Wednesday, June 6, 2012

GIVE A MAN A FEW LINES OF VERSE AND HE THINKS HE'S LORD OF ALL CREATION: Ray Bradbury died this morning at 91. I am -- unapologetically -- a plot guy. Good prose is fine and all (and bad writing can get in the way), but if there's not a plot with good guys and bad guys and things at stake, I mostly don't care to read fiction (in which case, I'll stick with history with good guys and bad guys and things at stake). And while that remains true, that's all I ever thought there was to reading until I was about 11 and read Fahrenheit 451 (firemen who burn books!?) and soon most everything else Bradbury ever wrote and realized words were important -- and fun -- entirely for their own sake.
There was a silly damn bird called a Phoenix back before Christ: every few hundred years he built a pyre and burned himself up. He must have been first cousin to Man. But every time he burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again. And it looks like we're doing the same thing, over and over, but we've got one damn thing the Phoenix never had. We know the damn silly thing we just did. We know all the damn silly things we've done for a thousand years, and as long as we know that and always have it around where we can see it, some day we'll stop making the goddam funeral pyres and jumping into the middle of them. We pick up a few more people that remember, every generation.
Also, Fuck me.

17 comments:

  1. Marsha10:43 AM

    Ray Bradbury wrote some of the best short stories I've ever read. "All Summer in a Day" has stuck with me from my very first reading of it - the unimaginable cruelty that children are capable of, the deep sadness that comes from missing out on something you've desperately looked forward to, the smell of jealousy. I have similarly vivid memories of "The Veldt" and "There Will Come Soft Rains."

    RIP, Mr. Bradbury, and thanks.

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  2. Benner10:47 AM

    The friends speak my mind.  The Veldt was not just compelling but prescient.  

    I must confess to having a case of premorse here.  (totally inappropriate, but did we ever come up with a term for people you think are dead but are actually alive.  For some reason, I thought Neil Armstrong died of cancer in the '80s, which is evidently not the case.)

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  3. In Sunday's NYT Mag, Lizzie Skurnick recommended "pleasurrection."

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  4. Marsha10:55 AM

    Cute, but that's far too entendrish for something about not-dead-yet people.

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  5. Of Bradbury's works, I only read (but enjoyed) The Martian Chronicles.  I must have been in middle school, over 25 years ago.  The twist in the final story involves a concept that has stayed with me.  I don't want to say anything more for fear of spoiling.

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  6. The Pathetic Earthling10:58 AM

    Depends on how you feel about that person, I think.

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  7. isaac_spaceman11:28 AM

    Yeah, I haven't read Bradbury since I was in the fifth grade, but there was about a month when I read nothing but.  We had a remaindered boxed set of Bradbury, the covers all torn off.  The Illustrated Man was the one that got me, I think. 

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  8. <span>An old paperback copy of "'R' is for 'Rocket'" that my father was curating in the basement back in 1981 or '82 is probably responsible for my love of fantasy writing and short-fiction in general.   
     
    So much sci-fi and fantasy lacks his profound concern with the emotional life of his characters, his dedication to making their inner selves sympathetic and comprehensible, universalizable and real.  I cannot buy a new pair of sneakers without thinking of "Dandelion Wine" -- a book I have not read in 25 years.   
     
    Bradbury casts an enormous shadow and will live on as one of the primary engines of our popular imagination.</span>

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  9. I had the pleasure of meeting and working with Ray Bradbury a handful of times. He used to do a book signing at the store I used to work at every year on Halloween at noon. The first time I worked that event, we also had about 200 "pre-solds" -- books that people who were unable to attend had requested be signed and paid for in advance. After several hours of signing for people in attendance, Mr. Bradbury was too tired to sign the pre-solds and said, "Why don't you come over to my house tomorrow and I will sign them there?" The next day I got to drive boxloads of books to his home and sit in his living room as he signed and chatted with me. A truly remarkable experience, and one that showed his generosity to his fans.

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  10. Also, Bradbury wrote about what inspired him to write science fiction in the most recent New Yorker issue: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/06/04/120604fa_fact_bradbury

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  11. Anonymous3:37 PM

    Earlier, I thought it was really fitting that Bradbury passed away during the (two-week) shelf life of the New Yorker's first-ever science fiction issue.  

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  12. Can I just add, that video is brilliant.

    RIP

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  13. Andrea6:05 PM

    Reading the New Yorker overrode my premorse.  Now I am sad all over again.

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  14. isaac_spaceman6:28 PM

    I thought you were going to say that he just asked you to sign them for him. 

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  15. Joseph Finn6:50 PM

    And nominated for a Hugo for Short Dramatic Presentation!  No, really!

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  16. Lou W8:39 AM

    "All Summer in a Day." I think about it once every month or two when talking to my elementary age children. It's a reminder to me that sometimes, although rarely, it is possible for even little kids to be mean enough to really screw up a classmate.

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  17. "All Summer in a Day" was the first that came to me, too.  I've never forgotten it - it's just incredibly heartbreaking.

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