R.I.P. Ray Bradbury

[PSM]

Author of Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles


Ray Bradbury — author of The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and many more literary classics — died this morning in Los Angeles, at the age of 91.

We've got confirmation from the family as well as his biographer, Sam Weller.

His grandson, Danny Karapetian, shared these words with io9 about his grandfather's passing: "If I had to make any statement, it would be how much I love and miss him, and I look forward to hearing everyone's memories about him. He influenced so many artists, writers, teachers, scientists, and it's always really touching and comforting to hear their stories. Your stories. His legacy lives on in his monumental body of books, film, television and theater, but more importantly, in the minds and hearts of anyone who read him, because to read him was to know him. He was the biggest kid I know."

Karapetian added:


If you're looking for any single passage to remember him by, I just picked up my copy of The Illustrated Man, my favorite of his books. The introduction is entitled "Dancing, So As Not to Be Dead," and there are some great lines about death. My favorite:

"My tunes and numbers are here. They have filled my years, the years when I refused to die. And in order to do that I wrote, I wrote, I wrote, at noon or 3:00 A.M.

So as not to be dead."

I'm an actor, something he was always been really proud of, and told me once, after getting cast in a play. "You're living out my life! You're doing everything I wanted to do but couldn't!" He was such a driving force in my life, but what always fascinated me were his impact on others. How his stories lifted people up and saved them from lonely summers. Who among us was never buried deep in a Bradbury story, lost in his meticulously yet effortlessly crafted metaphor?

Please feel free to share your thoughts about Bradbury in the comments below. He truly was an inspiration, and the genre is poorer for his passing.

Link: http://io9.com/5916175/rip-ray-bradb...ium=socialflow

Rest in Peace, wordsmith.

Pat

[greenberetTFS]

R.I.P.........

Big Teddy

[fng13]

"Who wants to see the Future, who ever does? A man can face the Past, but to think - the pillars crumbled, you say? And the sea empty, and the canals dry, and the maidens dead, and the flowers withered?" The Martian was silent, but then he looked ahead. "But there they are. I see them. Isn't that enough for me? They wait for me now, no matter what you say." - The Martian Chronicles

RIP Sir, you live on through your work.

[Sohei]

One of my favorite quotes of all time was this one by Ray Bradbury:

"I spent three days a week for 10 years educating myself in the public library, and it's better than college. People should educate themselves - you can get a complete education for no money. At the end of 10 years, I had read every book in the library and I'd written a thousand stories." -- Ray Bradbury

One of the main reasons for all the reading I have done in my life. Put the conceptions of being "well-read" and "life-long learning" in my head.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Bradbury!

[Rob_Frey]

Someone truly to be missed.

[Richard]

"Americans are far more remarkable than we give ourselves credit for. We've been so busy damning ourselves for years. We've done it all, and yet we don't take credit for it."
- Ray Bradbury

I grew up reading Verne, Burroughs, Tolkien, Howard, and Bradbury, and have been rereading some of my favorite stories from "The Illustrated Man."

Ray Bradbury at CalTech reading "If Only We Had Taller Been." Enjoy!

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

RIP, Mr Bradbury - "...there was a sound of thunder!"

Richard

[SouthernDZ]

Lest we forget Asimov and Heinlein.

My next door neighbor Raymond, who I mistook for a nerd for many years, loaned me Asimov's entire "foundation trilogy" and Bradbury's "I sing the body electric" to read while I had the measles. I never thought of Ray or science fiction the same way again.

[Team Sergeant]

He was a great writer! Goodbye Ray Bradbury, the world is a lesser place without you.