Ray Bradbury passed away this morning. He was 91.
Article here (http://io9.com/5916175/rip-ray-bradbury-author-of-fahrenheit-451-and-the-martian-chronicles)
This was a sad day for those who enjoyed well-written genre fiction. It a true loss.
R.I.P. I would go so far as to say that FR would not be here today without Ray Bradbury....at least he has affected a lot of our interactions whether we know it or not.
I can remember reading his stuff when I was a teen, nearly fourty years ago.... my how time flows by.
Sad news.
Dana
So just wanted to add: Next In Line f'ing traumatized me as a youngster. It takes place in my native Mexico, and involves the Guanajuato Mummies (corpses preserved by the composition of Guanajuato soil). A tourist slowly becomes obsessed with them, thinking that something awful will happen to her while she is in Guanajuato and her husband will bury her in that soil and she will become one of them. It is paranoid, claustrophobic, the story slowly smothers the reader as you watch the main characters nerves and health fail. Man...
Other than that, amazing science fiction writer as well.
Hmm, I missed this. I'm deeply saddened by his death. Ray Bradbury is the reason I became an English major, pursued my education in literature, and his work lies behind a great deal of my teaching, at least in one important way. When I was a kid I read Fahrenheit 451, and for the very first time I was struck with the idea that the books I devoured were important, not just fun or interesting, but vitally, crucially necessary to the health of our culture, our very soul. Rest in peace sir, and thank you for showing an idealistic young man what was important in a world full of competing ideas.