I am ashamed to admit my conscious love for him only began when he spoke at BYU. Nice blazer, button-down shirt and tie, with snow-white hair down to his shoulders. I could see the twinkle in his eye and the joie de vivre in his countenance from my seat. And WOW, did he talk with hands, beautifully and joyously. Normally when we had a guest speaker, the newspaper posted one photograph. He got three. He closed by telling us about a story of his that had been first published in Playboy; "I'm sure you all read it.". Of course, we laughed. He gave a puckish chuckle, looked back at President Holland and quipped, "I'll get kicked out of here yet."
One of the things he told us to do was, "Live life at the top of your lungs. Jump off the cliff and build your wings on the way down."
CrowMan lists The Illustrated Man as one of the most influential books in his life. And he kept pulling me in to Bradbury's world as we dated and learned how to be married. I love him all the more for that. His sci-fi was great, but his stories that hearken back to childhood and Americana put an ache in my soul.
He wrote the screenplay for Moby Dick, for which he was Oscar-nominated. He was very proud of that.
Two of my favorites are "In a Season of Calm Weather" and "Remember Sascha?" My all-time favorite is "Summer in the Air", a chapter from Dandelion Wine, which I read when I was seven. I am in total agreement with OSC--here was a sci-fi writer who deserved the Nobel Prize for Literature.
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whew- and Venus passed over the Sun- not a bad sendoff, Mr. Bradbury. Thanks for the great reads.
Posts: 5495 | Registered: Jun 2002
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I didn't even know he was still living. I remember reading his stories when I was a youngster.
I'm with CrowGirl. While sci-fi was his main forte & what most people know best, his short stories were also my favorites. He added unexpected twists to those all-American small-town childhood situations that were nostalgic in some stories, spine-chilling in others. The ones of that kind that have stuck in my mind all these years are "The Whole Town is Sleeping" & "The Man Upstairs."
A totally different kind of story that's haunting in another way is "The Scythe."
We'll all miss Ray Bradbury's writing genius & his imagination.
Posts: 12883 | Registered: Apr 2005
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I started reading Ray Bradbury in 6th grade, after reading a short story of his in an assignment, and didn't stop. Just had fun introducing my own 6th grade son to his writings. He will be missed . . .
Posts: 228 | Registered: Jun 2004
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I love, love, loved Ray Bradbury as an adolescent. His words spoke to me so clearly. His short stories, like others have said, were my favorites. He will be missed.
Posts: 2718 | Registered: Feb 2000
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I really thought The October Country was chillingly delicious. And I remember reading a chapter on how to write that was included in a book on writing that was by several prominent writers. I remember really liking that chapter. I've read (as a teen) the two most common ones to have read: Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles and really liked them, and though I've not read the book, I've seen the film Something Wicked This Way Comes. He was quite the story teller and contributed a lot to speculative fiction--a pioneer really, kind of like H.G. Wells.
Posts: 3195 | Registered: May 2006
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I agree, CrowGirl. It is a beautiful tribute, to a great writer. I also enjoyed the personal example he gave of his reading out loud to the girl across the street, who became his wife. Posts: 508 | Registered: Jan 2006
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