[Brazelton] Ray Bradbury 91 years old...

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HCGLNS

HCGLNS

You know, I don't think I've ever read any of his books. Familiar with the movies and television and cultural impact but never actually read one of his books.
 
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Soliloquy

Farenheit 451 was and still is my favorite book. Whenever one of those stupid ads at gas stations stars blaring in my ear, I hit the mute button and say "Lillies in the field!"

This is a sad day. :(
 
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Wow, this one is very sad. I really loved his writing style. It flowed. Almost like a poetic prose. He had this habit of making a rhythm with his words, so that there was a third dimension to the writing. He could also make you feel desperation and loss the way no other writer I've ever read could. He's also the only author I've ever written to. Dandelion Wine is one of my top five books of all time.
 
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He describes the power and magnitude of a rocket launch by describing it's effect in terms of what it does to real people. The way it makes this brief but significant indian summer. It's just that... the inclusion of rough, real humanity in sci-fi that made him incredible. I'm actually genuinely saddened by this. It's safe to say he was one of my heroes.
 
WasabiPoptart

WasabiPoptart

When I was in 7th or 8th grade I read a story about people who lived on Mars. I could never remember the title or the author, but the story itself stuck with me. It was only within the last year or so that I finally found out it was "Dark They Were and Golden Eyed" by Ray Bradbury. I've loved that story for close to 30 years. I hope I can find it so my kids can read it when they are older.
 
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His children's book Switch on the Night is excellent, too. Highly recommend finding the older edition with the scratchy 60s style ink drawings rather than the new edition with soft paintings. Helps drive home the feel of the book.
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

I don't usually reply to celebrity death threads except to make snarky comments, but this one is different.

Ray Bradbury kindled my love of sci-fi, which is responsible for a great many other nerdy things that would shape who I am today. In short, it's his fault, and he will be missed.
 
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Soliloquy

What bugs me is that one of his more widely-read short stories is "The Veldt." Though it does serve as a decent prophetical cautionary tale against letting electronic entertainment raise your children (especially considering it was written in 1951), I always found that story to be kind of dumb.

The kids turning on the parents because they wanted to take away their favorite toy and they had turned into spoiled brats was a brilliant insight into the future of our culture. The way
the parents were killed by the device itself
was outright stupid and kind of destroyed any chance of anyone paying attention to what the story had to say.
 
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Soliloquy

And just for reference: Anyone who thinks Farenheit 451 was only about censorship didn't actually pay attention to Farenheit 451.
Ray Bradbury said:
“You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”
Click to expand...
 
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Soliloquy

I... have never actually read Something Wicked :oops:

But hey! Now I have another book for my reading list :)
 
Enresshou

Enresshou

When I was a child, I read a few of his books and loved the stories. Dandelion Wine made me wish for summer (even in the relatively mild California winters) captured, bottled, and stoppered. My fiance read it recently in the dead of a Michigan winter and understood why I loved it.

When I became a writer I studied his craft. There are people who are over-descriptive (the fantasy genre on the whole being a good example), but he was never verbiose. He made a landscape out of text.

When I became a scientist he gripped me again. He was a nexus for that surging, overwhelming NEED for the future that lies just beyond our grasp; that self-fulfilling prophetic drive that thrusts imagination into science and science into imagination.

I learned to read when I was very young, and I was raised on Steinbeck and Bradbury. I had a special relationship with their stories; they were simple tales at first, but grew deeper and more layered as I grew older. I was born after Steinbeck's time, but I wish I could have met Mr. Bradbury. There will never be another like him.
 
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