On Saturday, Techie Boyfriend read some of Loren Eiseley's incredible nature-and-philosophy essays out loud to INTERN. INTERN was completely enamored and moved by Eiseley's writing and spent most of the weekend reading The Unexpected Universe and The Star Thrower, trying to make up for a lifetime of pre-Eiseley intellectual and spiritual impoverishment.
It turns out INTERN is not the only one who was so blown away by this poet of the natural world. There is a blurb on the back of The Star Thrower from Ray Bradbury (!) stating:
"This book will be read and cherished in the year 2001. It will go to the MOON and MARS with future generations. Loren Eiseley's work changed my life."
MOON and MARS CAPS are Ray Bradbury's own.
This is simply the most incredible book blurb INTERN has ever read.
Not only does Ray Bradbury predict that people will still be reading Eiseley more than twenty years after the book's publication (perhaps from the back seat of our flying cars or while having our hair done by robots)—he implies that The Star Thrower will survive Y2K. And look—it did! Like, whoa....
As if that wasn't enough, Ray Bradbury isn't being hyperbolic when he says that this book deserves to live on in extraterrestrial colonies—he states with absolute confidence that MOON people and MARS people will worship this book. It's not a question of "if". It's only a matter of "when."
INTERN has never seen such a passionate and beautiful personal testimony on the back of a book.
Ray Bradbury's blurb has changed INTERN's life.
I don't know how you could beat that really...
ReplyDelete"This book, 'knitting with dog hair' will save us all when the rapture happens...the wandering damned will cradle it in their arms, the heavenly folk will wear sweaters made to its stylish and impeccable designs. It is salvation between pasteboard and leatherette finishing.!
I might have to read this...
ReplyDeleteBradbury's viewpoint on technology's culture-corrupting influences in _Farenheit 451_ puts him in my topmost must-read lists.
ReplyDeleteA sincere and thought-provoking endorsement by Bradbury, therefore, is enough to entice me to read Eiseley on nature and philosophy.
I love Loren Eiseley, but read his books so long ago. Time to re-read them. Thanks for the reminder...
ReplyDeleteLast year I recorded an interview with Bradbury off YouTube, put it onto a CD, and listened to it as driving. In that talk he gave the same glowing recommendation for a book about man’s evolution, but I couldn’t remember the title until I looked in the Table of Contents of The Star Thrower and saw “The Fire Apes.”
ReplyDeleteYou can watch it here. At the 9:50 mark he speaks of Eiseley.
Also, from the same night, he’s very animated and entertaining in this question and answer.
By the way, it looks like The Star Thrower is a best-of collection. Is that one you and Techie Boyfriend would recommend one start with?