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Kerth
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Kerth
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Ray Bradbury has apparently died, aged 91.
Marcus L. Rowland
Forgotten Futures, The Scientific Romance Role Playing Game
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Nobel Peace Prize Winner
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Nobel Peace Prize Winner
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Now, there was a man who knew how to predict the future. "Fahrenheit 451" is an excellent book and, sadly, coming to pass.
VirginiaR.
"On the long road, take small steps." -- Jor-el, "The Foundling"
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"clearly there is a lack of understanding between those two... he speaks Lunkheadanian and she Stubbornanian" -- chelo.
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Beat Reporter
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Beat Reporter
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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.
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Kerth
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Kerth
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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
Marcus L. Rowland
Forgotten Futures, The Scientific Romance Role Playing Game
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Kerth
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Kerth
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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.
Nothing spoils a good story like the arrival of an eye witness.
--Mark Twain
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Pulitzer
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Pulitzer
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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. 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?
Life isn't a support system for writing. It's the other way around.
- Stephen King, from On Writing
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Pulitzer
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Pulitzer
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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.
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Nobel Peace Prize Winner
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Nobel Peace Prize Winner
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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?) 
VirginiaR.
"On the long road, take small steps." -- Jor-el, "The Foundling"
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"clearly there is a lack of understanding between those two... he speaks Lunkheadanian and she Stubbornanian" -- chelo.
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Kerth
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Kerth
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Marcus L. Rowland
Forgotten Futures, The Scientific Romance Role Playing Game
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Pulitzer
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Pulitzer
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I hadn't heard until this thread. From Ray's official site: 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
History is easy once you've lived it. - Duncan MacLeod
Writing history is easy once you've lived it. - Artemis
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Kerth
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Kerth
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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. 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.
Lois: You know, I have a funny feeling that you didn't tell me your biggest secret.
Clark: Well, just to put your little mind at ease, Lois, you're right.
Ides of Metropolis
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Pulitzer
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Pulitzer
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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
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Kerth
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Kerth
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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.
Lois: You know, I have a funny feeling that you didn't tell me your biggest secret.
Clark: Well, just to put your little mind at ease, Lois, you're right.
Ides of Metropolis
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Boards Chief Administrator Emeritus Nobel Peace Prize Winner
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Boards Chief Administrator Emeritus Nobel Peace Prize Winner
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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 
Athos: If you'd told us what you were doing, we might have been able to plan this properly.
Aramis: Yes, sorry.
Athos: No, no, by all means, let's keep things suicidal.
The Musketeers
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Pulitzer
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Pulitzer
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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
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Merriwether
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Merriwether
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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."
"You need me. You wouldn't be much of a hero without a villain. And you do love being the hero, don't you. The cheering children, the swooning women, you love it so much, it's made you my most reliable accomplice." -- Lex Luthor to Superman, Question Authority, Justice League Unlimited
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Top Banana
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Top Banana
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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.)
CLARK: No. I'm just worried I'm a jinx.
JONATHAN: A jinx?
CLARK: Yeah. Let's face it, ever since she's known me, Lois's been kidnapped, frozen, pushed off buildings, almost stabbed, poisoned, buried alive and who knows what else, and it's all because of me.
-"Contact" (You're not her jinx, you're her blessing.)
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