Ray Bradbury

I just happen to be reading a collection of short stories by Ray Bradbury - The Day it Rained Forever.

It's a book I've read many times before, and each time I read it I'm enthralled by the poetry of it all.

Funny old thing you know, but when Jeffrey Archer pops his clogs, or Jackie Colling shuffles off this mortal coil, I doubt if many of the people I know will care too much. So what is it about the passing of Sci Fi authors that leaves such an impression?

You see, I was also moved by news of the death of Kurt Vonnegut, and Arthur C Clarke, and Isaac Asimov, and to a lesser extent, Robert Heinlein, although politically I was miles away from Heinlein.

All of them seemed to me to be committed humanists. Vonnegut, Clarke, Asimov and Heinlein overtly, Bradbury more subtly.  I'm told that the Martian Chronicles are a metaphor for the European displacement of indiginous Americans.

Like Vonnegut, Bradbury's work contained few outright villains. Even characters like Captain Beatty were emotionally and morally complex.

Anyway, I was looking online for some kind of recording of a Mark Radcliffe session. This featured Frank Black, and he was reading exerpts from the Martian Chronicles.

Can't find it anywhere unfortunately.

Anyway,. Ray Bradbury was one of the true giants of 20th century literature, regardless of genre.

RIP.

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