dagblog - Comments for "Ray Bradbury Is Dead, Alas"

I'm not much of a Bradbury

PeraclesPlease — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 19:56:07 +0000

I'm not much of a Bradbury fan, but he seems alright, seems to have a sense of humor and some interesting takes. Would read Jerzy Kosinski over him any day, but that's neither here nor there.

Here's the Paris Review interview. http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6012/the-art-of-fiction-no-203-ray-bradbury

I think the thing about Vonnegut was Vonnegut didn't like him - sounded a bit like an East Coast/West Coast thing, and Bradbury had more of the uncluttered beach & sky California feel. (perhaps a bit like Steinbeck in that way)

Maybe Bradbury was a snob, but in that interview, he seems to be enthusiastic, likes a lot of people, have some interesting insights into what he doesn't like or just what he's never gotten into. I like his comment about math. It is funny that even when teaching kids foreign languages we have an obsession about teaching them numbers first.

That Gaurdian article is a

A Guy Called LULU — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 16:47:11 +0000

In reply to Neil Gaiman Last week, at

That Gaurdian article is a fine tribute.

A Ray Bradbury story meant something on its own -

I agree completely and am not locked into my impression of the person based on one thing I listened to. I am glad to hear that those close to him were inspired by both his work and his character. Jerzy Kosinski was strongly criticized by some and I am not in a position to rate the validity of those criticisms either, but his art stands on its own.

As to writing, I cannot even get my metaphors straight, I referred to myself as 'kettle' when I was playing the roll of 'pot'.

Neil Gaiman Last week, at

Donal — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 16:09:52 +0000

In reply to Dandelion Wine is one of my

Neil Gaiman

Last week, at dinner, a friend told me that when he was a boy of 11 or 12 he met Ray Bradbury. When Bradbury found out that he wanted to be a writer, he invited him to his office and spent half a day telling him the important stuff: if you want to be a writer, you have to write. Every day. Whether you feel like it or not. That you can't write one book and stop. That it's work, but the best kind of work. My friend grew up to be a writer, the kind who writes and supports himself through writing.

Ray Bradbury was the kind of person who would give half a day to a kid who wanted to be a writer when he grew up.

The Painted Bird is just

Michael Maiello — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 15:30:15 +0000

In reply to Dandelion Wine is one of my

The Painted Bird is just devastating.

It seemed to me, from a recent Paris Review interview, that Bradbury's take on other writers is that he tended not to read them (especially younger science fiction writers) and that he took an uncharitable view of Vonnegut. Heck, some people are just wrong sometimes!

Dandelion Wine is one of my

A Guy Called LULU — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 15:20:32 +0000

In reply to It would be nice if all

Dandelion Wine is one of my all time favorites but the author, not so much. My opinion comes from a single live interview I heard some years ago. Too long to remember specifics but he seemed, to me, to be a pompous ass. He held much of our culture in deep disdain, call me a kettle, and had scathing opinion of just about any other writer's work. Some he was particularly disdainful of and then admitted he had never read.
Dandelion Wine, though, is a story that will always stay with me as an idyllic remembrance of childhood. I may read it again. Another story which is the polar opposite of a childhood that was anything and everything other that idyllic but which will also always stay with me is Jerzy Kosinski's Painted Bird. I may read it again too. Or, I may just watch the NBA finals and read some insightful [incite-full?] critiques of our two wonderful Presidential candidates.

Probably worth noting that

Michael Maiello — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 13:56:09 +0000

In reply to It would be nice if all

Probably worth noting that Robert Heinlein, a pretty staunch libertarian, was one of Bradbury's mentors and that when Bradbury was coming up, writing for the sci-fi pulps, that the whole genre attracted a slew of very individualist-oriented folks. Of course, it also attracted Isaac Asimov, as classical a lefty as they come. But, you know, I can see the appeal of libertarianism to the mind of somebody who might imagine building a rocket ship or time machine in one's basement. Science fiction is, so often, a celebration of individual ingenuity.

I See You Never

Donal — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 13:27:49 +0000

In reply to Ray Bradbury Is Dead, Alas

I See You Never

It would be nice if all

Donal — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 12:16:15 +0000

In reply to Ray Bradbury, Tea Party

It would be nice if all talented people agreed with my political views.

"I'm a man conservative

MrSmith1 — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 08:39:38 +0000

In reply to Ray Bradbury, Tea Party

"I'm a ~~man~~ conservative ..."

"Well, nobody's perfect."

Ray Bradbury, Tea Party

artappraiser — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 07:30:36 +0000

In reply to Ray Bradbury Is Dead, Alas

Ray Bradbury, Tea Party Icon
By Jeremy Stahl, Slate, June 6, 2012

[....] It’s probably worth noting that Bradbury himself was a staunch conservative in his final years. In fact, he would have made for a great Tea Party icon.

“President Reagan was our greatest president. He lowered the taxes and he gave the money back to the people,” Bradbury told a Comic-Con panel in 2010. “The next election, [the] November [2010 midterms], and two years from now, we’ll take the government back and give it to the people.”

At one point or another, Bradbury called former NRA president Charlton Heston an “intellectual,” and Bill Clinton a “shithead,” and Michael Moore a “screwed a–hole.” Shortly before 9/11, he said President Bush was “wonderful” and that the country “needed him.”

Prior to the 2010 midterms he even used the inflammatory language of the Tea Party in calling for a new American revolution. “I hope that sometime this fall, we can destroy part of our government, and next year destroy even more of it,” Bradbury said in one of his final interviews with Time magazine [....]

dagblog - Comments for "Ray Bradbury Is Dead, Alas"

I'm not much of a Bradbury

That Gaurdian article is a

Neil Gaiman Last week, at

The Painted Bird is just

Dandelion Wine is one of my

Probably worth noting that

I See You Never

It would be nice if all

"I'm a ​man​ conservative

Ray Bradbury, Tea Party

"I'm a man conservative