From the Bookshelf of Never too Late to Read Classics…

A Sound of Thunder

Ray Bradbury

Start date: April 1, 2019

Finish date: April 30, 2019

Discussion: Science Fiction and Fantasy

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Mar 21, 2021 Elanna rated it liked it

Shelves: checked, fantastic, united-states, ebooks, science-fiction, classics, short-stories

Good old solid Ray Bradbury. This one is considered a masterpiece, and one can see why: synthetic, eloquent, dramatic, when it was published it was probably one of the first stories to explore the consequences of what would come to be known as the butterfly effect applied to time travel paradoxes. However, I would not go as far as agreeing with critics and readers claiming it's THE masterpiece of time paradox short stories of all times, what with the predictability, more than ominousness, of the Good old solid Ray Bradbury. This one is considered a masterpiece, and one can see why: synthetic, eloquent, dramatic, when it was published it was probably one of the first stories to explore the consequences of what would come to be known as the butterfly effect applied to time travel paradoxes. However, I would not go as far as agreeing with critics and readers claiming it's THE masterpiece of time paradox short stories of all times, what with the predictability, more than ominousness, of the foreseen conclusion, maybe due to the somewhat clumsy introduction of the political threat at the very beginning.
When it comes to synthesis, growing uneasiness and existential horror, other short stories come to mind that convey the same narrative in a more powerful way. One in particular, whose title is lost in the mists of menopause brain fog and which shows an obstinate resistance to Googling, uncharacteristic for these times, saw a bunch of scientists witnessing two bronze suspended balls slamming into each others rythmically, and travelling in time, farther and farther at every swing, with consequences that still send a chill to the spine from a long lost pre-teenage first reading.
If someone has a title for that story, please, please, write it in the comments below.
That is to say, this one is a good one, but it didn't stand the test of time, with The Man in the High Castle going mainstream, and the surprise-ending sci-fi short stories building a taste for more refined experiences of intellectual discomfort.

EDIT: the following are further considerations inspired by Lyn's great review. They came up as part of a dissenting comment and then started making more and more sense as an addendum to this review.
Gratitude and acknowledgements go to Lyn for inspiring this modest spark of reflection with their illuminating and (way more) knowledgeable explanation of the behaviour of stable systems.

If we think of history as something more than the consequences of a great man happening to be born, it may be argued that, in certain conditions, in his absence someone else would have come up with very similar actions. That is to say, while life does not seem deterministic at the individual choices' level, when we zoom out and take in consideration economy, geography, and all the broader forces at play, larger human events on the long distance are unlikely to be the sole product of one mind. The opposite - a person being the product of larger forces - seems to be more plausible.
Then, we have to take in consideration the SCALE OF THE TIMEFRAME in which events unfold. The butterfly in the short story is plausible as a cause because we are talking about hundreds of millions of years, but in that case changes would have been way wider than just a politician winning or losing. Therefore, the conclusion seems quite clunky. Look at the other short story I cited, for an example of how changes would mote likely unfold, THE FURTHER WE GO BACK IN TIME.
On the other hand, Alexander, Hitler, Einstein or Napoléon not being born would be more likely to affect the political features of modern times on the small scale of Western history. This is why I preferred other, more subtle short stories on the same theme: they kept this scale in mind with better results. ...more

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