The Illustrated Man essays

The Illustrated Man essays This is a collection of short stories written by Ray Bradbury. The story opens when a man, on a walking tour of Wisconsin, meets another man whose body is covered in tattoos. The man with the tattoos, known as the Illustrated Man, is looking for a job. He camped the night with the other man. His tattoos, he told him, where given to him by a witch from the future. When the sun comes down, the tattoos come to life, and play out little dramas upon the man's flesh. Each of the stories contained in this book come from the dramas played out from the man's tattoos. The first story, The Veldt, tells the tale of a family from the future. In the future, people have rooms much like the halodeck from Star Trek. The room is virtual reality, and can be programmed and sensitized to its owners to create for them whatever reality they wish. For this family, the room serves as their children's nursery. Indeed, the children spend so much time in this "nursery"; it has become a surrogate parent to them. The parents - particularly the father - have become concerned about the amount of time the children spend with the nursery. He fears that perhaps their playtime has become all too real. He calls in an expert to check the nursery out. The room is supposed to respond whenever a person requests, or even thinks of what it wants the room to create. However, the room seems to have been stuck in a rut. The scene: the middle of an African veldt, where a family of lions feasted upon their kill. The expert suggests that the father try turning off the nursery for a while, and give the family a chance to come together as a real family again, without all their technological inventions getting in the way. The father tries this, but the children and wife rebel. Finally, he relents and turns it back on again. The children race into the nursery, and get locked in. They scream for their parents....