Ray Bradbury And Other Sci Fi Favorites

#SOL15

"Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories." - Ray Bradbury

It took me a long time to realize just how much I love science fiction. Actually, it took me years. I have never been a fan of the fantasy genre, and if you ask me, fantasy and science fiction are completely different. I'm serious.

Today I was subbing a 7th grade English class and we began discussing science fiction. Their assignment today was to read a short story by one of my favorite sci fi authors, Ray Bradbury. This story is titled, JANUARY, 1999, ROCKET SUMMER. Anyway, as we are discussing material leading up to the reading, I start telling the class how much I love Bradbury. I talk about my love for his abundant use of figurative language and how much his futuristic writing was way ahead of his time. I started to recall a great short story about a house that runs all on its own technology. I hadn't thought about this story in years, but as I'm talking about it, a lot of the kids became really interested. I couldn't for the life of me remember the name, but I kept saying it was written by Asimov. I won't give you any insight to the story because I'd love for you to read it on your own. It's brilliant. I promised some students I'd look up the name during a free period. Well, I forgot.

I remembered at the end of the day as I was walking out to my car. A girl from the class was walking with her mother on the sidewalk next to me.

"Mrs. Narvesen, did you remember to look up the title of the short story from this morning?" Damn. I had completely forgotten.

"No, I'm sorry. I got sidetracked. I promise I'll try and look for it tonight and let you know tomorrow," I said as I wracked my brain trying to come up with the title. I couldn't remember at all.

"Okay, because that story sounded really cool." Really? Wow. Not only had she actually been listening to me, but here is a student who is generally interested in the material and what I had to say. I must admit it felt really good knowing my story and lesson from this morning had resonated with someone. As it turns out, I was wrong about Asimov being the author when it was indeed another Bradbury gem. So if you have a minute, please read one of my favorite pieces about futuristic technology, THERE WILL COME SOFT RAINS by Ray Bradbury.

Ray Bradbury