R.I.P. Ray Bradbury, Author of Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles
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Re: R.I.P. Ray Bradbury, Author of Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles
#2RIP, one of my favourite authors. Martian Chronicles and Illustrated Man were story collections on par with the likes of Hemingway IMO. The last collection I bought, One for the Road, wasn't more than ten years ago. I think he had a few more since then too.
Re: R.I.P. Ray Bradbury, Author of Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles
#3RIP, one of my favourite authors. Martian Chronicles and Illustrated Man were story collections on par with the likes of Hemingway IMO. The last collection I bought, One for the Road, wasn't more than ten years ago. I think he had a few more since then too.
The Martian Chronicles is my favorite book of all time. I saw him speak at UCLA in 2007 or 2008 and I'll never forget his emphasis on love and being creative. Sad day. Science fiction and literature has lost one of it's greats.
Re: R.I.P. Ray Bradbury, Author of Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles
#4He had a short piece in last week's New Yorker on how "The Fire Balloons" was inspired by the fire balloons he, as a small boy, lit with his grandfather. It was a beautiful testament to his craft and his inspiration.
Sadly, behind the paywall: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/06/04/120604fa_fact_...
RIP
Re: R.I.P. Ray Bradbury, Author of Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles
#5My favorite Bradbury book is Dandelion Wine. It's not sci-fi, but great authors are not limited to a single genre.
Re: R.I.P. Ray Bradbury, Author of Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles
#6Ray Bradbury was one of my favorite authors as a child. The depth and complexity of his stories truly enlightened me about good Sci-Fi.
Most students in the US probably read Fahrenheit 451 in high school, but I enrolled in a literature course at the Naval Academy that focused on science fiction. The Martian Chronicles was a main text for the class. IIRC, the professor had a very special connection to Bradbury, but rather than get it completely wrong, I'll just state that I think the professor (who was a USAF officer) was the curator of a collection of his works.
I might try and re-read 451. I think his words will be even more powerful and prescient now.
Re: R.I.P. Ray Bradbury, Author of Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles
#7RIP Bradbury. Martian Chronicles is indirectly one of the most influential books in my life, due to an interesting twist...
In high school, we had a literature class where there was a list of a couple hundred books we could choose from to read each month. At the end of the month, the teacher had a canned test she had purchased somewhere for each book, that we would take to prove our comprehension. For those of you who haven't read Martian Chronicles, it's a series of around 30 stories with mostly independent characters and story lines.
The test I was given was a "match the character to their description" test. Not only am I normally bad with names, but with 30 stories featuring unique charters, I had no idea on a majority of the names.
So, I flipped over the multiple choice test, and wrote an essay about how I read, comprehended, and loved the book,but this was an outrageous assessment, and a poor way to judge my aptitude.
Although I scored less than 30/100 on the multiple choice, the teacher gave me an A on the test.
I learned to think outside the box, and the power of reasoning and discussion. All the credit in the world to my teacher for having an open mind.
...Anyways, totally off topic, but it's something that will always stick with me. Bradbury was a great author who will be sorely missed.
Re: R.I.P. Ray Bradbury, Author of Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles
#8I loved The Martian Chronicles, though I found it difficult to enjoy much of the rest of his writing. But his skill was undeniable, his influence is still huge, and you can find touches of his style in many other authors' work.
RIP
Re: R.I.P. Ray Bradbury, Author of Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles
#9RIP ... He filled my later elementary school and junior high years with possibilities.
Re: R.I.P. Ray Bradbury, Author of Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles
#10RIP Bradbury. Martian Chronicles is indirectly one of the most influential books in my life, due to an interesting twist... In high school, we had a literature class where there was a list of a couple hundred books we could choose from to read each month. At the end of the month, the teacher had a canned test she had purchased somewhere for each book, that we would take to prove our comprehension. For those of you wh…
Bradbury himself would have been pleased by that story, I think.