Ray Bradbury

That’s it… I knew there was a vague background influence on Circus Philosophicus that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. And then my father, who rather enjoys the manuscript, nailed it on the first try: there’s a bit of Ray Bradbury in the tone.

The weird thing here is that I’ve barely read any Bradbury, in terms of page count. However, what little I have read was at a deeply formative age. My father’s a Bradbury fan, and hence a copy of The October Country was always visible in the house during my childhood. Sometimes I would pick it up and be mildly frightened by it, though I’m not sure if I ever finished any of the stories to the end. I was maybe 8 or 9 years old at the time and wouldn’t have been likely to take it all the way. It was more just a matter of leafing through the pages and being struck by certain unsettling images.

Another thing my parents had around the house that I’m glad they had… a book of Salvador Dali paintings (that’s what hippies are good for). I remember going through that with my brother at least once when we were maybe 4 and 5 years old, and of course we would laugh our heads off while looking at it. It’s good stuff for children.