Above link not working? Click here to launch Zoom session

No Particular Night or Morning

by Ray Bradbury

This week in the Book Club we will be reading the short story 'No Particular Night or Morning' by Ray Bradbury. This story focuses on our relationship with faith, really asking the big philosophical questions about how we approach belief, either in material objects, in ourselves, in the past and our relationship with the world around us. How can we tell if something is truly real? 

Bradbury suggests that memory and belief are crucial to sanity and that imagination is crucial to sanity. He also uses the story to question the idea of people who say they do not believe in anything they can't sense by taking this idea to an extreme through the character of Hitchcock.

On a rocket hurtling through outer space, Hitchcock and Clemens discuss Earth. Hitchcock no longer believes there is such thing as an Earth, and whatever evidence Clemens cites - dreams, memories, the sun - are dismissed as not being good enough. Hitchcock has determined to be practical and rely only on the evidence immediately available to him. Slowly proof of all things begins to slip between his fingers to the extent where he no longer believes that his friend is standing in front of him without physical contact. 

"Now, just now, this instant, while you're here with me, you’re alive. A moment ago you weren't anything." Hitchcock

"There isn't any season here; winter and summer are gone. So is spring, and autumn. It isn't any particular night or morning; it's space and space." Hitchcock

Listen to the audio book above or read the book in a pysical copy or online

Print & Kindle: The illustrated man - Full Book

Online: The illustrated Man - Full Book

About the Author

Ray Douglas Bradbury, American novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, screenwriter and poet, was born August 22, 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois. He graduated from a Los Angeles high school in 1938. Although his formal education ended there, he became a "student of life," selling newspapers on L.A. street corners from 1938 to 1942, spending his nights in the public library and his days at the typewriter. He became a full-time writer in 1943, and contributed numerous short stories to periodicals before publishing a collection of them, Dark Carnival, in 1947.

His reputation as a writer of courage and vision was established with the publication of The Martian Chronicles in 1950, which describes the first attempts of Earth people to conquer and colonize Mars, and the unintended consequences. Next came The Illustrated Man and then, in 1953, Fahrenheit 451, which many consider to be Bradbury's masterpiece, a scathing indictment of censorship set in a future world where the written word is forbidden. In an attempt to salvage their history and culture, a group of rebels memorize entire works of literature and philosophy as their books are burned by the totalitarian state. Other works include The October Country, Dandelion Wine, A Medicine for Melancholy, Something Wicked This Way Comes, I Sing the Body Electric!, Quicker Than the Eye, and Driving Blind. In all, Bradbury has published more than thirty books, close to 600 short stories, and numerous poems, essays, and plays. His short stories have appeared in more than 1,000 school curriculum "recommended reading" anthologies.

On the occasion of his 80th birthday in August 2000, Bradbury said, "The great fun in my life has been getting up every morning and rushing to the typewriter because some new idea has hit me. The feeling I have every day is very much the same as it was when I was twelve. In any event, here I am, eighty years old, feeling no different, full of a great sense of joy, and glad for the long life that has been allowed me. I have good plans for the next ten or twenty years, and I hope you'll come along."

Join us on Thursday at 3PM to chat about the book!

What is the book club?

Join us every week for a book club, each week we will read a new short story of part of a larger book, the books will be made available as an audio book and we will meet as a group via zoom to chat about the story. All are welcome, hope to see you there. 

How to join the club to chat

The zoom link to join will apear above on this page at 3PM on Thursday. To join you will need a phone/tablet or laptop with a built in camera and microphone (most modern devices come with this) you may need to download the zoom app onto your phone if you are using a phone to join.

Sign up if you would like to receive an email remeinder of the book club, to do this you must first create a profile.

Create a profile now