Ray Bradbury
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dask
dark and stormy knight
I knew it had to happen but it's still a heart stopping blow when it does. Even legends who will live forever eventually die. And on D-Day to boot, a day notorious for death. He was the second person of the modern sf trinity (we know them as the ABC's of science fiction) and now they're all gone. Who's good enough to replace them? Methinks they're not even born yet.
clovis-man
Prehistoric Irish Cynic
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And he could do the absolute best impression of John Huston that you would ever be likely to hear. He used it extensively when telling the story of how he came to be the Moby Dick Screenwriter. He supposedly was offered the job partly because he had been involved in The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms movie. One giant creature is as good as another, I guess. When approached by Huston, he had not read Moby Dick. He was sent home to do so and told his wife something along the lines that he felt like he was cramming for the final exam. Ray Bradbury was a great story teller in any sense you would like to choose.
The Procrastinator
1 Candlepower Brain
Someone Wicked this way went - in the good sense of the word! The ending of an era. The writer may have faded but the stories he wrote will be fresh forever.
gully_foyle
Here kitty kitty kitty!
Another great one passes. Thanks Ray.
Nesacat
The Cat
The Fog Horn was one of the very first fantasy stories I ever read and it drew me into wanting to read more. I was in school then and this story was in the Readers Digest. It still is one of my favourite tales along with Homecoming and Halloween Tree. It's hard to imagine a SFF world without him in it.
Well deserving of the title Master Of SF. RIP...
Starbeast
Benevolent Galaxy Being
He was a great inspiration to me, I'm glad I had a chance to meet him.
Rest in peace Ray.
Rest in peace Ray.
Extollager
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Here's a piece about Ray as a great champion of public libraries.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/ray-bradburys-temple/
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/ray-bradburys-temple/
w h pugmire esq
Well-Known Member
Ray Bradbury was someone we actually read in high school as a class assignment, back in the late 1960's. After I graduated from high school in 1970, my buddy and I did a one-shot horror film fanzine. The opening section was a bunch of tributes to Forrest J Ackerman. I knew that Forry had paid Ray's way into the World's First Science Fiction Convention in 1939. I was just beginning my correspondence with Robert Bloch, so I asked Bob if he could give me Bradbury's address so that I could ask if Ray would write a wee tribute to Forry. I was thrilled when he did so. Peace unto his shade.
Not one of my favorite authors, but Ray Bradbury's effect on the world of science fiction is substantial, at least in popular culture.
I liked some of his work, but I found much of it to be pretentious. He was a bit too much of a writer and not enough of a story-teller.
Most of the folks I know that read sci-fi would describe Bradbury as the English Teacher's (or Librarian's) concept of what a science fiction writer was. He was never considered "real sci-fi."
He seemed to be a favorite of those who don't routinely read sci-fi. Critics in the Saturday Evening Post, or the New York Times Book Review were far more likely to approve of Bradbury than of Heinlein.
There are sci-fi authors teachers and critics like and those sci-fi readers like--they are rarely the same.
His writing was not sci-fi in the same vein as his peers. The fiction of van Vogt, Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, Doc Smith, Russell, Piper, Laumer, and most of those Campbell featured in his magazines tended to be more focused on the "science" portion of science fiction. Bradbury was more about the "fiction" than about the science--much like Ellison.
That said, it is a sad passing of one of the great science fiction authors. H
R.I.P. Ray Bradbury
I liked some of his work, but I found much of it to be pretentious. He was a bit too much of a writer and not enough of a story-teller.
Most of the folks I know that read sci-fi would describe Bradbury as the English Teacher's (or Librarian's) concept of what a science fiction writer was. He was never considered "real sci-fi."
He seemed to be a favorite of those who don't routinely read sci-fi. Critics in the Saturday Evening Post, or the New York Times Book Review were far more likely to approve of Bradbury than of Heinlein.
There are sci-fi authors teachers and critics like and those sci-fi readers like--they are rarely the same.
His writing was not sci-fi in the same vein as his peers. The fiction of van Vogt, Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, Doc Smith, Russell, Piper, Laumer, and most of those Campbell featured in his magazines tended to be more focused on the "science" portion of science fiction. Bradbury was more about the "fiction" than about the science--much like Ellison.
That said, it is a sad passing of one of the great science fiction authors. H
R.I.P. Ray Bradbury
I've read little of Ray Bradbury: "The Martian Chronicles" and "Fahrenheit 45" are the only ones that come immediately to the surface. But both of those are in the list of "I'll never forget this story" category and much of what I read presently doesn't fit in that category at all.
RIP Ray you've given us a legacy of literature.
RIP Ray you've given us a legacy of literature.
clovis-man
Prehistoric Irish Cynic
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Granted his forte was not in the space opera field. Therefore much of his output had a "literary" flavor to it, rather than being action oriented. But even in the most mundane of his creations there exists an "enablement", if you will, of the tale being told by his manner of phrasing. Often bordering on poetic, e.g., the opening lines of narration in the movie It Came From Outer Space, spoken by Richard Carlson:
"This is Sand Rock, Arizona, of a late evening in early spring. It's a nice town, knowing its past and sure of its future, as it makes ready for the night, and the predictable morning. The desert blankets the earth, cooling, resting for the fight with tomorrow's sun. And in my house near the town, we're also sure of the future. So very sure."
j d worthington
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Save, perhaps, for his early years, Bradbury never considered himself a science fiction writer, but rather a fantasist. He used sf tropes, but was always quite willing to admit that his interest was not in the science, but the metaphoric and poetic resonances and how these could relate to the human condition.
Yet I would hesitate a very long time before agreeing that Ray falls into the category mentioned above... for much of his career, he was one of the premier writers in the sff field for both fans and critics; he also sold very well indeed to the general public. Perhaps this is in part because he emerged from the pulp field, where the strict boundaries between "science fiction" and "fantasy" were frequently ignored (Kuttner and Moore, Heinlein, etc.; even Asimov would ignore that boundary whenever it suited the tale they wished to tell)... and Bradbury never gave much of a hoot for that distinction anyway. He was also highly influenced by some of the great writers in history, American and otherwise, as can be seen by the anthologies he edited, Timeless Stories for Today and Tomorrow and The Circus of Dr. Lao and Other Improbable Stories. Ray belonged to that group of writers such as Rod Serling, Charles Beaumont, and Richard Matheson; writers taken to the collective bosom of sff fandom, but who themselves cheerfully struck out in whatever direction their muse directed... and who, as a result, were never hamstrung by any of the conventions of the field, however much they used them when appropriate.
The main problem with his work, I think, was a certain almost determined naïveté at times, and a tendency to mix the poetic with occasional passages of almost pedestrian writing... and a certain elegiac tone which can be a bit much for some.
For all that, he was, as Ellison said, a "magic man" whose like we shall almost certainly never see again, and the world is a poorer place now for his no longer being a part of it....
Yet I would hesitate a very long time before agreeing that Ray falls into the category mentioned above... for much of his career, he was one of the premier writers in the sff field for both fans and critics; he also sold very well indeed to the general public. Perhaps this is in part because he emerged from the pulp field, where the strict boundaries between "science fiction" and "fantasy" were frequently ignored (Kuttner and Moore, Heinlein, etc.; even Asimov would ignore that boundary whenever it suited the tale they wished to tell)... and Bradbury never gave much of a hoot for that distinction anyway. He was also highly influenced by some of the great writers in history, American and otherwise, as can be seen by the anthologies he edited, Timeless Stories for Today and Tomorrow and The Circus of Dr. Lao and Other Improbable Stories. Ray belonged to that group of writers such as Rod Serling, Charles Beaumont, and Richard Matheson; writers taken to the collective bosom of sff fandom, but who themselves cheerfully struck out in whatever direction their muse directed... and who, as a result, were never hamstrung by any of the conventions of the field, however much they used them when appropriate.
The main problem with his work, I think, was a certain almost determined naïveté at times, and a tendency to mix the poetic with occasional passages of almost pedestrian writing... and a certain elegiac tone which can be a bit much for some.
For all that, he was, as Ellison said, a "magic man" whose like we shall almost certainly never see again, and the world is a poorer place now for his no longer being a part of it....
Pretty poetic yourself old chap.
(But I do wonder who you were looking at. "bosom... hamstrung...muse"
)
dask
dark and stormy knight
Good interview. His loss soils the earth.
