RIP Ray Bradbury - Lois & Clark Fanfic Message Boards

Ray Bradbury has apparently died, aged 91.

Now, there was a man who knew how to predict the future. "Fahrenheit 451" is an excellent book and, sadly, coming to pass.

I met him twice at speeches he was giving at local libraries. He was great with kids. At each speech there was a large group of kids (looked like 5th or 6th graders) who had done book reports on one of his books. He spoke individually to each kid, looked at their report, and autographed it with a personal note for each child. He was a wonderful speaker.

Neil Gaiman just posted that he hasn't written an obituary yet, because it's too soon, but put something else on line, an introduction he wrote for one of Bradbury's books, The Machineries of Joy:

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2012/06/ray-bradbury.html

What? He died? Today?

That's really sad. He was one of my favorite authors- loved 'Farenheit 451' and 'The Martian Chronicles' (as well as all his other shorts of course). But he will be missed and his works will live on forever... short of Farenheit coming true.

RIP Ray Bradbury.

Bradbury was an excellent writer who could reach out through the page past the written word and grab his readers by the heart and shake them before they knew they'd been grabbed. He was so sneaky good at it, too.

My first exposure so well-written SF was Heinlein. My second was Bradbury. Both of those worthy gentlemen had a direct impact on my writing style, although I'm certain I'll never really compare to either one.

Quote

Now, there was a man who knew how to predict the future. "Fahrenheit 451" is an excellent book and, sadly, coming to pass.

Sorry, I don't understand the "coming to pass" reference. Can you elaborate, Virginia?

To show the ubiquity of Ray Bradbury and his works, I point you to the "Smallville" TV series episode "Heat", where a teenage Clark Kent first gets his heat vision.

It's uncontrolled at first, and he's running around setting things on fire, much to everyone's dismay.

Later on in the episode, there's a little throwaway scene of Clark in his barn loft, reading a book for school. The book is, of course, "Fahrenheit 451". A little sly humor there.

Quote

Sorry, I don't understand the "coming to pass" reference. Can you elaborate, Virginia?

It's been a while, Terry, but isn't 'Fahrenheit 451' about a world in which paper books went the way of the dodo bird (and became illegal), and the whole world plugged themselves into vid screens and ipod like players and rarily communicated face to face and person to person? (Good thing Big Brother from Orwell's "1984" never materialized in RL, huh?)

Another Gaiman piece on Bradbury

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/06/ray-bradbury-neil-gaiman-appreciation

I hadn't heard until this thread. From Ray's official site:

Quote

JUNE 6, 2012

Ray Bradbury, recipient of the 2000 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the 2004 National Medal of Arts, and the 2007 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation, died on June 5, 2012, at the age of 91 after a long illness. He lived in Los Angeles.

In a career spanning more than seventy years, Ray Bradbury has inspired generations of readers to dream, think, and create. A prolific author of hundreds of short stories and close to fifty books, as well as numerous poems, essays, operas, plays, teleplays, and screenplays, Bradbury was one of the most celebrated writers of our time. His groundbreaking works include Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Dandelion Wine, and Something Wicked This Way Comes. He wrote the screen play for John Huston's classic film adaptation of Moby Dick, and was nominated for an Academy Award. He adapted sixty-five of his stories for television's The Ray Bradbury Theater, and won an Emmy for his teleplay of The Halloween Tree. In 2005, Bradbury published a book of essays titled Bradbury Speaks, in which he wrote: In my later years I have looked in the mirror each day and found a happy person staring back. Occasionally I wonder why I can be so happy. The answer is that every day of my life I've worked only for myself and for the joy that comes from writing and creating. The image in my mirror is not optimistic, but the result of optimal behavior.

He was an engaging speaker, too. About 30 years ago he came to our tiny town and spoke at the Community College. He had a driver drive him up (about 3 hours from LA) because he didn't drive, never flew and hated airplanes. I thought that was an astonishing fact for a Sci Fi author. He encouraged everyone to think independently and write their own stories.

So here we are, a community taking Bradbury's advice!
Artemis

I loved Ray Bradbury when I was growing up. I went through a phase somewhere around age 10 or 11 where I read everything of his that I could lay my hands on. Several of his stories still stick with me. One in particular, I think it was in The Martian Chronicles, about an automated house that went through its daily checklist but the people who had lived there had been dead for ages. It was rather haunting.

Quote

It's been a while, Terry, but isn't 'Fahrenheit 451' about a world in which paper books went the way of the dodo bird (and became illegal), and the whole world plugged themselves into vid screens and ipod like players and rarily communicated face to face and person to person?

It's been forever since I read it, but what I recall is that books were banned (in a 'knowledge is power' kind of way). Any books that were found (and there was a group dedicated to ferreting them out), were consigned to a bonfire. The protagonist was a "fireman" whose job it was to destroy the books. Only he starts reading them instead (and thinking for himself).

Thanks to Meadowrose and Artemis for sharing memories about him. My already considerable opinion of him has increased to know that he was so humble and nice.

Quote

One in particular, I think it was in The Martian Chronicles, about an automated house that went through its daily checklist but the people who had lived there had been dead for ages. It was rather haunting.

I second that, Sue. The story you remember is There Will Come Soft Rains .

He was truly a pioneer of the genre. May he rest in peace.

- Lynn

Oh, wow! Thanks, Lynn, for finding that. It was a treat to read it again. Wherever he is, I hope Ray knows that, contrary to what the poem states, we know and care that he is gone.

Oh wow, indeed. We were read this story in my first year of high school, English class. The bit about the images seared into the wall caught in my mind, its eerie poignancy stayed with me all these years, but I could never remember more than that or what story it came from.

How wonderful to rediscover it all these years later. Thanks, Lynn!

LabRat

LabRat and Sue, you are both very welcome.

I actually never *read* the story, but I did listen to a very haunting audio production of it during a commute to work.

Joy,
Lynn

I think the first story I ever read of his was The Sound of Thunder, and I remember reading The Martian Chronicles for a library challenge. His stories always made you sit down and think. I had to write down one line from Fahrenheit 451: "We're nothing more than dust jackets for books, of no significance otherwise."

My sister was devastated when she heard the news. She had been collecting his older works for a while and wanted to meet him in person. Sadly, she never got the chance. For her, he was one of her writing idols (my sister does a LOT more original fiction than I do and is the one person in the family that would love to make a living off of it.)