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’.
Please allow me to riff a little. What really makes me sad/sick is that today is the 68th anniversary of D-Day and so few youth today don’t even know what happened that day, or for that matter, what WWII was all about. Or care. Not that most of the post gen-x’ers ignore honoring our Heroes willfully or from disrespect, but because the total failure of our educational system to teach American history.
If there is one positive thing to consider, the blessings of our modern society, which to the old guard sifi writers would be both fantastic but familiar if they could have somehow been transported to our time, allow those who wish to to explore areas of interest throughout their lifetime. I would like to think that, as these youths grow up they will recognize the importance of the history of our country and take it upon themselves to learn using all of the modern tools of the information age.
I read sifi extensively as a youth in the 60’s, so I read Bradbury, Clarke, Heinlein, Asimov, among others, but I never read them as part of a public school assignment, I read them in spite of what I was supposed to be reading for English or History. It may take a little while but I dare say, give the yutes some time and if they're interested they will discover the old masters on their own.
Just a side-note, I've helped install home theater systems in a dozen or so houses, many in the 7 figure price range and only in about 10% of these houses, (we're talking doctors, lawyers and scions of industry) was there anything approaching a bookshelf or personal library.
R.I.P. Mr. Bradbury, he will be missed, and how nice to know that he was a Conservative and a Patriot to boot.
Bookstores, especially used book stores, are a joy for the mind and senses.