{"id":895,"date":"2014-10-13T23:30:52","date_gmt":"2014-10-14T09:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hilo.hawaii.edu\/news\/stories\/?p=895"},"modified":"2025-11-05T20:06:35","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T06:06:35","slug":"ray-bradbury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hilo.hawaii.edu\/chancellor\/stories\/2014\/10\/13\/ray-bradbury\/","title":{"rendered":"UH Hilo writing center hosts Ray Bradbury Book-a-Thon"},"content":{"rendered":"

The second session of the Ray Bradbury Book-a-Thon takes place Wednesday, Oct. 15, from 3:30 to 4:30 pm in the Kilohana Writing Center on the first floor of Mookini Library.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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By Susan Enright<\/a>\/UH Hilo Stories.<\/p>\n

\"Karla<\/a>
Karla Hayashi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What happens when the director of the Kilohana Writing Center<\/a> at the University of Hawai\u02bbi at Hilo and one of the Kilohana writing tutors have a few casual conversations over the summer about book clubs, science fiction, Ray Bradbury, and promoting literacy? Plans for a Ray Bradbury Book-a-Thon, of course.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Bradbury Book-a-Thon came to fruition following some casual conversations about book clubs this past summer,\u201d says Karla Hayashi<\/strong>, director of Kilohana Writing Center. \u201cI wanted to do something to promote science fiction for a couple of years but was not able to identify anything specific.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enter Wilfred Tyler Gee<\/strong>, a writing tutor at Kilohana and senior majoring in astronomy.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/a>
Wilfred Tyler Gee is a senior majoring in astronomy and also belongs to the UH Hilo Astrophysics Club. Here he is doing some lunar impact monitoring. Bradbury would approve. (Photo: Astrophysics Club\/UH Hilo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cDuring the summer we kept coming back to thoughts about promoting literacy, science fiction, and eventually Ray Bradbury since I was re-reading some of Bradbury’s mystery novels at the time,\u201d explains Hayashi. \u201cWe discovered a shared appreciation for Bradbury and began talking about how we could combine the elements into an activity which promoted literacy and Ray Bradbury. Although many people think of Ray Bradbury as a science fiction author, he actually wrote in multiple genres and defies categorization so we decided we were not going to promote this as purely a science fiction related activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hayashi explains that because Bradbury also authored pieces which fit into the dark and macabre genre, she and Gee decided to plan this event for October. They began by identifying which of Bradbury\u2019s works they would promote.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe narrowed it down to the four works described in the flyer,\u201d she says (see below for info from flyer). \u201cWe organized the timing to coincide with two events, Banned Books Week and Halloween, with the two well-known short story collections sandwiched in between the two calendar events.”<\/p>\n

\"Book<\/a>Hayashi says staff of Mookini Library at UH Hilo enthusiastically supported this activity and requested two additional copies of each of the four works as a way to provide patrons with access to these stories so they can read along and hopefully come to the Ray Bradbury Book-a-Thon sessions to talk about their reaction and responses to the works.<\/p>\n

In the first session, Fahrenheit 451<\/em> was examined, coinciding with the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile it is still safe to say, at least I think it is, that outright bans of books in the U.S. are highly unlikely, requests to remove books from library shelves continue to be recorded around the country,\u201d says Hayashi.<\/p>\n

She explains the ALA has kept records about these requests, and sometimes successful removal of \u201cobjectionable” books from K-12 school library shelves in particular, since 1999. The staff of Mookini Library also annually identifies a collection of books deemed “objectionable” by someone or groups and prepares an informative display for library patrons to bring attention to Banned Books Week.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we worked with the library staff to bring their display down to Kilohana for the duration of our first session devoted to Fahrenheit 451<\/em> and the topic of book burning,\u201d says Hayashi.<\/p>\n

Michael Bitter<\/strong>, associate professor of history at UH Hilo, got the discussion going by describing the orchestrated book burning of “un-German” ideas on May 10, 1933, in various cities throughout Germany as a way to get the group started talking about dystopian futures, censorship, and the resistance to censorship.<\/p>\n

\"Book<\/a>This Wednesday, Oct. 15, the group will discuss the two better known short story collections of The Martian Chronicle<\/em>s and The Illustrated Man<\/em>. They have narrowed each collection down to a number of stories they hope to work through, but Hayashi says there are really too many excellent stories in both collections. \u201cSo the discussion will follow its own course,\u201d she says. \u201cWe look forward to a lively conversation. We did, however, select a couple of stories from each work “Usher II” and “The Exiles” which we hope will be the bridge to the final Bradbury work we will discuss during the week of Halloween.\u201d<\/p>\n

On October 30, the group will discuss the last work, Something Wicked This Way Comes<\/em>. This is a dark fantasy novel, explains Hayashi, actually turned into a film by of all studios, Disney, back in 1983. It is a story of being careful about what you yearn for because you might just get what you desire, with disastrous outcomes. It is also a story about children on the cusp of leaving childhood and parents looking back at lost years. It is a very dark tale and while often categorized as a children’s story, it can resonate with anyone who reads it regardless of age.<\/p>\n

Hayashi starts off each session and Gee facilitates the discussion. Gee has been a book club participant for many years so the discussion is modeled on the book club approach.<\/p>\n

All UH community members from UH Hilo and Hawai’i Community College are welcome to stop in and share some thoughts about any of the works discussed.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy desire is to make this an annual activity for Kilohana, in an effort to broaden the scope of activities Kilohana is involved in,\u201d Hayashi says.<\/p>\n

Kilohana’s Ray Bradbury Book-a-Thon<\/h2>\n

WHAT:<\/strong> The second session of Kilohana’s Ray Bradbury Book-a-Thon<\/p>\n

WHEN:<\/strong> Wednesday, October 15 from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

WHERE:<\/strong> Kilohana Writing Center on the first floor of the Mookini Library.<\/p>\n

The focus of this session are two well known collections of short stories* by Bradbury:<\/p>\n

The Martian Chronicles
\nThe Illustrated Man<\/em><\/p>\n

*Note: There may be some differences in the collection of each of the two works depending on what edition you are reading. But that’s the fun with Bradbury!<\/p>\n

While we could spend hours discussing all the stories in each book, we decided to narrow down choices to the following in each collection:<\/p>\n

The Martian Chronicles<\/em><\/h2>\n