rose_cat: (books)
rose_cat ([personal profile] rose_cat) wrote2012-06-08 03:19 am

A few thoughts on the late, great Ray Bradbury, 1920 - 2012.

If we listened to our intellect we'd never have a love affair. We'd never have a friendship. We'd never go in business because we'd be cynical: "It's gonna go wrong." Or "She's going to hurt me." Or,"I've had a couple of bad love affairs, so therefore . . ." Well, that's nonsense. You're going to miss life. You've got to jump off the cliff all the time and build your wings on the way down.
― Ray Bradbury



Many years ago, I was sitting on the stone steps of a staircase in the house I grew up in, surrounded by bookcases. I spent a lot of time in that stairwell, and in other out-of-the-way places, quietly reading. I was working my way through my father’s collection of issues of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. In the 1954 issue, I came across the short story “All Summer in a Day,” by Ray Bradbury.


It had been raining for seven years; thousand upon thousands of days compounded and filled from one end to the other with rain, with the drum and gush of water, with the sweet crystal fall of showers and the concussion of storms so heavy they were tidal waves come over the islands. -- "All Summer in a Day"


The haunting and beautiful story, of a lonely girl who’s moved from the Earth, where she grew up, to a colony on another planet, and is ostracized and bullied by her classmates for being different, resonated deeply with me and still does.


Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.
― Ray Bradbury



More quotes from the extremely quotable Ray Bradbury than you’ll ever know what to do with.


And then there’s this, which is NEITHER WORK- NOR CHILD-SAFE. (You have been warned.)
Rachel Bloom’s, err, tribute video.

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