....we've travelled close to both over the past 8 years.

We've visited Archer City, Texas, Larry McMurtry's home town, several times. we've had a coffee in the famous "Dairy Queen" snack bar there, and shopped in his enormous used book store Booked Up which takes in most of the buildings mid-town. I've read recently though that McMurtry is downsizing his Archer City footprint - from Book Patrol, April 20212

In August a public auction will be held on site to release 350,000 books into the wild. The announcement, which was posted on Booked Up's website, makes it clear that this is less a negative event then an opportunity for many of the books McMurtry has acquired through his long bookselling career to find new homes. Over the years McMurtry has secured the inventory of 26 bookshops and close to 200 personal libraries.

Author and screenwriter, McMurtry has been one of the best and most enlightening chroniclers of a fictional US West in transition. He is credited with reviving the genre and imbuing it with realism laced with satire. He grew up in Archer County, Texas on a cattle ranch established by his grandfather. His literary career began writing for magazines while teaching, later he became a freelance journalist and book reviewer.

McMurtry has written around twentyseven novels, including The Last Picture Show, Terms of Endearment , Pulitzer prize winning Lonesome Dove , and its sequel Streets of Laredo and prequels Dead Man's Walk and Comanche Moon. Several of his novels have been adapted for TV or movies. His nonfiction works include a biography of Crazy Horse, Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen, Paradise, and Sacagawea’s Nickname: Essays on the American West.

His life path hasn't been easy. He suffered a heart attack in late 1991 which resulted in quadruple-bypass surgery. Recovery proved difficult after severe depression hit:

From an excellent 1997 article by Mark Horowitz in the New York Times Books section:

"I faded out of my life," he (McMurtry) says. "Suddenly I found myself becoming an outline, and then what was within that outline vanished." He was convinced that the operation itself created a rupture with his past self -- that being on the heart-lung machine for nearly five hours, essentially dead, left an impassable gulf. "Like you're undergoing an internal protest because of an event you can't remember. You feel that your personality has died, or been fragmented, so that it's swirling around and you can only occasionally attach it to your feelings."

He recovered, but slowly, first by writing what was to become Streets of Laredo a brooding sequel to his tour de force frontier novel, Lonesome Dove.

His astrology:

No time of birth is known, the chart is set for 12 noon.



Venus, Mercury, Sun and Mars are all in Gemini at 5, 8, 12 and 14 degrees respectively. What better indication for a literary career than a stellium in Gemini ruled by planet Mercury? Saturn doesn't link easily with those planets though, at 21 Pisces. I often think that Saturn links well into an author's astrological signature providing discipline such a necessary ingredient in the nature of any writer setting out on a lengthy book, whether a novel or non-fiction. Perhaps in McMurtry's case his generational planets Uranus and Neptune, both in Earth signs Taurus and Virgo, lend a certain amount of stability and discipline to his nature.
Or perhaps Capricorn was rising at the time of his birth, or Pisces, putting saturn on the ascendant. Lots of possibilities exist.

Publishing planet Jupiter lies in its sign of rulership at 20 Sagittarius, widely opposing his Gemini cluster. Could the tension of this opposition perhaps be the catalyst which led him from teaching to writing?

His natal Moon, if born before 8:00 PM lay in late Scorpio, if born later it'd have been in early Sagittarius - hard to say which is the more likely, but at the time of his heart attack in late 1991 transiting Pluto, planet of transformation and occasional darkness, was at 21 Scorpio, quite possibly close enough to his natal Moon to be considered conjoined. We can't know this for sure without a time of birth.

Depending on birth time and exact position of Moon, Saturn, Moon and Pluto are likely to form a Grand Trine in Water signs. McMurtry doesn't strike me as a superficially emotional writer, but he does imply deep understanding of emotional matters, often too complex to put into words. The relationship between Gus and Captain Call (Lonesome Dove) is a good example of this. Much later in his career McMurtry co-wrote the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain, which deals with a very different relationship between two men, but dealt with in similarly insightful and compassionate style. He was able to touch me sufficiently to bring tears in both instances. Perhaps this is his Water Grand Trine at work.

Below: Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones played Captain Augustus "Gus" McCrae and Captain Woodrow F. Call, two ex-Texas Rangers



The late Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal played Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist, sheep herders in Wyoming:



Larry McMurtry, true "son of the West", with an innate talent for words. He has enabled us to share some of the magic which lies within the history of his (and now my) beloved land. (Yes, I love the land itself, a lot. I do not love its government and systems, it deserves better - much better!)







Ray Bradbury died during the past week. My 2009 post about him and his natal chart can be found HERE.
RIP.

Ray Bradbury - A Surprising Chart

I've just finished reading Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451". Bradbury is probably the world's most repected science fiction writer. I read many of his short stories in my youth, but hadn't read anything of his for many years until now. When I started the book I was a wee bit irritated by his over-done, highly descriptive passages. My reading eye had been too much exercised by reading journalist news reporting and dry astrology text books! I soon got re-oriented, and began to appreciate and enjoy the difference.

I wondered whether Mr Bradbury's natal chart would reflect his lifelong obsession with fantasy and the future. He was born on 22 August in Waukegan, Illinois, at 4.50pm.




Hmmmm - Well, that's not exactly what I'd expected ! Old fashioned Capricorn rising; future oriented Uranus opposing his Sun and other planets.... Saturn conjunct Venus. But wait - Mercury, the writer's planet is conjunct Neptune (fantasy) and there are 4 planets in Leo - one of the most creative signs in the zodiac. Maybe I should find out a little more about him before I complain!

There's evidence of his attraction to fantasy here, but old fashioned Saturn conjunct Venus planet of the Arts, Capricorn rising, and Uranus (which I'd have thought was the science fiction writer's planet) is opposing his natal Sun.

From Astrodatabank's Wiki pages

"Bradbury collects things - books, toys, antiques, auto parts and literally anything that he can get his hands on, all of it going into the bric-a-brac chaos that he calls his office. During lecture tours he has cris-crossed the country by train inasmuch as he never flies, and has never learned to drive a car. Railroad timetables are stacked in his office, suggesting a story to him as does every other item of his odd flea-market of junk. (He declares that he will only ride in a car if he can cower in the back seat.) Perhaps it is his amiable wit as well as his grasp of the fascination of the odd and macabre that makes him so beloved a writer of the genre."

Aha! He might write about the future, but he's stuck in the past himself!



To get more a "feel" for the man, some of his quotes are helpful. These, on the topic of computers, shine even more light on his Capricorn rising and his Uranus-Sun opposition:

Bill Gates and his partners are flimflamming America. (1995)

I don't understand this whole thing about computers and the superhighway. Who wants to be in touch with all of those people? (Brown Daily Herald, March 24, 1995.)

Who do you want to talk to? All those morons who are living across the world somewhere? You don't even want to talk to them at home. (On the topic of Internet chat rooms)

Video games are a waste of time for men with nothing else to do. Real brains don't do that. On occasion? Sure. As relaxation? Great. But not full time -- And a lot of people are doing that. And while they're doing that, I'll go ahead and write another novel. (Salon.com, August 29, 2001)

Fee-fi-fo-fum....I smell the bood of a reactionary! There's more.......

The current science fiction writers are a bunch of jerks. As for cyberpunk, it's crap -- you can't read it. (Brown Daily Herald, March 24, 1995.)

And - shock horror - his politics!!

[George W. Bush is] wonderful. We needed him. Clinton is a s***head and we're glad to be rid of him. And I'm not talking about his sexual exploits. I think we have a chance to do something about education.... It doesn't matter who does it -- Democrats or Republicans -- but it's long overdue. (Salon.com, August 29, 2001)

The great thing is our counter-revolution that occurred in the polls a few weeks ago. I think it's great. All the Democrats are out and the Republicans are going to have a chance in a couple of years. It doesn't make a difference what party you belong to--it's a chance for a fresh start. It's very exciting. (Speaking about the "Republican Revolution" of 1994)

These, I like though:

If we listened to our intellect we'd never have a love affair. We'd never have a friendship. We'd never go in business because we'd be cynical: "It's gonna go wrong." Or "She's going to hurt me." Or,"I've had a couple of bad love affairs, so therefore . . ." Well, that's nonsense. You're going to miss life. You've got to jump off the cliff all the time and build your wings on the way down.


Stuff your eyes with wonder. Live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made up or paid for in factories.

So, his natal chart does describe him after all! I have a feeling that he and I would not get on, much as I love science fiction, and much as I admire Mr. Bradbury's writing skills.




Quotes from
http://www.spaceagecity.com/bradbury/quotes.htm