thepenguinpress:

“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.”

Rest in peace, Ray Bradbury.

I cannot express in enough words how this makes me feel. It is like one of my best friends is gone, and yet I know he is an author I’ve never known and this is a late night tumblr post almost nobody will read.

Fahrenheit 451 changed not only my opinion on what literature was “right” for a young woman, but it sparked my interest in oppression, complacency, social norms, censorship, and thus: social justice. Later it became a staple for my interest in education and my (continuing) fight with blanket standardization (the connections are personal, and complex, but it relates to my education in multiple states and different levels at which his work was taught). When my brother presented me with a first edition, signed, print of Fahrenheit 451 as my college graduation present, I was so deeply moved by the gesture and connection to this part of my youth, and his recognizing it, that it reinvigorated my interest in value and object theory and set me on two more years work in that field.

I am so grateful for his writing and how it’s shaped me as a woman, a scholar, and a science fiction reader.

Thank you for writing a book that changed my life and a collection that continues to invigorate it, Mr. Ray Bradbury.