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Ray Bradbury... Man... I just. Ok, Ray Bradbury was an author, poet, playright, visionary... See here is the thing, there is nothing to say abut this man that is not in his books, what the hell is the point. There are certain people that have been in this world to which all other people after spring, and if anyone fits the bill for sci fi writers or readers it was this guy.
He is also his books, as in his life is his book. He has an origin story, really, an origin story right out of a marvel one off where he met a carney by the name of Mr. Electro, and after a performance he touched Mr. Bradbury with a sword and said, "Live forever!" And then Mr. Bradbury started writing every day like a boss.
A while ago a game guy had stuff to say about Neil Stephenson and China Mieville as far as what they placed upon the science fiction altar, as in not much of anything good, and I only kind of agreed with him. But now after this loss its kind of apparent that the current top of the craft mostly miss the mark on what the Asimov, Bradbury and Vonnegut generation did best.
The guys today seem to focus on the sights and sounds and things to be done in the future, but the guys of that age were almost monastically centered on who the human race would be when we got there. Be it filled with one newfangled invention or idea or a sprawling utopia, you always closed their books feeling one way or another about the future people you met and less the future industry they painted.
Not so much of that these days, and maybe that's because we are constantly inundated with new versions of the future in the present, smart phones, wide webs, face chat, bar codes. The shit gets to be a lot, enough to make you want to put it all down for a while and take a breath.
Then for enjoyment we are supposed to pick up these books that read like Biff Tannen's skymall almanac, only promising more stuff to put on vibrate. Not a very escapey escape, much less a thing to hold your breath for. Anyway, thanks for everything Mr. Bradbury.
The Protoculture Mixtape v.85 Issue : Games : The Pedestrian
