Goodbye, Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury, author, Illinois native, and subject of Becoming Ray Bradbury, has died. Jonathan Eller, his biographer, had this to say about him in an article last year in New Scientist:

“RAY BRADBURY, the science fiction and fantasy author behind such classics as Fahrenheit 451, infamously claims to remember the details of his own birth. In 1920, he was born into an era of rapid scientific discovery – the advances of which inspired his long and fruitful writing career.”

Coincidentally, yesterday I was forwarded this article. It includes answers Bradbury sent to a young student asking questions about “New Criticism,”

“During a lifetime, one saves up information which collects itself around centers in the mind; these automatically become symbols on a subliminal level, and need only be summoned forth in the heat of writing. . . . I trust my subconscious implicitly. It is my good pet. I try to keep it well fed with information through all my senses, but never look directly at it.”