BRADBURY, Ray. Science fiction story character on reading newspapers: "But then I saw what I was doing: I was believing what I read"

Ray Douglas Bradbury (August 22, 1920 – June 5, 2012) was an American science fiction writer famous for his sci fi short stories and his novel "Fahrenheit 451" about a future, book-burning police state (1953) (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Bradbury).

Ray Bradbury's character Senor Garcia in the short story "And the rock cried out"in which the whole European world has been wiped out and Senor Garcia gives American travellers John and Leonora Webb a lift after they are forced to abandon their car to hostile people in a unnamed, jungle-clad Latin American country (my emphasis in bold): "Do you read the papers? Of course, you do. But do you read them as I read them?I rather doubt that you have come upon my system. ... I remember once when I lived in the Capital for a month and bought the paper fresh each day. I went wild with love, anger, irritation, frustration; all of the passions boiled in me. I was young. I exploded at everything I saw. But then I saw what I was doing: I was believing what I read. Have you noticed? You believe a paper printed on the very day you buy it? This has happened but only an hour ago, you think! It must be true... So I learned to stand back away and let the paper age and mellow. Back here, in Colonia, I saw the headlines diminish into nothing. The week-old paper - why, you can spit on it, if you wish. It is like a woman you once loved, but you now see, a few days later, she is not quite what you thought. She has rather a plain face. She is no deeper than a cup of water."[1].

[1]. Ray Bradbury, "And the rock cried out", "Stories Volume 2", Harper Voyager, New York, 2008, pp32-50.