The Illustrated Man

Character on the Stillwater tour bus in the film Almost Famous reading it reminded me that I had read in my youth and recall liking it a heck of a lot. How come I never read Fahrenheit 451?

Summary: This collection of science-fiction short stories gives several different pictures of what the future might look like. In these stories, people have mastered the art of space travel, sometimes with disastrous consequences.

You wouldn't really guess this collection of short stories was published in 1951. Some were very creepy, some I got a little lost, but mostly they were just creepy and entertaining. The Long Rain, made my skin crawl. The Exiles and No Particular Night or Morning were tense and strangely fun and Zero Hour was the worst because kids are always ghoulish. I could have read an entire novel about the Illustrated Man. I do wish there was more of him.

All in all, unexpectedly wonderful.

A great collection of short stories. Very consistent. A wealth of great science fiction is encapsulated in here. I really enjoyed the literary device used to connect each of these stories together that being the titular “Illustrated Man.”

I read a couple of short stories from this one in the past when I hadn't known it was all part of one compilation. In a very interesting way, Bradbury mixes in various themes like racism, cloning/robotics, domesticity, religion etc. with sci-fi and has achieved quite amazing results. I loved the idea behind the illustrated man having each illustration come to life and those being the very tales we read. I loved the way each individual story connected with the whole bigger picture and how they connect us, readers, with something familiar yet unfamiliar. I believe there's a certain depth given to each story, much to ponder upon despite it being written in the 1950s. Each unique story transported me somewhere and gave me perspectives that I wouldn't have been able to conjure up otherwise.

I haven't read all the short stories yet

Prologue: Oooh I like that this first story is the frame of the entire book! Such a neat idea! I wonder if the illustrated man is going to find the witch at the end of the book, or if something is going to happen once the narrator reads all the stories. The Illustrated Man warned him to turn away and not look....

Kaleidoscope: what do we become when we are about to die? A long and extended fall. The regrets and jealousy, the sense of peace, the amazement about the space around. I guess their deaths were indeed reflected in their lives...

The Veldt: oh my. I had to re-read the ending to make sure I understood. The nursery devoured the parents, right? And the kids knew it and watched it happen. And when Mr McClean came back, the lions had already finished eating. But what about the other screams, the chewed wallet and scarfs? What is their own screams, other versions of themselves? Rehearsal? I don't think it was other people, as they didn't seem to have guests over the house, and these items belonged to the parents. Such a strange and interesting story. Bradbury is really better at short stories than novels!

No Particular Night or Morning: I liked this story. I stopped mid-way and looks at the ceiling to think about what Hitchcock was saying. I could hear my wife typing as she writes her story, see my dog sleeping by my side, and the plants grabbing the sunlight. It's an interesting concept. What is real? What can be proven real? Can you even prove yourself real? Are you not just space, an in between gap like everything else around you? I liked the ending, the sense of serenity for Hitchcock.

They really put all of the good short stories at the start of this compilation, leaving the middle and end to be a slog to get through.

The framing story is unnecessary, but every actual story is an absolute banger.

3.5

As usual, another amazing book by Bradbury. Such a unique way to display short stories that only he could've done. Can't even pick a favorite there were so many unique and moving ones. The way he builds a universe in a few pages will always astound me.

I really enjoyed this!

I read it as an audiobook and I thought that the narrator did an excellent job with this.

I won't rate it simply because it is a collection of short stories– and, unsurprisingly, I enjoyed some more than others.

I think my favorites were The Long Rain, The Last Night of the World, The Exiles, Marionettes, Inc., and The Rocket.

Essential Science Fiction, but also worthy read if one isn't interested in scifi/fantasy - under the fantastical details is deep human understanding.

exceptional.

I've been reading the short stories from The Illustrated Man for over a year as a palate cleanser between books. I like Bradbury, but you don't want to make a whole meal of these little morsels.

Bradbury y su extraordinaria prosa nos deleitan con 18 relatos escritos entre 1947 y 1951. Me queda claro que es un maestro de las short stories.

Me quedo con estas tres como favoritas: “La larga lluvia”, “El zorro y el bosque” y “El cohete”.

Arte conceptual de “La pradera”:



Arte conceptual de “Caleidoscopio”:



Arte conceptual de “La carretera”:



Arte conceptual de “La larga lluvia”:



Arte conceptual de “El hombre del cohete”:



Arte conceptual de “El visitante”:



Arte conceptual de “La mezcladora de cemento”:

WHAT
A collection of short pop sci-fi stories suited for a broad audience. Although they do have a peculiar 1940s old school feel to them, they can still be enjoyed today. However, the wide appeal counters any cult, deep or cerebral elements I enjoy.

TLDR
- wide audience target / universal themes: feels too generic
. twilight zone feel
. hysteric / over the top characters
. 1950s typical men/women relationships
+ easy to read


SUMMARY

(this is my attempt for personal purposes, for a better summary, see here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Illustrated_Man)

The Veldt: a couple decides to buy a fully automated house, eliminating the need to prepare food, clean up dishes, tie up your shoes, and even parenting. The wife begins to feel restless with all the extra free time she have, and notes the bad influence the house have on the children. They have a virtual reality room that can make any wish come true, but things get out of hand when the virtual begins to supersede reality. A cautionary tale on spoiling your kids, over relying on technology, letting the TV do your job.

Kaleidoscope: a spaceship blows up and they're occupants are left drifting away in empty space. They will soon be dead and while inertia sends them away from each other, they are still able to communicate via radio until their demise. In the face of death, people begin to tell what they REALLY think of each other, and begins to contemplate if they had a meaningful existence.

The Other Foot: Mars have been colonized by a group of black people. When news arrives of a rocket with white people coming from Earth, the memories of years of abuse and oppression are brought up, and they decide to show the white man what does it feel to be the oppressed minority.

The Highway: a family of Mexican farmers notes unusual traffic on the highway, and father decides to investigate. They learn that the world is ending, the atomic war is night. The story makes you consider what does that mean to be a part of this “ending world”. What does that change for the farmer and his family, who are not aware of the rest of the world?

The Man: the Messiah comes to Mars. A rocket from Earth arrives just moments after his departure, and the crew is first skeptic about it and then becomes obsessed to find him. What lengths would you go to meet your god? The story contrasts two characters, one a true believer and the other a typical cynical man that only cares about money and himself.

The Long Rain: a rocket crashes on Venus, a planet where rain never stops. After many days trying to find one of the many Sun Domes built by man, they begin to go loose their mind as they have no way to prevent rain from hitting in they're faces. The captain struggles to keep hope alive in his men after a destroyed Sun Dome is found. Tales of the native Venus creatures dragging people into the sea for torture does dot help.

The Rocket Man: a man that when in space longs to be with his family, and when with his family longs to be in space. A tale to reflect when you want two things you cannot have. Also on the nature of people, that cannot bear to live without their loved ones for more then a few months.

The Fire Baloons: not on the version I read

The Last Night of the World: a man have a dream of the world ending, and he finds out the same dream is shared by his coworkers. He is talking to his wife about it. Don't remember much, this tale did not impress me too much. But it is about what would you do in that scenario? The couple just continues with their routine, because they are living how the wanted to live, happy with each other.

The Exiles:

No Particular Night or Morning: two friends in a spaceship for way too long. One of them starts to doubt reality. Something like “since its been so long he last saw his family, how can he be sure they are real? Maybe he just dreamed of them”. Increasingly, the amount of time it takes for he to doubt the existence of people and objects gets shorter, until he doubts himself to exist. This is a classic case of “solipsism” :-)

The Fox and the Forest: in a future where time travel is a touristic commodity, a couple decides to go back to a peaceful time to escape their war-ravaged present world. They plan on staying there however, and that's a big “no-no” for the time police. The story is a cautionary tale of the dangers of the atomic wars that were threatening the word in the 40s and encourages people to see how beautiful life is now.

The Visitor: mars is used as something of a leprosy colony, and the dying gets pretty bored up there. They miss Earth, and that longing makes them a little bit mad. When a new man comes from Earth, one of the “lepers” hogs him for attention. When he finds out the newcomer have telepathic powers, capable of making others believe anything they want (like we are actually on Earth), a dispute ensues for who will get to spend more time with him. A story about the importance of sharing.

The Concrete Mixer:
Marionettes, Inc.:
The City:
Zero Hour:
The Rocket:

ANALYSIS

Short stories are much different from a full novel. They are easier to read when you have little time available, and there is not a great let down if you didn't like them. There is no great emotional attachment to the characters either, it is a very casual experience.

There is no question on the quality of the writing. This book contains certain passages that are best savored in a slow pace in order to admire the beautiful prose. But like many other popular authors, his stories are just not for me.

The stories talk about universal themes, like good parenting, fear of death, racism, etc. They have a “twilight zone” feel to them, because exaggeration of the problem at hand and hysterical, over the top characters. Some typical stereotypes that are present:
The “arrogant cowboy”: the american capitalist, cynical, and with the “guns solve everything” and “the world is mine for the taking” attitudes.
The “afraid housewife”: the stay at home mom that is always nagging at her husband for him to “do something!”

So Martian Chronicles was a religious experience for me, and I still consider it the very pinnacle of aesthetic/intellectual speculative delight. I still can't digest just how freakin' amazing it was. What a story! What a mind to create such a story! What a everything! Daamn.

And, indeed, when I read it last year, I remember also being pleasantly surprised, since I had always grouped Bradbury into the Good Ol' Boys' Club of Golden Age-era science fiction. My relationship with this era/club is predictable. Some person or algorithm tells me that I'll simply loooove this book by Arthur C. Clarke/Isaac Asimov/Ray Bradbury/Alfred Bester/etc because it SHAKES THE VERY FOUNDATIONS OF YOUR WORLDVIEW, and my reading habits are all about that, ya know. I pick up book. I read book. Worldview foundations are not only unshaken, but very firmly hammered back into place, because the aliens came, and they found 1950s Americana, a setting so white-washed as to feel reeeeeally tedious and stodgy and oppressive to an emancipated lady such as myself. Where would a me fit into this world? Cooking dinner for her Wonder Husband, while fretting or looking on in wonder at his wondrousness? Dude. No thanks.

Usually, finishing such highly-acclaimed, highly-disappointing sci fi provokes in me a femrage rant, so I usually stick to 1970s New Wave stuff and re-read Ursula Le Guin to feel better about the world.

Alas, then. The Illustrated Man is meant to be Bradbury's other other masterpiece, aside Fahrenheit 451 and Martian Chronicles. The title is even pretty cool (illustrated people!), drawing you in. I was pumped, at least. Unfortunately, I found the stories blah, and the writing sooo deeply meshed in a narrow whiteoldman worldview - honestly, I'm tired of saying it. I'm getting tired of MY OWN REVIEWS in this regard. But, there you have it. I just found it uuuuggghhh and meh. Sometimes eye-roll-inducing (esp. with the wife-murder-fantasy story, which, come on, is sooo gratuitous and dodgy as a sub-genre in and of itself). But I was mostly sad, cuz I was all like, “Ray, I know you can do better! You've done so much better in the past!”

Oh well.