“I have never listened to anyone who criticized my taste in space travel, sideshows or gorillas. When this occurs, I pack up my dinosaurs and leave the room.” – Ray Bradbury
When Ray Bradbury began writing, fantastic stories were considered junk for children. He disagreed, and he was right, and he proved it.
Much of the writing about him on the internet today calls him a sci-fi writer. But he didn’t like that.
“I’ve written only one book of science fiction,” he said. “All the others are fantasy. Fantasies are things that can’t happen, and science fiction is about things that can happen.”
The book that took place in a world he believed was possible was Fahrenheit 451. Here is a quote from it.
“Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you’re there.
It doesn’t matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that’s like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.”
Let’s raise a glass of dandelion wine to Ray, who died on the night Venus crossed the sun.
Do you have a personal rememberance of Mr. Bradbury? An anecdote? Leave a comment.
I met him once in la in the late 90s I was reading illustrated man in a coffee shop and he walked by.I wasn’t sure it was him but I thought it was and went out to see. When I saw it was I went up and said hello. He was so friendly. He asked me about my class (what I was reading it for) and was sweet. He seemed surprised that he was being read for a sociology class. He was so nice and I am so glad I met him.
Thank you Julie. That sounds like him.
I was lucky enough to be a part of the Ray Bradbury Pandemonium Theater Company for two of their productions in 2005. My fondest memories of that time where the nights he would come to introduce the play. Peeking from behind the black curtains into the audience of the small theater, I would listen to his anecdotal recollection of a Hollywood that existed when he was just young man. Meeting the man and hearing him speak was very inspiring!