Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Ray Bradbury: R.I.P.

This is topic Ray Bradbury: R.I.P. in forum Discussing Published Hooks & Books at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

I am informed that Ray Bradbury has died. Read about it here, where I saw it first:

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2012/06/06/famed-science-fiction-fantasy-writer-ray-bradbury-dead-at-1/

...or here:

http://www.locusmag.com/News/2012/06/ray-bradbury-1920-2012/

...or here:

http://io9.com/5916175/rip-ray-bradbury-author-of-fahrenheit-451-and-the-martian-chronicles

...but it will probably be all over the media the next day or so.

Posted by History (Member # 9213) on :

This is a great loss.

Ray was one of the first authors I read as a lad and his stories of old Mars, of firemen that burned books, of electronic grandmothers, of Halloween trees, of dandelion wine and boys' summers, of dinosaurs and dwarfs and skeletons and illustrated men, of lightning rods and the dark carnivals of October with the air bitter with the armoma of burning leaves...thrilled me and opened up wonders and vistas of imagination.

My first weak attempts at writing in middle school were Bradbury pastiches.

For years I've slowly sculpted a thank you letter to Mr. Bradbury and yet it never seemed quite done, and now (again) I learn the painful lessons of delaying too late.

May he sail the soft whispering sands of Mars where ancient Martian cities brood in light and shadow and then sit back on the porch swing, sipping fresh lemonade and nodding at passing neighbors enjoying all summer in a day.

Respectfully,
Dr. Bob

[ June 06, 2012, 03:07 PM: Message edited by: History ]

Posted by Foste (Member # 8892) on :

Damn it...

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

Here's some thoughts on Bradbury, from somebody you all know:

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/302032/thoughts-ray-bradbury-orson-scott-card

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

Thanks for pointing that out, Robert. Very cool.

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

Appropos of absolutely nothing except that this quote has been in my mind since I heard:

quote:
"As your president, I would demand a science-fiction library, featuring an ABC of the genre. Asimov! Bester! Clarke!"

"What about Ray Bradbury?"

"I'm aware of his work..."

---early "Simpsons"

Posted by Foste (Member # 8892) on :

Found the clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPfRwh1tVaY

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

Yup, that's it...and what I get for relying on memory and online quotation sites...

Posted by Foste (Member # 8892) on :

Is Bester also in the Hard SF niche, Robert? Haven't read 'Stars'. (I know shame on me [Smile]

)

Seems to be the punchline.

Posted by Foste (Member # 8892) on :

I also found this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=A5NxG_rr5aU

Good to know that an SF author could be featured in a commercial in the good old days.

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

It's a Stan Freberg ad...he was big for those things in the 1960s...they may even have been collected in video releases. (I'm pretty sure it's Freberg's voice doing the narration.) I think the commercial came after Clarke's / Kubrick's "2001" (1968) because they used that date...