Sunday, January 29, 2012

Update!

I've just returned from a conference in Lorient, France (see this earlier post for details) where I discussed my researches into Bradbury's screenwriting. It was a small conference, but with some very interesting papers. The conference was very much focused on screenwriting as an art, a practice and an industrial process.

I have presented papers on Bradbury in a number of different contexts. Sometimes it will be to an audience of science fiction experts. Sometimes to scholars of American literature. Sometimes to researchers in the field of media adaptation. But I think presenting to other people who are doing screenwriting research has proven to be the "right" context; there was much more commonality among this group than among many of the other groups I have engaged with.

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Last night saw the unveiling of sculptor Christopher Slatoff's statue inspired by Ray Bradbury, variously known as "Father Electrico" and "The Illustrated Man". John King Tarpinian attended the event and reports that there was a good turnout, both of patrons of the arts and Bradbury supporters. Below are two of John's photos, showing the actor Michael Prichard (who has played in a number of Bradbury productions, including the role of Beatty in Fahrenheit 451) and a rear view of the sculpture. Other views of the piece can be found here on the sculptor's website.

Fire Chief Beatty - actor Michael Prichard addresses the gathering. Photo courtesy John King Tarpinian. (Click to enlarge.)

Fr Electrico/The Illustrated Man. Photo courtesy John King Tarpinian. (Click to enlarge.)


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In case you were wondering:



Bradburymedia has been a little quiet of late. In mid-December I had a slightly quiet period in which I was able to stack up some posts, which I then set up to appear every few days over the weeks ahead. Shortly after doing this, my dad was taken seriously ill and then passed away just before Christmas. The blog posts continued appearing automatically until they ran out, and until now I didn't have time to get back to the blog.


Life is now slowly returning to normal - the conference I just attended in France is (I hope!) the last "abnormal" thing of the season, and real soon now it should be business as usual for me.