Ray Bradbury, author of such classics as Fahrenheit 451, has passed away at the age of 91, reports io9. I’ll always remember the first time I read The Veldt (PDF), and being scared out of my adolescent mind.
Ray Bradbury Passes Away
Writing-Dude-in-Nature Territory
“In Pond, Claire-Louise Bennett stomps all over writing-dude-in-nature territory with her poetic unraveling of Thoreau’s wilderness jaunt.” A. N. Devers on Bennett’s celebrated new collection.
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Dear Sirs, I Do Enjoy This
Brontë-inspired short fiction courtesy of Rachel Cantor? Sure, why not. (For background, you might want to read our own Edan Lepucki’s takedown of the love interest in Jane Eyre.)
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The Visible Man Trailer
The book trailer for Chuck Klosterman‘s The Visible Man is intense.
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New Books and Great Movies
Now that the summer blockbusters are winding now, we can all focus on book-to-film adaptations. Kirkus Reviews has a list of new books that would make for great movies, some of which, like Christopher Beha‘s Arts & Entertainments, The Millions has reviewed. Pair with our dream casting of a film version of The Goldfinch.
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I’m sorry Shakespeare I am for real
Who has a bigger vocabulary: Shakespeare or André 3000? It’s actually Outkast. Data scientist Matt Daniels created an infographic that charts 85 rappers’ unique vocabulary in their first 35,000 lyrics. Outkast uses 5,212 unique words; whereas, Shakespeare only uses 5,170. But Aesop Rock beats the Bard by more than 2,000 words with a count of 7,392 unique words.
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All In The Family
“It will be as long as a book, about 65,000 words. I’m writing my story, weaving together what life is like for LGBT people in Oklahoma and my story of growing up there as well.” Starting this week, Oral Roberts’ grandson, Randy Roberts Potts, is publishing his memoir on Instagram. The Bible Went Down with Birdie Jean takes the form of 300 individual posts, and tells the story of Potts’ rejection from his family alongside interviews with LGBT students at Oral Roberts University. Earlier this year we also considered what might make the Next Great Gay Novel.
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Tuesday New Release Day: Butler; Lurie; Jemc; Steinke; Jacobson; Rosner; Grannec; Beckett; Oliver
New this week: 300,000,000 by Blake Butler; Quick Kills by Lynn Lurie; A Different Bed Every Time by Jac Jemc; Sister Golden Hair by Darcey Steinke; J by Howard Jacobson; Electric City by Elizabeth Rosner; The Goddess of Small Victories by Yannick Grannec; The Letters of Samuel Beckett; Volume 3; and Blue Horses by Mary Oliver. For more on these and other new titles, check out our Great Second-half 2014 Book Preview.
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THE VELDT got me too. And “Fahrenheit 451” is my shorthand for all the literary scariness these days.
“There Will Come Soft Rains” makes me even sadder now…
As he was for many people, Bradbury was one of the most important literary bridges from kid’s lit to adult fiction for me. (And I suppose Rachel Bloom put a new spin on Bradbury as “adult” fiction with her song.) It was an easy journey from things like “R is for Rocket” and “S is for Space” to “The Martian Chronicles” and then to more challenging work. For me, the book that kept me up at night was “Something Wicked This Way Comes” and who can forget his terrific treatment of bullying, “All Summer in a Day,” which yesterday’s transit of Venus made me think of. And I agree with Evelyn Walsh: “Fahrenheit 451” is a eerie echo of so many aspects of our culture . . . written sixty years ago.