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| 'The Illustrated Man' by Ray Bradbury (Harper Voyager, 2008) |
When the unnamed narrator meets the Illustrated Man on a deserted Wisconsin road, he has no idea what secrets he has hidden beneath his thick shirt. For the Illustrated Man's skin is tattooed with pictures that grow, move and tell stories of the future, cursing every moment of his life as they writhe beneath his skin. Driven to despair and unable to hold down a job for more than a few days, the Illustrated Man keeps moving from place to place searching for a peace he will never find. On this particular night, as he drifts off to sleep, the narrator becomes entranced as the tales of hope, beauty, horror and revenge come to life before him...
Mr Bradbury is most famous 'Fahrenheit 451', the novel about a dystopian future where books are banned and burned and a life lived through TV is the norm. Similar themes of threat, dehumanisation and how we gain and loose from technological developments also run through 'The Illustrated Man'.
Sometimes technology turns on us and leads to disaster, as in 'The City' or 'Kaleidoscope', while 'The Rocket' is a story of how it inspires. 'Marionettes, inc' and 'Usher II', clearly related to 'Fahrenheit 451', show dashes of dark humour, while 'The Fox and the Forest' is a thriller that just happens to be about time travel. 'The Other Foot' explores racial hatred from a new perspective, while 'The Veldt' and 'Zero Hour' show a worrying distrust of children.
Sometimes technology turns on us and leads to disaster, as in 'The City' or 'Kaleidoscope', while 'The Rocket' is a story of how it inspires. 'Marionettes, inc' and 'Usher II', clearly related to 'Fahrenheit 451', show dashes of dark humour, while 'The Fox and the Forest' is a thriller that just happens to be about time travel. 'The Other Foot' explores racial hatred from a new perspective, while 'The Veldt' and 'Zero Hour' show a worrying distrust of children.
The best science fiction is always about humanity and this collection of stories is no exception. It's probably a bit more niche than some of what I've read previously, as in there are stories actually set in space and on other planets, but overall this ensemble captured my imagination, without frightening me off with the 'sciency bit'.
I've never really understood why people dismiss science fiction. Why write off a whole genre? A good story is a good story, whether it's set in the past, present, future or a space station somewhere to the left of Mars. As is often the case, many of these stories can be filed under more than one category, which I think makes them easier to recommend to people who would normally baulk at the idea of reading science fiction.
Overall, if you're going to read science fiction short stories, Bradbury is where you start. I also enjoy Asimov, but his stories are basically logic problems as he tries to find holes in the three laws of robotics. But that's a review for another time!
