Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Ray Bradbury Has Died

Posted by Unknown on from the he-just-moved-to-mars dept.

dsinc was the first to note, but an anonymous reader writes "Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451, the dystopian novel about the logical conclusion of many trends in modern society, and many other works that have inspired fans of speculative fiction for decades, has died at the age of 91 in Los Angeles, California, Tuesday night, June 5th, 2012. No details on how he died were released, but I suspect it may have had something to do with the Earth orbiting the sun over 90 times since he was born. I guess we'll have to wait to be sure."

5 of 315 comments (clear)

  1. The most human side of scifi... by Art+Popp · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...is found in that man's works. He is the reason my Mom understands the wonder of extraterrestrial life, the temptations and costs of technological solutions to social problems, and has any clue as to what her son is thinking.

    I owe that man a great deal more than I've spent on his books.

    1. Re:The most human side of scifi... by elgeeko.com · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Very well put. He made a huge impact on me growing up. A lot of people think of him as only a Sci-Fi writer, but his works went way beyond that. My wife is anything buy a Scifi fan, but she was deeply influenced by Bradbury and his "Zen and the Art of Writing". He was a true master and will be deeply missed.

  2. Something Wicked This Way Comes by chill · · Score: 5, Insightful

    My wife never liked science fiction. One evening I chose "Something Wicked This Way Comes" to watch on DVD and she rolled her eyes at my choice.

    After watching, she said to me "now I know why you read all that stuff. That was great!"

    A true master of the art has passed.

    --
    Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
  3. What really scares me. by i+kan+reed · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What really bothers me about 451 is how just about everything but the book burning turned out true. If you remove that aspect from the book, you'd have a hard time separating it from the United States of today. I can't read it without being unnerved. Immersing ourselves in our electronic entertainment rather than our lives, advertisement everywhere, complete lack of empathy as a social standard, constant, ignored wars, distaste for pedestrians, rampant anti-intellectualism, near identical suburbs everywhere.

    It was a brilliant extrapolation from 1953, and I wish it wasn't so close to reality.

  4. Re:His most famous work by SJHillman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Books tend to have three meanings:
    1) What the author meant
    2) What the reader takes away from the story
    3) What English teacher say the author meant and what they (the teachers) think readers should take away from the story

    1 and 2 are often, but not always, the same. Neither 1 nor 2 are ever the same as 3.