Ray Bradbury, R.I.P.
I just learned that Ray Bradbury died. I read a lot of Ray Bradbury growing up, and was inspired by the beauty of his writing and his message (although not always the sentimentality). I also had multiple encounters with him over the past 22 years, some of which reinforced my thought that it’s not always best to meet people whose work you admire. More to follow later, after I gather my thoughts.
June 6th, 2012 at 12:51 pm
Same here. I re-read SOMETHING WICKED… every 10 yerars or so since High School, and when I was 18 I sat through FAHRENHEIT 451 6 times.
June 10th, 2012 at 1:36 pm
Ray Bradbury was the first ‘grown up’ author to have a deep effect on me, via a paperback copy of OCTOBER COUNTRY. I think the illustrations by Joseph Mugnaini made me see it as a transition between comic books and ‘real’ writing. Last night I got out my copy of TWICE 22 and read a pair of stories. One was about a boy who didn’t grow old and I was struck that, in some ways, it may have been autobiographical.
Now I’m enjoying BRADBURY, AN ILLUSTRATED LIFE, by Jerry Weist, which collects many of the visual interpretations of the strories, including pulp illustrations, EC comics, book covers, and movie and TV adaptions. I suppose next I’ll have to get my DVD of RAY BRADBURY THEATER and watch a few episodes. It’s wonderful that he left us so many memorable tales. He was a good friend I never met.