“The magic is […] in what the books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together for us,” the former professor Faber tells the repentant book-burner, Montag, in Ray Bradbury’s Farenheit 451: “Most of us can’t rush around, talking to everyone, know all the cities of the world, we haven’t time, money or that many friends. The things you’re looking for, Montag, are in the world, but the only way the average chap will ever see ninety-nine per cent of them is in a book.”
Stories help us to understand ourselves and the world around us. They allow us to travel beyond ourselves, and they prepare us – mentally, emotionally, ethically – to meet situations we’ve never yet, or might never encounter.
Bradbury’s novel is suspicious of the effect of broadcast media (TV and radio). In contrast, this blog series celebrates the power of texts in different media to shape who we are and the values we carry with us, be those texts films, TV, radio drama, graphic novels, and songs, or books, plays, and poems.
Do share your own stories on Twitter with the hashtag #TextsThatMadeMe
1: Texts That Made Cathy Shrank
2: Texts That Made Jonathan Rayner
4: Texts That Made David Forrest
5: Texts That Made Matt Cheeseman
6: Texts That Made John Miller
7: Texts That Made Christine Wallis
9: Texts That Made Val Derbyshire
10: Texts That Made Daniel Clarke
11: Texts That Made Lucy Skerratt
12: Texts That Made Alison Horgan
13: Texts That Made Graham Williams
14: Texts That Made Katrina Mayson
15: Texts That Made Veronica Barnsley
16: Texts That Made Carly Stevenson
17: Texts That Made Angela Wright
18: Texts That Made Samraghni Bonnerjee
19: Texts That Made Hannah Leach