Wednesday 24 October 2007

OCTOBER COUNTRY

One of the most enticing opening passages of any novel in the library is that with which RAY BRADBURY begins his classic, Something Wicked This Way Comes...
First of all, it was October, a rare month for boys. Not that all months aren't rare. But there be good and bad, as the pirates say. Take September, a bad month: school begins. Consider August, a good month: school hasn't begun yet. July, well, July's really fine: there's no chance in the world for school. June, no doubting it, June's best of all, for the school doors spring wide and September's a billion years away.

But you take October, now. School's been on a month and you're riding easier in the reins, jogging along. You got time to think of the garbage you'll dump on old man Prickett's porch, or the hairy ape costume you'll wear to the YMCA on the last night of the month. And if it's around October twentieth and everything smoky-smelling and the sky orange and ash gray at twilight, it seems Halloween will never come in a fall of broomsticks and a soft flap of bedsheets around corners...

And here are some more words and pictures in praise of the season of autumn and, in particular, this rare month that has already amost blown away with the fallen leaves...

Bittersweet October. The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking, perfect pause between the opposing miseries of summer and winter.

- Carol Bishop Hipps

There is no season when such pleasant and sunny spots may be lighted on, and produce so pleasant an effect on the feelings, as now in October.

- Nathaniel Hawthorne

You ought to know that October is the first Spring month.

- Karel Capek


Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.

- George Eliot


It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life.

- P D James


Images: © Brian Sibley, 2007

5 comments:

Bill Field said...

A terrific fresh way to greet the Fall. Halloween has really become a crazy, commercial, garish monstrosity--- which yeah it's a blast, and worth the hagover, most years, that is... BUT--I digress. The harvest and supernatural themes are really woven together perfectly in that passage by Bradbury, and reminding me of the earthier/magical side of this time of year.

Boll Weavil said...

I disagree with PD James - I look at my pictures of Autumn from each year and the sky always seems to be blue.As for Bradbury, the man is a modern-day voice of the people who always seems to articulate what we can only think. I read Bradbury a lot when I was growing up but I'm forever indebted to Mr B for getting me back into his work a decade or so ago.

Brian Sibley said...

BILL - The mystery surrounding the dying of the year has always intrigued and attracted me in a poignant, slightly melancholy, way...

BOLL - I'm so glad I was able to reintroduce you to Uncle Ray. I've had the privilege of corresponding and visiting with him for 34 years and I never tire of reading or listening to this wonderful word-magician...

Rob Cox said...

I dunno about all this magic and mystery stuff. October is my birthday month!! Ace month!

Brian Sibley said...

Well, yes, so it is! Happy Birthday for Monday last.. How many years was it? ;-)