Why is Ray Bradbury defending Bush?

You'd think the guy who (literally) wrote the book on how facists get started would be happy to see Farenheit 9/11.

Is he just cranky that Moore didn't ask him first? Why would he think Moore had to? "Farenheit" can't be copywritten, so whats the beef?

Need more information, please.

He believes that it is a play on words re: his book titled Fahrenheit 451.

The subtitle of the film is "the temperature at which freedom burns."

Fahrenheit 451 (a futuristic sci-fi novel chiefly about book burning) is to titled because 451 degrees is the temperature at which paper catches fire and burns.

Moore knew what I was doing. I think it would have been common courtesy to chat with Bradbury about it and I'm not sure why Moore didn't. It actually seems out of character. I hope Moore recognizes that it was an error in judgment.

I didn't mean to imply otherwise. It was entirely intentional on Moore's part, and I'm quite familiar with F451.

What a slime.

He said it was the subject line of an email about I forget what, and he thought it was an interesting juxtaposition of words. He also said Bradbury's title was the temperature at which books burn. I thought he was lying without even knowing the subtitle of his film.

Why lie about something that can't hurt him, when lying about it can and will hurt him?

:shrug:

Moore recently walked away from Cannes with the Palme d’Or for his anti-Bush film Fahrenheit 9/11. Is Bradbury, now 84, flattered by the reference? Well, not quite: “Michael Moore is a stupid son of a bitch. He stole my title and changed the numbers and never asked for my permission.”

Bradbury explains that he tried to get in contact with the director. Moore was “busy” and promised to get back to him that same afternoon…but he never did.

“He is a dreadful man. A dreadful man.”

Bradbury sees Moore’s appropriation of Fahrenheit as a simple case of theft: “I could write a novel tomorrow called Gone with the Wind, couldn’t I? But I’m not going to do it because that would be dishonest. Let’s just say that Michael Moore is dishonest and that I want to have nothing to do with him. That pretty well does it.”

http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=1058&a=272062&previousRenderType=6

Not to add too much fuel to the fire but I personally know someone whose stuff was literally, verbatim, stolen from Moore so Moore won't be anywhere on my good list until that case gets resolved and he gives that person credit & compensation.

In this case, I don't agree with Bradbury because IMO anyone is allowed to make a play on words but Moore should have had the common, artistic courtesy to discuss it with him especially after being asked to.

"Writer Ray Bradbury complains about Michael Moore lifting film title from book..

June 19, 2004

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Ray Bradbury is demanding an apology from filmmaker Michael Moore for lifting the title from his classic science-fiction novel Fahrenheit 451 without permission and wants the new documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 renamed

More on bradbury's discomfort..
http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/artslife/story.html?id=d54920a3-4624-4a21-b2a1-10b4f095c64b

His mind is quickly eroding.....

I haven't heard that. Provide a link if you have one.

What I've read is that he's just peeved that Moore titled his film with an obvious riff on "Fahrenheit 451" and didn't bother to contact him about it.

Frankly, I don't blame him. I think if Moore had had the decency to ask, Bradbury might be endorsing the film right now.

I'm not sure why Moore neglected to give him a courtesy call. Is it so hard to pick up a phone? I mean, Bradbury's not dead.

I'd be interested to hear what Moore has to say about this.

More like defending his book.

He thinks that a political film using a play on words re: his book isn't appropriate. Frankly, that's his right.

It doesn't mean that he's defending Bush. Bush has nothing to do with the complaint.

I do not blame him

But controversy sells and so should he.

Moore used Bradbury to prmote the film which anyone familiar with it will tell you is an incredible story (I just watched the DVD lately from my library which was donated by some democratic organization)


Moore and Bradbury both know what they are doing but Moore was too slow to pay actual hommage rather than lip service and it was a serious oops. They will straghten it out, I am sure.

if Moore had asked.

Seems to me Bradbury's tendency toward progressive thought disappeared along with his writing talent, way back in the 60s.

Now he's a sour old man.

Sorry dude, you were my idol at one time... no more.

F Bradbury.

It's about respect.

I love Michael Moore and I want to see this film badly, but I think he made a mistake. He should apologize and give Bradbury his props.

If you've read Fahrenheit 451, a powerful book indeed, I'd think you'd agree.

didn't ask Bradbury for permission before using the title.

You might argue that Bradbury's book has become a part of the public consciousness, and so belongs to everyone somehow. Like Orwell's "newspeak". But it'd still be polite to ask him first.

And Bradbury is on record as saying that Bush is a great president.

He's is talking out of his has-been, Bush-loving ass.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but do you have a link.

This would surprise me a great deal.

Can't remember which one. I think it was over in the 2004 forum, though.

I stand corrected.

What a disappointment.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=542390

Read the last post in the above thread.

and/or he is old and senile?





or he is just an ass....

by now. And if they haven't they should - 'post haste'. On the other hand, 'those believing the theory that "any publicty, is good publicity" ..... well, Moore & Bradbury can 'vie for all the attention they want'. Only a small percentage STILL will know/understand it.

Bush is a great president, doesn't that tend to impact on his credibility and/or sanity? Would you ask someone who thinks the First Chimp is a great president for any kind of approval?

....we would like to 'assume some things' because of the book he wrote - Farenheit 451 - but perhaps 'some other pressures come to bear'. Perhaps he's lighted a path that he wants other people to follow. WE, want some one ELSE to be the hero. The fact is, that WE are the hero/heroines (or we must be).

defending Robert Packwood, who had resigned in disgrace (this is before
Republicans invented the Youthful Indiscretion defense, which only applies to Republicans of all ages), after he was accused of having not only pinched and harrassed his secretaries, but had them transcribe
the data into his diaries.

Bradbury's defense: so he pinched his secretary! Big deal, who hasn't?

. . . as the label for the missile defense system?

When Lucas made "The Empire Strike Back," did anyone complain he might be seen as making reference to Jefferson Airplane's "Blows Against the Empire"?

When Jefferson Airplane recorded "White Rabbit," did the ghost of Lewis Carroll rise from his grave to ask why they were mucking with his intellectual property?

When Lewis Carroll wrote "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," did anybody at all point out that not only was the title reminiscent of "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen," but the baron had also fallen through the center of the Earth?

It's only in our present benighted era that people think using two or three words in a certain order gives you a property right to them forever. Since Moore's movie neither profits from Bradbury's work in any way nor results in any loss of profit or reputation to Bradbury himself, this is a non-issue.

And as for the question of "courtesy," asking someone for permission to do something that you have a right to do in any case raises more questions than it answers. If they refuse because they don't like your politics, do you accept their censorship? If they agree in advance and then don't like the finished product, do they have a right to withdraw their approval? Unless there is a personal relationship involved, I see no purpose in it.

especially learning more about Bradbury.

We'll have to ask George Lucas!

I heard Michael Moore on Letterman say .."on 9/11 ..a fan wrote on my webpage.."Fahrenheit 9/11" and he liked that and never forgot it."

I think I remember different books and movies with the same title over the years..I'd really like to know if you can't copyright a title.

Bradbury sounds like he's a conflicted idiot ..since he wrote a book about censorship of books and is, anyway, still a bush supporter.

signed,
Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit

F451 is a good enough book that just using the name elsewhere is not going to do anything to the book except maybe give it a boost in popularity. Bradbury is just using this as an excuse to once again get into the spotlight since he hasn't written a good book in many a moon. Further, I support people's right to get credit for names and things, but come on...this is on par with Fox News suing the Simpsons or Fox News suing Al Franken.

What Moore is doing here is called, among us literary types, an allusion. You would think that Brabdury would understand the concept. And he probably does. I suspect that what we have here is an aging, near-forgotten writer desperate for some attention.

Wisdom comes with age....but sometimes ages shows up 'all by itself'.

I believe that someone like Mr. Bradbury has 'somehing more to say'....

the fascists in his book, Farenheit 451, were the LIBERALS.

That's a big clue.

In the '50's, there was a publisher in NYC known as EC publications. They had a line of horror and sci-fi comics that are arguably the best in the world. The publisher felt it was okay to "borrow" some stories from...oh, possibly several sources. But one certain source was the literature of Ray Bradbury. They used his "Mars is Heaven," for example. Many of the stories were uncredited until a younger, more generous Bradbury busted them with a letter advising that he hadn't failed to notice the direct lifting of several of his stories. He went on to add that he was a fan of the comic series, and gave William Gaines and Albert Feldstein permission to continue to use his stories AS LONG AS they now credited Bradbury as the author.

This MAY help to reveal a particular sensitivity on the part of Bradbury.

While we're talking about Bradbury, I feel compelled to advise everyone reading this that they MUST obtain a copy of his short story "The Pedestrian" and read it. It is particularly meaningful now, in light of what has gone down in the last three years.

...will look for this. Thanks.

wanted an apology from Moore?

"Dude Where's My Country?"
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