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Ray Bradbury Recovering from a Stroke
Ross Karchner writes "Just thought you and the readers would be interested to know that Ray Bradbury, one of the greatest living Science Fiction writers, is recovering from a mild stroke. While he is not dead, it is a reason to pause and wish him luck in recovery. " As a fan of Bradbury's work, I can only echo Ross' sentiments: Good luck, Ray. Get well soon.
I've noted that many of my favorite authors, who defined the genres of modern SF, have been passing on lately. But still I haven't seen anybody quite worthy of wearing their mantles--yet. Perhaps it's just that we're in a transition period. Or perhaps the legacy is already being carried on--in the form of not one, but several authors. Thoughts?
-W-
Is it all journey, or is there landfall?
--Ellison & van Vogt, 'The Human Operators'
I LOVE the work, but I've been pretty shocked at a few public appearances he's made recently. I suppose I'm shocked whenever a man who is obviously intelligent, and clearly has the same taste in entertainment as myself, has such radically different political views than I do.
Generally, he's seemed pretty conservative and closed-minded, and I found myself getting angry and turning off the TV (it was CNN, as I recall). I felt bad about missing an opportunity to see a man whos words I had read so often, but I just couldn't take it.
Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy ends with a huge Martian civilization, and most of the rest of the system was inhabited too.
The problem we have in finding suitable replacements for the older authors is twofold: modern authors need to beable to justify whatever scientific leaps they create, far more so than Asimov or Bradbury ever did; and we aren't several decades past the writing of their works. In the 2020's or 2030's, people will look back to the 90's Science Fiction masters, as we look back now.
Intolerant people should be shot.
I remember reading a short story of his where this guy stumbles across a mysterious machine. He pokes around and it captures him inside itself. There he finds a note explaining he is in an automatic casket - it flips him in the yard and buries itself. Yikes what a nightmare. Creepy creepy.
When I'm singing a ballad and a pair of underwear lands on my head, I hate that. It really kills the mood.
-Tom Jones
Ray Bradbury is one of the original band of SciFi authors who defined the genre in the late '40s and early '50s.
Along with Asimov, Heinlem (sp?), Clark, and maybe Philip K. Dick (who am I missing here?), Bradbury pushed story telling to placed it had never been before.
He was probabably never as optimistic as Asimov or Clark, - he always seemed a little dark, especially compared to other 1950s stories (except, of course for PK Dicks work).
For instance (from the Amazon review of his best known work Fahrenheit 451):
For those of you who think SciFi that makes you scared of humanity began with Gibson, go an read something like The Martian Chronicles. These were written in the 1940's and yet talk about things that no one else was talking about until the 1960s - things like the potential negative impact of human civilisation.
I'll never, ever forget the haunting story (I think it was from this book) about the last surviving martian, hunted over his planet by a man with a big gun, having seen his civiliastion wiped out in his lifetime.
Get well soon, Mr Bradbury - you deserve to live to see Mars.
--Donate food by clicking: www.thehungersite.com
Regards,
January
(*) May you get back to health soon, Ray!
An interesting fact is that, while Bradbury is considered as one of the masters of SF, he is actually quite technophobic and dismissive about the Internet.
I remember reading an article by him a couple of years ago about the net, where he voiced the standard close-minded / clueless concerns that so many people have about computers: they are useless, they are just silly toys that males like to use to waste time ("women are more intelligent because they don't get into computers", an almost exact quote), etc., etc. And actually, if you read his work, you'll find out that he almost never gets into the details of the technology; for him, science was just an excuse to drift into other fields.
Kim Stanley Robinson, Larry Niven, Orson Scott Card, and Poul Anderson all write SF that has it's roots in the 50's work, and already have the depth of work that means they will be read for a long time yet.
Stephenson and Gibson take SF places it never went before, even in the weirdest writing of Dick.
Don't worry, there are plenty of great authors out there. Crime fiction didn't die with Agatha Christie, and SF has got a lot more potential than that.
The 50's authors will always be read, but in 30 years, we'll look back on the Golden Age of '90's SF and wonder who could ever replace them.
--Donate food by clicking: www.thehungersite.com
I had to read the book Martian Chronicles for school and it seemed like he was on crack or something while he wrote it, really weird stuff, no to mention I got a 15 on the book quiz. :/
to the family and Mr. Bradbory.
I have always been a big fan of Ray Bradbory stuff. he helped me get through the worst part of the teen years. When you're 6'2", 125LBs and really clumsy it really helps to have a reason to sit down and read a good book. Ray bradbory wrote most of those.
So thanks for some good years and hurry up with that recovery. At least this fan is waiting anxiously.
--= Isn't it surprising how badly I spell ?
You're missing Alfred Bester. It doesn't really get any better than _The Stars My Destionation_ and _The Demolished Man_ when you are talking about the great authors of Sci-Fi. That's not a knock on any particular author, but if you want to put together a Sci-Fi canon Bester has to be included.
And for the record I loved Martian Chronicles. The chapter about the house that wakes up, lives, and dies all without any humans was spooky.
www.HearMySoulSpeak.com
Dear Mr. BradBury:
I have been a huge fan of your since grade school, and I just want to say I hope you have a speedy recovery! Here's hoping you the best!
"Don't mind me cutting myself on Occam's Razor"
Of course, nearly all sci-fi has it's roots with Jules Verne. From reading Bradbury's work, I believe he was very fond of Verne, as some of the Martian Chronicals sounds like the style of Verne's sci-fi vision.
"Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
"I can see my house from here!" - ST:
I hope he recovers.
The funny thing is, I don't really think of him as a science fiction author. He's kind of a word poet; he has more image than narrative in many of his works.
I can and will never foget stories like "The Pedestrian," "The Murderer," and of course, "Farenheit 451," all of which speak much more strongly to the world of today than to the world in which they were written.
"A Sound of Thunder," "Here be Tygers," the list goes on and on. But what about stories that have little or no fanstasy elements such as "One for His Lordship and One for the Road?"
One of the wonder of Bradbury's work is how thoroughly he is a writer of books. His work, while it has been translated to film, doesn't hold up well in the process. It's because people don't really talk the way he writes. His dialogue, if you read it aloud, comes across bombastic and grandiloquent, but when you read it on the page, it is a marvel. Honeyed phrases, sweeter in memory than on the tongue.
He writes the way we all wish we could talk if weren't constantly filled with the fear of sounding foolish. He writes the way we would talk if we could access the wonder of our frozen hearts. He writes the way we all would talk if we felt the pulse in our veins and knew that it was a clock counting the seconds to our death. He writes the way we would talk if we were fully alive.
I hope he recovers. And I hope even more that his work will remain read and vital, so he doesn't suffer the fate of "The Exiles."
BTW, I remember a longish short story (short novella?) of his, about a man risen from the dead trying to bring fear to a cleansed and scientific modern world. It begins something like "He came out of the earth, hating." and it ends with him shoved into a crematorium. I'd like to find the story, I read it over twenty years ago, but it still hangs with me. Anyone remember the title and/or which anthology it is in?
Get well, Mr. Bradbury.
I went and saw Mr. Bradbury speak in Venice, CA about a month ago, and I can only hope that I'm that spry when I get to be his age. He spoke about being pretty poor living in Venice (where he wrote the bulk of The Martian Chronicles) and being "discovered" as a writer due to writing a Melville-ian tale of the Venice roller coaster being torn down.
The moral of his hourlong chat was "do whatver you love to do" and, though that may be pretty basic, is actually very respectful when it's coming out of the mouth of one of your favorite writers. (not to mention, someone whose books are required reading in school--F451).
Get well soon, Ray. Though we may love guys like Stephenson, Gibson, and Sterling a little bit more these days, we still hold the utmost respect for you.
-M242
Wow...
I first heard of Ray Bradbury was from the TV show, where they would do short stories. Most of the episodes were not really SciFi. I liked it so I read a book of short stories by him, and there weren't really a lot of SciFi stories (at least, I wouldn't have known it was SciFi).
I didn't know he was famous for his science fiction.
Bradbury is one of the great writers of our times, and I wish him good health, and god bless him (;). The great thing about his writing is the moral imagination it displays, rather than the cheap meaningless fantasy you see so often.
- "If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything" -Mark Twain
Nah, The Sheep Look Up was much more realistic, much more possible from today's POV, so much more scary. Even Harry Harrisson got a bit dark sometimes, although you might find that hard to believe after reading any of his Stainless Steel Rat series. My reaction to Ray has been mixed - some brilliant, some boring - but a stroke is not a thing to wish on anybody, even less a creative soul like Mr Bradbury.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
I've always wanted to thank Mr. Bradbury for providing us with a book that should be required reading for those wishing to qualify as human - Fahrenheit 451. The edition I have contains a preface by Mr. Bradbury in which he tells the story of discovering a college text book that included the story in an edited form - all uses of profanity were cut! I don't think it gets more ironic than that...
Good luck, Mr. Bradbury, and thank you.
...try being curious. When someone you respect holds an opinion you find troubling or offensive, it usually means you need to take a closer look at your own opinions. Peel back a few layers and see what's really underneath. You may or may not change your mind on the matter, but you'll very likely gain a few insights as to why an idea that seems clearly 'wrong' to you might seem clearly 'right' to another. Mister Bradbury has long ago earned the right to hold and express whatever opinions he desires. It is sad to me how quickly the wisdom of our elders, gained through years of experience, trial and error, is ignored or brushed aside because it does chime in with the latest vogue in Pop Intellectual Chic. It is the duty of all (fiction) writers to speak clearly what they think and feel, regardless of how 'crazy' or unpopular their ideas may seem. When they 'play it safe', 'bite their tounge' and 'toe the line', they might as well roll over and die. Keep breathing, Mister Bradbury, and keep writing/talking/comminicating in whatever way you choose. We're listening. Ganbatte, ne? -kent
I agree; he's one of the writers who's influenced the way I write (when I can get up the courage to write anything but papers these days), along with (don't hate me) E.B. White, Dave Barry, and Garrison Keillor. His prose is haunting; reminds me of Sherwood Anderson, what he called "low fine music" in dialogue...
Analyzing or dissecting what I find enjoyable in literature always gets me down. Sometimes I just want to read it. But sometimes it's fun, just as it was fun to talk about "Dogma" after seeing it, just as I want to understand why I find Bradbury's work interesting now that it might cheer him up when he needs it.
Then again, if I were recovering from a stroke, I might not want to hear/see people looking at my work as though it were a car -- "oh, I admire the way he put that chassis together, real professional job" -- because writing/art is different, it comes from a private place, it's difficult and brave for a person to reveal himself through writing --
So all I'll say is, hope you feel better soon, Mr. Bradbury. Good health and good luck.
Ceterum censeo Microsoftam esse delendam.
Does anyone have an address where we can send get-well-soon cards??
Thanks...
And don't forget Frank Herbert, of Dune fame. Some of his more obscure work like Destination: Void is brilliant in its discussion of Artificial Conciseness.
---
"...silence is a dangerous sound."
While there's still, and always will be, "hard" SF, more and more the field has become "speculative fiction" as opposed to "science fiction". Consider Spider Robinson - he's probably my favorite SF writer of recent times, yet his most popular books deal with a bunch of people in a bar who just happen to have real weird shit happen to them from time to time... although his "harder" books are researched well enough.
That is just a single case, but I believe that it reflects an overall trend.
These are *MY* opinions.
They will not be *YOUR* opinions until the Orbital Mind Control Lasers are operati
Bradbury is one of my heroes, but strictly speaking, there isn't a lot of science in his work (compared to Asimov, Heinlein, or particularly Clarke). I think Bradbury drew very heavily from the legacy of Edgar Allen Poe. Even though Bradbury's tales were often set in futuristic or "Sci-Fi" settings, most of them were centered on the dark side of human psychology.
And Clarke was only slightly later! They had their first short story and novel publications almost simultaneously (Bradbury slightly earlier), although of course Fahrenheit 451 has stood the test of time better than Prelude to Space - both published in 1951. Clarke's first great novel wasn't until 1953 - Childhood's End (or Against the Fall of Night - take your pick).
The real Captain Avatar is a fictional character, so I suppose he doesn't mind if I impersonate him.
So, I have some RB questions for you guys:
- The Martian Chronicles I read was a paperback with some wild line drawing illustrations in it. The cover had one of these line drawings printed on an orange background that was surrounded by a white border. I haven't seen these line drawings in any MC versions that I have run into since, and I would love to get a hold of that version again. Can anyone help me with a publisher/date etc?
- I have a friend who is doing his grad field work in the tropics and is out in the rain every night looking for frogs and lizards. I wanted to get him, as a gift, a copy of the story of the < poor recall> scouting team sent to find out what happened to the colonists on planet insert-name-here. It was always raining on this planet. Raining and raining and raining until people went crazy and committed suicide, and then they would get gobbled up pretty quickly by the incredibly fast-growing plant life <
/poor recall>. Can anyone help me with a story name/collection name so I can get a copy for my friend? Thanks!
RB get well soon!Bradbury is far from being a luddite or technophobe. In the notes found in one of his books he mentions his struggles with a kludgy word processor. Perhaps his statements about computers stem from these painful experiences. I feel his pain.
Once you grow past your techno-centric world view, you will realize there are other things worthy of attention. Bradbury writes about many of them artfully.
thanks for the help q #2. i'm pretty amazed that i received even one response. i figured that i had pretty much relegated myself to "last post."