R.I.P. Ray Bradbury

June 6, 2012, 8:33 am
Filed under: Uncategorized

Ray Bradbury, the beloved
author of s.f. classics Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian
Chronicles, died in Los Angeles this morning. He was 91.

Via io9.com, a statement from his grandson, Danny
Karapetian:

“If I had to make any statement, it would be how much I love and
miss him, and I look forward to hearing everyone’s memories about
him. He influenced so many artists, writers, teachers, scientists,
and it’s always really touching and comforting to hear their
stories. Your stories. His legacy lives on in his monumental body
of books, film, television and theater, but more importantly, in
the minds and hearts of anyone who read him, because to read him
was to know him. He was the biggest kid I know.”

Here’s a 2010
interview in which Bradbury declares that, “There is too much
government today,” and also calls for a dramatically expanded space
program.
I’ve read too few Bradbury books, but for a long time I
considered Fahrenheit 451 my favorite novel, for its quiet
literary stylishness, its powerful anti-totalitarianism, its
celebration of words and ideas—and its insistence that even under
the grimmest conditions and strictest censorship, those ideas can
be worth living for. The world is a better place because of
Bradbury’s life, and poorer now that he’s gone. Rest in
peace.
Reason on Ray Bradbury
here.