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Posts tagged ‘Fahrenheit 451’

Jun 13

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Challenge your writing mind with free online short story and poetry classes

I’m a learning junkie, so I’m always excited to find new resources.

A One Wild Word reader alerted me to Academic Earth, which features a collection of free online courses from top universities, including MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale.

While it’s not the same as sitting in the classroom, and you don’t receive college credit, you’ll find class notes, suggested reading, and videos of lectures.

Here are several classes in the humanities category:

Writing and Reading Short Stories

Modern Poetry

The American Novel Since 1945

While you’re at it, check out this 2-minute video about the late Ray Bradbury’s book Fahrenheit 451: A Novel.

Jun 7

In memory: Tips for writers from Ray Bradbury

Today, we honor the memory of Ray Bradbury, famed writer of science fiction, fantasy, and mystery stories and novels, who made such a difference as a writer and a person. He died June 5 at age 91.

While Bradbury was generally labeled a science fiction writer, he resisted it saying:

“First of all, I don’t write science fiction. I’ve only done one science fiction book and that’s Fahrenheit 451: A Novel, based on reality. It was named so to represent the temperature at which paper ignites. Science fiction is a depiction of the real. Fantasy is a depiction of the unreal. So The Martian Chronicles is not science fiction, it’s fantasy. It couldn’t happen, you see? That’s the reason it’s going to be around a long time — because it’s a Greek myth, and myths have staying power.” Read more