Goodbye, Ray

Ray Bradbury, last of the giants, has died.

John Scalzi has a wonderful tribute.

Neil Gaiman writes in memoriam Ray Bradbury.

And a nice obit in the Guardian, too.

A few quotes:

"I don't try to describe the future. I try to prevent it."

"We are the miracle of force and matter making itself over into imagination and will. Incredible. The Life Force experimenting with forms. You for one. Me for another. The Universe has shouted itself alive. We are one of the shouts."

"First of all, I don't write science fiction. I've only done one science fiction book and that's Fahrenheit 451, based on reality. Science fiction is a depiction of the real. Fantasy is a depiction of the unreal. So Martian Chronicles is not science fiction, it's fantasy. It couldn't happen, you see? That's the reason it's going to be around a long time—because it's a Greek myth, and myths have staying power."

"Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future."

And here is a poem he wrote, "Remembrance", which begins:


And this is where we went, I thought,
Now here, now there, upon the grass
Some forty years ago.
I had returned and walked along the streets
And saw the house where I was born
And grown and had my endless days.
The days being short now, simply I had come
To gaze and look and stare upon
The thought of that once endless maze of afternoons.


The Illustrated Man, The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451, Dandelion Wine, and (my favorite) Something Wicked This Way Comes, and all those wonderful short stories. He was indeed a treasure, and he will be missed.

(edited to add later pieces)