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.
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