Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Max Headroom and Ray Bradbury get it right

Next Sunday, August 22, is Ray Bradbury's 90th Birthday. Few science fiction authors have contributed as much to the genre, or for as long. His contributions have impacted a wide audience between his books and TV series.

UCLA posted A Bruin Birthday Tribute to Ray Bradbury this week.

Farenheit 451 reaches many students, as it is so often chosen for required reading. He makes us think and challenges us to fight for our right to information.

Yale National Institute, today, posted a paper on the subject by Elouise E. White-Beck. Our Right to Read, to Learn, and to Think: Ray Bradbury's Prediction

And here's his take on the dangers of technology from Ray Bradbury Theater.



And somewhat less academic, but nevertheless entertaining, is an article at I09 on the various ways in which one of my all-time favorite Brit shows, Max Headroom, predicted the future (our now) accurately. Max Headroom predicted my job, 20 years before it existed

If you haven't been following me long, perhaps you haven't heard me urge everyone to give Max Headroom a go. For those who have, forgive the repitition. But I LOVE that Max. There are some great clips in that I09 article.

On my own writing front, I received another lovely rejection today. The blow, however, was softened by the arrival of an ARC of the final book in the Void series, The Evolutionary Void, by Peter Hamilton. I've already dived in.

I also had the unique opportunity this week to meet a distant cousin for the first time face to face and introduce her to my 88-year-old Great Aunt who's visiting from Arkansas. They are first cousins once removed from the Younger branch of the family. Remember the Younger Brothers? The bank and train robbers who rode with Jesse James? They're distant cousins, too. Actually, it was really the Younger gang before Jesse came along. But people remember Jesse.

It's tidbits like that that make genealogy interesting. And I friended a fellow Fowler (Grandpa's side) who is also a fellow Every Day Fiction author just this week on Blog Catalog. Good stuff. Check out In medias res.

There are some interesting stories behind those genealogy names and dates. Perhaps they'll show up in my sci-fi one day (the names changed to protect the criminals, of course :).


vote it up!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the kind link! I was blessed to see Mr. Bradbury in the flesh last fall at a local library, and it was an experience I'll never forget. I blogged about it here: http://www.milo-inmediasres.com/2009/11/icon.html

M Pax said...

I love Bradbury's books. I've read them all. He is definitely one of my writing inspirations.