It's been very quiet around here lately. Anyone got anything new to report or discuss or ask about?

My last few visits have been spent deleting the spam, which threatens to take over. Like Japanese Knotweed. Snip snip and its gone, but go away for a few days and it grows again.

This is new, sorta. http://www.broadwayworld.com/b...-Cyberspace-20140113

quote:

Originally posted by dandelion:
This is new, sorta...

Yes, it is. I was going to post that today, but you beat me to it. For anyone who hasn't clicked on the link, it's a video of Ray speaking directly to camera about his vision of the future. Most of it is quite familiar, but what I like about it particularly is that he re-tells the story of "The Toynbee Convector" and quite explicitly identifies himself with the time-traveller of the story. It's always been quite obvious that the story was a metaphor for Ray's optimistic outlook, but he didn't often make this association so clearly.

Notice that Ray is once again clearly asked to speak from the perspective of a science fiction writer, and that he is happy to wear the mantle.

I think he was comfortable with this position from the beginning of the space age (i.e. post-Sputnik). There are articles he wrote for newspapers around this time where he proudly declares how SF has been validated.

If he was ever hostile to the label, it was in his earlier career when he was trying to shake off the "stigma" of being a pulp writer when trying to break into the "slicks" and into book publication.

Dear Phil and Friends,

Have any new Bradbury products been released recently? These would include books, cd's, videos, and other related items. Is there anything new on the horizon for 2014?

Thanks to all who respond.

Hi greenray,

I can't think of any new products BY Bradbury right now, but there are more books ABOUT Bradbury in the works:

Jon Eller's sequel to BECOMING RAY BRADBURY

COMPLETE STORIES Vol. 2

...and very recently there have been further academic studies of different aspects of Bradbury's work:

ORBITING RAY BRADBURY'S MARS ed. by Gloria McMillan

CRITICAL INSIGHTS: FAHRENHEIT 451 ed. by Rafeeq McGiveron

LORD DUNSANY, H.P.LOVECRAFT, AND RAY BRADBURY: SPECTRAL JOURNEYS by Bill Touponce

A good way to keep up to date on this kind of thing is to check my blog periodically (web link below). I don't post as often as I would like, but I always post news of new publications.

Dear Phil,

Thanks for the updates. I will look forward to the first two items you listed. It seems that any new Bradbury release will generate new posts.

To All:

This forum needs a "like" button and a system for awarding points to posts. If these changes could be implemented without losing any of the present content, I would be all for it!

I like the idea of a "like" button.