EVERYONE Has Read This but Me - The Catch-Up Book Club discussion

Welcome readers to the Classics book of the month for October 2021. We will be venturing into Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury.

This discussion will be full of SPOILERS.

Please head over to the Pre-read thread if you still haven't opened it up yet.

What do you feel is the core theme of the novel? Is it age? Temptation? Good versus evil? Happiness and laughter in life always triumphs over sadness and adversity? Explain what you feel to be is the ultimate message of the book and if you agree with it.

I felt like the core theme was a bit muddled, to be honest. Will’s father speaks about the carnival as though it were about Good and Evil, broadly, and about people succumbing to their worst urges. But in reality, all we really see is the effect of the carousel, which is all about mastering/overcoming time. Obviously there’s a lot of evil energy powering the works, but the actual human desire being fed is just the will to master time. If Bradbury is identifying that as the most evil urge the human race has, I would say that’s a pretty uncommon idea.

Gobbled up this creepy story in short order. The writing style was wonderful, like poetry or music, long run-on sentences followed by short, staccato phrases. Brilliant! Will definitely search out the authors other books for future reading.
Did anyone else get some Stephen King vibes? I wonder if King was influenced by this story.
BTW: whatever happened to Miss Foley?

My favorite part of the book is the look back at what life used to be like in small town America for two young pals who were happy to roam the entire landscape and come across whatever. Pretty sure that is NOT the theme, though.

I also really like this janitor who roams from town to town following the availability of work in a library so that he can read incessantly, even leaving his home in the middle of the night to do so.

I felt like the theme was death/aging, or more specifically, evading Death. I think the Good vs. Evil theme comes into play because human beings will do or become evil to prevent what is inevitable. It could be said that evil things are done out of fear of death or loss (of power, money, loved ones).

This book seemed to encourage the idea that life should be lived in a childlike state, not looking backward or forward but enjoying the moment. Enjoying the run itself without a thought of the destination or how far you've gone from the starting point.

So this was a book I've wanted to read for quite a while now, and finally picked up a copy for myself. It was WAY different than what I was expecting, but I enjoyed the story nonetheless. I found the prose a bit of a jumble to have to wade thru at times, and the long run-on sentences tricky to maneuver now and again. I found myself having to read sentences over again. But overall, a great read.

I think the message centered around several things: living in the now; valuing the relationships we have; learning to laugh and enjoy every moment vs. seeking happiness in trivial thrills. The 'living in the now' theme I think is represented thru the carousel: going forward (looking to what could be, the future) time passes and before we know it, were old and beyond the enjoyment of our youth. Going backward (living in the past, always seeking youth) leads us to miss out on maturing and enjoying what life has in store for us. The 'Enjoy every moment' theme is represented by the Mirror Maze, which shows us different times or desires of ours, disfiguring us by seeking those thrills to make us happy, instead of the simple joys of laughing and enjoying the moment. The Mirror Maze I think can represent "vices" such as drugs, alcohol, sex, etc., thrills we seek out and take us away from the simple pleasures of life. Finally, the 'appreciating our relationships' was represented in the connection made between Father and Son, and between the two friends. Living in the moment, sharing a good laugh, and learning to understand one another, helped Will and his father become closer and see each other in a new light; and Will and Jim saw how their friendship was what made them stronger and was a source of their joy. This is just my takeaway from the book. Again, not what I expected (thought it would be more 'horror'), but really ended up be a pleasant surprise and I quite enjoyed it. Just my 2 cents :)

Renata wrote: "Gobbled up this creepy story in short order. The writing style was wonderful, like poetry or music, long run-on sentences followed by short, staccato phrases. Brilliant! Will definitely search out ..."

Actually, when I started to read the book, I thought that Stephen King was probably inspired by this book to write his "It" novel or at least got some ideas from it. However, I didn't read "It", just watched the old TV-movie. But it really felt a bit Stephen King-ish.
Before this book, I read "Dandelion Wine", which is in the same series, and would also recommend it. It's also about age and aging but it's written in a whole different narrative. It's more like a childhood/coming to age narration, full of vivid descriptions from a child's POV.




Anna wrote: "I felt like the theme was death/aging, or more specifically, evading Death. I think the Good vs. Evil theme comes into play because human beings will do or become evil to prevent what is inevitable. It could be said that evil things are done out of fear of death or loss (of power, money, loved ones)..."

I agree with you and I love how Bradbury pointed out that the mental age is more important than the physical age and how he shifted our view of aging by letting us approach it from different perspectives.

In the copy I have there was an excerpt from King’s Danse Macabre and he writes specifically about this book. It was certainly influential for him and he explains what he admires about it. It’s a classic ! Glad I finally read it. Perfect for October!

Anyone else feel like this is what The Night Circus was trying to do?

Jennifer wrote: "Anyone else feel like this is what The Night Circus was trying to do?"

It's been a while since I've read TNC, but I remember thinking there were a lot of similarities. Setting is the most obvious one but I think SWTWC is more of a morality tale.

spoko wrote: "I felt like the core theme was a bit muddled, to be honest. Will’s father speaks about the carnival as though it were about Good and Evil, broadly, and about people succumbing to their worst urges...."

I do not think the evil was the desire of people to want to overcome time but rather the carnival feeding off that weakness in people and making promises that cannot truly be kept.

The overall message seems to be that time can never truly be overcome. Even with a magic carrousel yo cannot truly ever go back to being a kid again or as a child you cannot truly master adulthood.

The evil is in the carnival is pretending they can offer what can never be given and feeding off the fear, pain and sadness that is caused once the victim realizes the ultimate truth of the falseness of the carnivals promise.

I know the writing is definitely not for everyone, but I loved it.

The ending felt a bit jumbled for me, as if RB had to reach an end and just threw some stuff together. BUt maybe that's because the ending was all moral and, while the book had it's moral parts I don't like morality plays/tales so I wasn't reading it like that.

I think the evilness of the carnival was because they were not living in the moment, like a lot of people said, and because they weren't living in the moment they could never see the good of the moment and so never could be happy so they could not feed off of happiness and had to feed off of fear and despair instead.

Also, I really was freaked in that part where they're all in the library and they sense the door opening. A lot of the beginning was wonderfully creepy to me, but that was my favorite part.

This one was definitely not for me. I couldn't believe myself that I would be able to finish it. And yet, at the eleventh hour, I finished this book on the last day of the month. I doubt if I would read anything else from this author. But I understand why so many people like Bradbury's works and his writing style.

Here is my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Renata wrote: "Gobbled up this creepy story in short order. The writing style was wonderful, like poetry or music, long run-on sentences followed by short, staccato phrases. Brilliant! Will definitely search out ..."

Hi Renata, King was definitely influenced by this story. He writes about it in "Danse Macabre" and I'm pretty sure it is mentioned in some other books. I also read "The Night Circus" last year when it was one of the books chosen and I'm sure Morgenstern must have been influenced by "Something Wicked..." as well. I realize Bradbury's style is not for everyone in this book, but like you I thought the prose was beautiful and brilliant!