Science fiction author Ray Bradbury sits in front of a photo of Mars, presented to him during an 83rd birthday party in his honor on Aug. 23, 2003.
Posted on 06/06/2012 3:21:57 PM PDT by montag813
Science fiction author Ray Bradbury sits in front of a photo of Mars, presented to him during an 83rd birthday party in his honor on Aug. 23, 2003.
Ray Bradbury, master of the sci-fi fantasy and author of Fahrenheit 451, died Tuesday at 91.
The man who chronicled dystopian societies had strong political beliefs and spoke as darkly about contemporary politics as he did about burning books.
"I think our country is in need of a revolution," the Los Angeles Times quoted him as saying in 2010. "There is too much government today. We've got to remember the government should be by the people, of the people and for the people."
A Ohio Tea Party blog later quoted him on it, and the conservative blog All American Blogger wrote: "I think Ray is ready to lead the Tea Party movement."
Bradbury also had some choice words for our nation's presidents.
On Bush: "He's wonderful. We needed him." - Interview with Salon, 2001
On Clinton: "Clinton is a sh*thead and we're glad to be rid of him. And I'm not talking about his sexual exploits. I think we have a chance to do something about education... We should have done it years ago." - Interview with Salon, 2001
On Reagan: "Reagan was our greatest president. He lowered our taxes and gave the money back to the people." - At Comic-Con in 2010
On Obama: "He should be announcing that we should go back to the moon... We should never have left there. We should go to the moon and prepare a base to fire a rocket off to Mars and then go to Mars and colonize Mars. Then when we do that, we will live forever." - Quoted in Los Angeles Times in 2010
According to fan site Bradbury Media, the writer once declared in an interview all politicians to be fools.
"This is Montag, Block 813!"
Glad you posted it
I was never a big science fiction fan, but I loved “Something Wicked This Way Comes.”
I remember seeing William Buckley say that Ray Bradbury was more conservative than he was.
Well that makes sense being Something Wicked is Fantasy (Ray wrote both equally well)
Sure gonna Miss Mr. Bradbury. He was one of my Favofite writers!
Unfortunately not all sci fi writers share Bradbury’s vision of liberty. Just last week Elizabeth Moon who writes some good mil sci fi said that she believed all people should be bar coded so they can be easily identified and located. Bradbury would recoil at that suggestion. RIP Mr Bradbury.
I JUST bought my book-loving teen Fahrenheit 451 last week. She loves to read, and I wanted her to read some classics, so I bought that, Lord of the Flies and Animal Farm. I didn’t realize he had died yesterday. I am honestly so sad. Something Wicked This Way Comes was an absolute favorite of mine.
My favorite SF book was “October Country” by Bradbury.
The Golden Apples Of The Sun
Classics? Les Miserables”,”The Count of Monte Cristo”, “A Tale of Two Cities”, “The Canterbury Tales”, “Crime and Punishment”, “The Travels of Marco Polo”, “Bleak House”...
She will get to them. I picked those three because I loved them when I was her age (13). I enjoyed the books you mentioned when I got a bit older. Plus, she loved Hunger Games, so I thought LotF would be a good way for her to see how modern fiction is inspired. I picked Animal Farm because hubby and I talk politics a lot, and I thought it was a good choice to introduce her. I picked Fahrenheit 451 because I loved it so much, period. I have so many to introduce to her, but her school has no required reading, and I kind of just try to judge best what she is ready for right now.
I really enjoyed “The Hobbit” at that age. :{) I envy people who haven’t read the great books because they can still look forward to the experience of doing so.
I was thinking Bradbury must have been one of the last authors whose initial works originally appeared in old pulp magazines (before they were replaced by paperbacks and the somewhat ‘similar to pulp’ digests).
“I am aware of his work”
I would recommend “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” by Heinlein as well. VERY freedom oriented.
Could we put together a lising of Classic 60’s and 70’s sci fi titles?
I would love to reread some of them. I remember bits and pieces of the stories and would love to read them again.
copty and add:
I, Robot
The Foundation Trilogy
“I was thinking Bradbury must have been one of the last authors whose initial works originally appeared in old pulp magazines...”
You may be right. Frank Frazetta passed two years ago, after illustrating the covers of so many of those works. They may all be gone now. Good stuff, fun times.
Silverburg, C L Moore, so many. Robert E. Howard remains my favorite. Fortunately there are still a lot of good fantasy and sci-fi writers out there, even in the miasma of PC. Terry Brooks comes to mind. There was a grandeur and austerity to the older writers though that seems to be missing now. The focus now seems to be on more personal, intimate portrayals rather than archetypes.
Rambling paragraph, sorry. Been working long hours to keep my business up.
Bradbury, Asimov, Vonnegut - three of my heroes. God bless you all for making us want to be smart as children.
Dune.
Goodbye Ray. Glad you were one of us.
Ray Bradbury will be missed. I to am a R. E. Howard fan. Big fan of Lovecraft as well. Have you ever read Karl Edward Wagner?
“Have you ever read Karl Edward Wagner?”
I have not. The name is noted, however.
Jack Vance, Roger Zelazny, Larry Niven.
On a tablet so I can’t post the link. It’s catchy, it’s adult, it’s probably NSFW. Go to You Tube, search and watch Rachael Bloom’s tribute...
“F*ck Me Ray Bradbury”
She did a great job and RB even admired it. Some folks here probably won’t like it but AFAIC it is a wonderful, ADULT, tribute to a great author!
Pinging laz cuz I bet he would hit on Rachael. I would if I were decades younger....
vaudine
I loved this guy. He was about the most lyrical writer America produced in the 20th century. I think I’ve read everything he ever wrote, I’ve read everything of his I can find.
I’ll miss him, he was one of my favorites ever.
RIP, Ray, I feel I knew you.
Link is bad. This is what I get.
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Speaking of which, Barnes & Nobles' website (and I presume store too) has their buy two B&N classics and get one free sale going on again. And if you can't decide, just buy 199 books for $562. Or if you and a couple of friends want the sets you can buy two get one free on the big set too.
RIP, Ray.
“The Martian Chronicles”.
“Twice 22”
“The Illustrated Man”
“Fahrenheit 451”
When in college (too many years ago to mention WHEN) I interviewed Ray for our little tv station. Since he didn’t drive, I had to go to his house in LA to pick him up!! He was charming, funny, angry, and curious, all at once. A very interesting man.
One of my favorite works by Bradbury is “Time Enough For Love” — most particularly the two paragraphs titled “Intermission: Excerpts from the notebooks of Lazarus Long.” The excerpts are sayings by Lazarus, and I’m a big fan of ditties that condense great wisdom into a handful of words.
(Lazarus, for those unfamiliar with the story, is a gentleman of immense age, far exceeding even his fellow members of a secret society which breeds for longevity.)
Some of my favorites from Lazarus —
“Get off a shot fast! This upsets him long enough to make your second shot perfect.”
“A ‘pacifist male’ is a contradiction in terms. Most self-described pacifists are not pacific; they simply assume false colors. When the wind changes, they hoist the Jolly Roger.”
“There is only one way to console a widow. But remember the risk.”
“Never appeal to a man’s ‘better nature.’ He may not have one. Invoking his ‘self-interest’ gives you more leverage.”
“You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don’t ever count on having both at once.”
“Place your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark.”
“People who go broke in a big way never miss any meals. It is the poor jerk who is shy half a slug who must tighten his belt.”
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal. fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
“Do not handicap your children by making their lives easy.”
“Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny.”
“If we listened to our intellect, we’d never have a love affair. We’d never have a friendship. We’d never go into business because we’d be cynical. Well that’s nonsense. You’ve got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.”
(Sorry for the long post but Ray Bradbury was a treasure.)
Jack Vance, Gene Wolfe, Poul Anderson. Jack Vance and Gene Wolfe are the two best ever for my money and they are both still kicking. Vance is 95 years old!
RIP RB, you made many english classes more tolerable and there aren’t many who did.
Freegards
I enjoyed his writings.
RIP, Mr. Bradbury.
Time Enough for Love was by Robert Heinlein.
You should pay more attention to your tag line, TEFL was written by...
...Robert Heinlein! :-)
He also called Michael Moore a “perfect a$$hole”.
I first found Bradbury in 7th grade. Wow.
Would love to know what Bradbury had to say about Clinton....
Thanks for those quotes
A great writer and a visionary. Heard him speak about 45 years ago.
The Sound of Summer Running will always epitomize for me what a short story should be and do. And it wasn’t even SF...just one of the best things I ever read.
The last of the great four. Clark, Asimov, Heinlein and Bradbury. Thank you Ray.
Very sad. An icon of conservatism.
An armed society is a polite society.
Robert Heinlein
He was a unique talent.
What really makes me sad/sick is that not only have so few youth today ever read him, but they don’t even know how he was. Or care. Reading for pleasure, and I don’t mean a Facebook page, is almost dead. It’s dying with Gen X as so few Millenials seem to care for the idea of sitting down with a good book.
I feel sorry for them. There is no greater pleasure one can have fully clothed than a walk through a used book store and the very smell of all that ‘mind food’.
My apologies, that should be Clarke. I keep forgetting the e.
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