selenak

I came upon across my first Bradbury book in the most atypical way possble: not as a child or a teenager, but as an adult, and not upon one of his sci fi classics, but Green Shadows, White Whale, his novelistic and hilarious account of working for John Huston as a scriptwriter for Moby Dick in Ireland. (The title itself is a play on White Hunter, Black Heart, which was an earlier roman à clef Peter Viertel wrote about Huston after working for him as a scriptwriter for African Queen. In conclusion, Huston = sadistic muse for frustrated scriptwriters, clearly. ) I knew Bradbury was a famous sci fi writer but, as mentioned, had not read anyting of him until that point, but the idea of sci fi meeting Moby Dick and John Huston made me curious, so I bought the book. Which I can still highly reccommend, btw. One highlight is a fictional appearance by George Bernard Shaw. In a pub. Now that's Blarney for you!

Anyway, afterwards I read up on the books Bradbury is actually famous for, and people far more eloquent than I have praised them, justly. One of my favourite Bradbury quotes is this: "My stories run up and bite me in the leg — I respond by writing down everything that goes on during the bite. When I finish, the idea lets go and runs off." Peace, good sir. I'm glad we had you with us for 90 plus years.

Neil Gaiman about Ray Bradbury. And also, with a different text, here.

And under an lj cut to protect the under age innocent, a tribute in song from 2010 by Rachel Bloom, which the great man himself found immensely amusing, which it is, and thus suitable for a humorist.

( Not safe for work vid beneath cut )