The Illustrated Man
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| Author | Ray Bradbury |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Spectra; Reissue edition (1983) |
| Released | 1951 |
| Media Type | |
| Pages | 192 (Mass Market Paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 055327449 |
The Illustrated Man is a 1951 book of eighteen science fiction short stories by Ray Bradbury that explores the nature of humankind. While none of the stories have a plot or character connection with the next, a recurring theme is the conflict of the cold mechanics of technology and the intimacy of human nature.
The unrelated stories are tied together by the frame device of "the Illustrated Man," a vagrant that the unnamed narrator meets. The man has moving tattoos all over his body allegedly created by a woman from the future, each one telling a different tale. All but one of the stories have been previously published elsewhere, although Bradbury revised some of the texts for the book's publication.
The concept of the Illustrated Man would later be reused by Bradbury as a prominent character in Something Wicked This Way Comes, the tattoos coming to represent the souls of sinful victims of a mysterious carnival.
The book was made into a 1969 film starring Rod Steiger and Claire Bloom. It was adapted by Howard B. Kreitsek and directed by Jack Smight.
[edit] Plot
- "The Veldt" — Two parents use an artificial "nursery" to keep their children happy. The children use the high-tech simulation nursery to create a sadistic African predatorial environment. When the parents threaten to take it away, the children lock their parents inside where they are killed by the "harmless" machine-generated lions of the nursery.
- "Kaleidoscope" — A bitter astronaut feels he has accomplished nothing worthwhile in his life as he and the rest of his crew fall irrevocably to their demise in outer space because of a malfunction in their ship. The story illustrates the collapse of the sanity and logic of the crew members as they face their death. Ultimately, the lamenting narrator is incinerated in the atmosphere of the Earth and appears as a shooting star to a child after wishing that his life would at least be worth something for someone else.
- "The Other Foot" — Mars has been colonized solely by blacks. When they learn that a rocket is coming from Earth with white travelers, they institute a reverse Jim Crow system of segregation in which white people are to be considered second-class citizens, in retailation for the history of wrongs perpetrated on their race by whites. When the rocket lands, the traveler tells them that most of the Earth has been destroyed in a war and asks for their help. The people realize that discrimination is harmful in all its forms, and reverse their planned segregation.
- "The Highway" — A community of simple-minded people living by a highway in rural Mexico go on living their normal, idyllic lives as the highway fills with people fleeing a nuclear war. The story ends with some travellers they help telling them about the nuclear war, and how the world is ending. After the travellers leave, the confused resident briefly wonders what 'the world" is, and then continues with his life.
- "The Man" — A group of space explorers land on a planet to find the population living in a healthy state of bliss. Upon investigation, they discover that an enigmatic visitor came to them. Further description leads the two spacemen to believe that this man is Jesus (though he is never named, leaving room for other religious personas). One decides to spend the rest of his days on the planet, living and rejoicing in the wake of the man's glory. The other continues in his spaceship, "chasing 'him' always a step behind, never fast enough to catch up to him, constantly trying to achieve the unachievable." Other members of the crew decide to stay on the planet to learn from the contented citizens, and are rewarded by the discovery that 'he' is still on the planet.
- "The Long Rain" — A group of astronauts are stranded on Venus, where it rains continually and heavily. The travelers make their way across the Venusian landscape to find a "sun dome", a shelter with a large artificial light source. However, the first sun dome they find has been destroyed by the Venusians. Searching for another sun dome, the characters, one by one, are driven to madness and suicide by the unrelenting rhythm of the rain. At the end of the story, only one sane astronaut remains, and manages to find a functional sun dome.
- "The Rocket Man" — An astronaut's job keeps him away from home for long stretches of time, so he has little time with his wife and son, only visiting them for a period of three days at a time. The story is told from the perspective of the son, who holds an interest in becoming an astronaut too. However, his father explains to him that while the stars are beautiful, what he really wants is being with his family. Sensing that his wife is unhappy with him being at home so little, the father makes a promise to the son that he will be quitting his job after his next mission to spend more time with them. At the end of the story, the son and his mother learn that his ship fell into the sun, and from then on, they do not venture outside during the day in remembrance of him.
- "The Fire Balloons" — A priest travels to Mars to act as a missionary to Martians. Once there, he discovers that the natives are actually entities of pure energy. Since they lack corporeal form, they are unable to commit sin, and thus do not need redemption.
- "The Last Night of the World" — In this story, the entire planet awakens to the knowledge that the world is going to end that very evening. Nonetheless, they go through their normal routines of going to work, eating, brushing their teeth, and falling asleep, knowing and accepting the fact that they will not wake up. This is in strong contrast to the looting and riots typically expected in this situation.
- "The Exiles" — Numerous works of literature are banned and burned on Earth. The fictional characters of these books are portrayed as real-life entities who live in a refuge on Mars. However, they are vulnerable, as when all the books on a character are destroyed, the character itself vanishes permanently. When the group of characters learn that some people are coming for them, they stage a counterattack, but are foiled by the astronauts who burn the last remaining books from Earth, unknowingly annihilating the entire colony.
- "No Particular Night or Morning"
- "The Fox and the Forest" — A couple from the future tires of the war in their modern lives, so they go on a vacation to the more serene past in an attempt to escape with the help of a company called "Travel in Time, Incorporated". They go to Mexico in 1938, but are pursued by a government agent who forces them to come back to 2155.
- "The Visitor" — This story takes place on Mars, which is used as a quarantine for people with deadly illnesses. One day, the planet is visited by a young man of eighteen who has the ability to perform thought transference and telepathy. The exiles on the planet are thrilled with his ability and a violent fight breaks out over who will get to spend the most time with their visitor. In the struggle, the young man is killed and the escape he provided is lost forever.
- "The Concrete Mixer" — Martians prepare to invade Earth. However, one martain, Ettil Vrye, has taken to reading Earth books depicting similar invasions and proceeding defeats "by a young man, usually lean, usually alone, usually Irish, named Mick or Rick, or Jick or Bannon." He is forced to participate anyway, but the entire fleet is surprised to find that Earth has given up on the war and accepted the Martians as their victors. Ettil, though, remains on edge, finding the whole situation unsettling. He is approached by a filmmaker, named Rick, who is intent on making a film about the invasion.
- "The City" — A rocket expedition from Earth lands on an uncharted planet to be greeted by a seemingly empty City. As the humans begin to explore, they realize that the City is not as empty as it seems. The City was waiting for the arrival of humans; the contingency plan of a long dead civilization, put in place to take revenge upon Humanity after their culture was wiped out with biological weapons by humans long before recorded history. Once the City captures and kills the human astronauts, the humans corpses are used as automatons to finalize The City's creators revenge; a biological attack on the Earth.
- "Zero Hour" — Children across the country are deeply involved in an exciting game they call 'Invasion'. Their parents think it's cute until it turns out that the invasion is real and aliens are using the children to help them get control of Earth.
- "The Rocket" — Fiorello Bodoni, a poor junkyard owner, has managed to save $3,000 to fulfill his lifelong dream of sending one member of his family on a trip to outer space. The family, however, finds it impossible to choose who will go because those left behind will inevitably envy the chosen one for the rest of their lives. Bodoni instead uses the money to build a replica rocket from an old mock-up, and takes all of his children on the journey of a lifetime.
[edit] References in popular culture
- The Pearls Before Swine band had a song by the same title of the book's "The Rocket Man."
- Similarly, Elton John's popular song, "Rocket Man" was inspired by the short story "The Rocket Man" in the book.
