A Critic's Meta Review: 4/5
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (REVIEW)
I almost recreated this book last night. I did not have any kerosene or anything, nor did I have a whole stack of paperbacks to throw into a big pit. But I did have a laptop, and on that laptop I had a pretty sizable chunk of a little novella that I am working on for a good friend up north of the border. We have not yet met, but I consider him to be a dear, dear lad. I just know he’s a good dude, and very rarely do I make assumptions about people’s character so early on, especially those to whom I have never even extended my hand to shake. But, I don’t know. I am getting a good read.
Anyways, so there I am, sitting there, typing away, when all of a sudden I notice that my eyelids are beginning to flutter back and forth like the legs of an Olympic swimmer. I shift my gaze towards the clock - it is nearly three in the morning.
Shit, man. I should probably go to bed, right? Eh, you know what, I probably got a few more parag-ZZZzzzZZZZzzZZZzZZ.
After about four or five minutes, I lift my head up and am met with one of the most horrifying images a writer can possibly face: a blank page.
I scramble in a panic, flipping things around in my room as if I am looking for a lost set of keys or something. Then, I start to think logically - the old “undo” button should do the trick! Right?
Wrong. Very, very wrong. I think I must have hit that thing about forty-six times before realizing that there was nothing to undo. I had permanently deleted everything.
I nearly cried out loud. I likely would have if the walls were not as thin as a slice of pizza in Midtown Manhattan and we hadn’t been receiving threats of eviction for the past several months. I was getting ready to write my long distance buddy an email explaining what had just happened, but then I thought to myself - what would Ray Bradbury have done? Would he have thrown his hands up in defeat, or would he have taken this as a challenge to come up with something even better?
And then, I said “screw it” (I may have used a different four letter word, though) and got back to work pushing that boulder up the hill.
A lifetime of service. Tagore would be proud.
So would Ray Bradbury - that’s two literary references within the span of twenty five words!