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Influence of Bradbury’s classic novel pushes me toward change

By David McElroy · April 15, 2018

No book has ever had as much continuing influence on me as Ray Bradbury’s brilliant short novel, “Fahrenheit 451.”

You can’t understand me without knowing the intellectual and emotional roads I’ve traveled with this book since I was a teen-ager. And I’m not sure how you can consider yourself an educated person if you haven’t read this work of genius and thought deeply about it.

When I first read the book, I was in either the eighth or ninth grade. I was drawn by the plot, because I read a lot of science fiction — pretty much everything in our school library. It took me years to discover the deeper layers of complexity that Bradbury wove into the book. And it’s those deeper layers that keep changing me.

I’m going through a struggle right now that keeps bringing to my mind a key crisis for the protagonist. I can’t get it out of my head lately. I experienced exactly this same struggle when I made the huge decision to get out of politics — and I’m at the same sort of crisis point right now. I handled that crisis poorly. I must handle this one in a smarter way.

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What if we planted for future instead of spending for today?

By David McElroy · April 15, 2018

For an 8-year-old, it seemed like a lot of work, but I didn’t mind, because it seemed important.

My father and I left Meridian, Miss., early one morning on a mission to plant pecan trees. My father’s job kept transferring us to different places — Meridian was the fifth city where Southern Railway had sent him — but planting the trees held the promise of something more permanent.

I don’t remember how many trees we planted that day, but it seems as though there were around a dozen. We were planting them on land which we had inherited after my mother’s father had died. He had owned a farm in the country — where my mother had spent her summers when she was younger — and we now owned part of that property after it had been divided between his three children.

My father’s plan was for us to move there one day. We were planting trees for what would be our future home.

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What kind of hypocrite gives advice but won’t practice what he preaches?

By David McElroy · April 14, 2018

The restaurant was almost empty Saturday afternoon. It was storming outside, so business had slowed to a trickle. I was the only customer at the moment. The teen-age employees were killing time by talking with me.

One of them knows I write a lot, so he asked how I started writing. I explained my background in newspapers and politics. As an afterthought, I mentioned that I really wanted to write and direct films. It turned out that two of the guys had an interest in filmmaking, so they ended up asking for advice.

Both of them have focused on epic scripts they’ve written for science fiction/fantasy movies that would cost a hundred million dollars to make. I explained about making short films and getting far simpler work online for people to see. I explained about my one short film about 12 years ago and how it got into 20 smaller film festivals. I told them they needed to be making anything — absolutely anything — to learn how to put stories together.

It was good advice. But after we were finished, I felt like a real hypocrite — because I’m not following the simple advice I’d given them.

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