[AnotherCat]

I finished the book a couple of days ago now and have wondered what I thought of it with respect to any intentional messages or propaganda from the author within it, that apart from my having enjoyed it as a read. There are the obvious storylines encompassing disordered colonization of a planet having (or not having) indigenous peoples, atomic war, recolonization as "Martians", etc. but whether Bradbury is trying to tell readers something other than a good story I am undecided.

First, I live in a country that was colonized in two waves by different peoples and it had no indigenous peoples before that. It was colonialized during the early days of the second wave (to Britain). While I have spent quite a lot of time in both Australia and the USA (they having indigenous populations) over the years I would not like to comment as to whether their colonization and colonialization was, on balance, good or bad (I have spent no time at all in Canada). But I do know that the most vociferous commentators on these matters there tend to see, as they do in my own country, things through heavily filtered glasses, and often a psychology of guilt or sense of entitlement (often exaggerated) and self-interest, rather than through a prism that splits the history into rational threads balancing the good and bad outcomes against each other (and in the context of past values) from which a future can be laid out. So I don't regard myself as any sort of "expert" capable of reading those types colonization/colonialization experiences as being targets of messages in Chronicles.

Second, I have tried to find some authoritative information as to what Bradbury himself stated were the messages he may have wished to deliver through his story. Apart from various and prolific views of others on the internet, the place where myths are made, some claiming to be voicing Bradbury's own words, I have found nothing more reliable such as a well researched biography along the lines such as someone like Walter Isaacson would write. I have found a copy of the biography Bradbury Chronicles... but on first blush it seems to be a friendly recount of Bradbury's life with no depth with respect to his works.

What does seem to be so though, is that Bradbury himself, when asked, often changed his claims as to what the messages were behind his stories, and in the case of Chronicles and Fahrenheit, at least, did so several times for each. Which kinda leads to the possibility that when he wrote those books he did not have any clear idea of presenting any specific propaganda in them, but rather was just trying to tell a good story (and in my view there is nothing wrong with that). I remember one English class where the teacher made the point that we should not be over zealous in reading messages into the literature we read as it may be that all that was intended by the material was that it made a good story or provided a frame for a good story. That stuck in my memory and while the literati seem to be free with interpretations of author's works without much challenge we do see the writers of song lyrics quite frequently correcting the pontificators (perhaps the best known being Lennon's repudiation, backed by McCartney, of the claims that the title Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds was an LSD based pun).

With respect to whether the book was science fiction or not, I felt it was not carefully crafted to be science fiction (that even considering the lesser scientific knowledge of Mars, space travel, etc. when written), so turned out more as fantasy for me. But I have no qualms either way so for me a mixture of both, which perhaps added to its attraction.

So until I hear from Bradbury himself (rather difficult now :-)) and his swearing to the truth of the matter as to what his messages were, if any, I am leaving Chronicles, for myself, to just having been a very good story, disjointed though it is. And it has led me to likely reading more of his novels, so a good nomination as far as I am concerned.