On June 5th of this year, an amazing man passed away at the age of 91. His name was Ray Bradbury. Ray had been a prolific writer for seventy years and he had no intentions of letting up. When he was a young boy in 1932, he took a trip to a carnival where he saw the magician Mr. Electrico. At the end of his performance, Mr. Electrico touched Ray with his sword like a king at a knighting ceremony and said "Live Forever." Ray remembered thinking, "That sounds like a good idea" and he went home and started writing every day.
Ray's influences became quite diverse and they started showing up more and more in his stories. When everything Ray has done has been tallied up, he has written mainly science fiction, fantasy, horror and mysteries. However, within those few genres he has written hundreds of short stories, nearly 50 books, a lot of poetry and essays, and scripts for operas, theater, television, and films. These included sixty-five of his stories that he adapted into teleplays for his Ray Bradbury Theater. The total number of works is impressively over 500. The number of awards that he received over the course of his life is deserving to say the least. Book awards obviously, but he also won an Emmy, was nominated for an Oscar, and he received The National Medal of Arts, which all provides credence to my claim that he was one of the best writers ever to put pen to paper. Actually he used a typewriter, but you get my point!
Some of his most important work was fairly early in his career and thoroughly groundbreaking. His dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 was given to much interpretation. Ray said it wasn't about censorship but rather about society leaving real literature behind and becoming a factoid and television culture that has little truth and no context. They give up complete books for snippets of information and entertainment, which is very much what the world has become. From this book sprang my favorite quote of Ray's. "You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them." As far as his other work is concerned, I would really just be giving you a list and synopsis of fantastic stories and plays like Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Martian Chronicles, et al. What you should know about Ray was he was genuine, honest and, from what people have said, quite lovable. He once said that he never had a depressing day in his life simply because he knew that he was alive. While I can't say the same thing, I strive to be more like Ray in that respect, as well as being a daily writer. If you haven't read any of his books, you should give at least one a try. And if you don't like it, then at least read about him and see what kind of person he was. He is truly an example of a good life. Through his work, he will surely Live Forever.
Go discover Ray's work. http://www.raybradbury.com/
Ray's influences became quite diverse and they started showing up more and more in his stories. When everything Ray has done has been tallied up, he has written mainly science fiction, fantasy, horror and mysteries. However, within those few genres he has written hundreds of short stories, nearly 50 books, a lot of poetry and essays, and scripts for operas, theater, television, and films. These included sixty-five of his stories that he adapted into teleplays for his Ray Bradbury Theater. The total number of works is impressively over 500. The number of awards that he received over the course of his life is deserving to say the least. Book awards obviously, but he also won an Emmy, was nominated for an Oscar, and he received The National Medal of Arts, which all provides credence to my claim that he was one of the best writers ever to put pen to paper. Actually he used a typewriter, but you get my point!
Some of his most important work was fairly early in his career and thoroughly groundbreaking. His dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 was given to much interpretation. Ray said it wasn't about censorship but rather about society leaving real literature behind and becoming a factoid and television culture that has little truth and no context. They give up complete books for snippets of information and entertainment, which is very much what the world has become. From this book sprang my favorite quote of Ray's. "You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them." As far as his other work is concerned, I would really just be giving you a list and synopsis of fantastic stories and plays like Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Martian Chronicles, et al. What you should know about Ray was he was genuine, honest and, from what people have said, quite lovable. He once said that he never had a depressing day in his life simply because he knew that he was alive. While I can't say the same thing, I strive to be more like Ray in that respect, as well as being a daily writer. If you haven't read any of his books, you should give at least one a try. And if you don't like it, then at least read about him and see what kind of person he was. He is truly an example of a good life. Through his work, he will surely Live Forever.
Go discover Ray's work. http://www.raybradbury.com/
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