The Story of The Illustrated Man

The Illustrated Man a collection of eighteen short science fiction stories. Written by Ray Bradbury a genius storyteller.

This book had a profound effect on me as I have tattoos and I appreciate body art (Skin as it is called) very much.

The main theme centers around a man whose whole body has tattoos completely covering it. The man is a former carnival freak show exhibit. When the narrator meets him each tattoo animates and begins to tell a story. There is a hidden meaning of the Illustrated Man. That is that the tattoos are the creation of a woman time-traveler.

As the narrator talks one of the tattoos animates and the first story unfolds.

The Veldt. Set in the future where children play in virtual reality nursery's. The children's imagination creates the rooms environment. The virtual reality nursery in this story is new. The parents of the children worry about their children. Especially when they notice that the nursery always depicts an African veldt. This veldt has lions that are feeding on their captured prey. The parents enlist the help of a child psychologist. The psychologist suggests that they turn off the automated house and take a holiday. The children however at first are against this decision. But after a while they agree. The twist is that the children then lock their parents in the nursery where they eaten by the lions. The next scene is the children and the psychologist are having lunch on the veldt. The children seem oblivious to the fact that the lions are feeding on their parents.

Again another tattoo animates. Kaleidoscope. This Is about a spaceships crew on board a disabled craft. Drifting uncontrolled through space. About the crews acceptance of the finality of their predicament. They converse with each other about the death that is about to come. The narrator looks back on a life with no accomplishments he had led a useless life. He had hoped that his life would have had some meaning to someone somewhere. Entering Earths atmosphere he burns up and becomes a ball of fire. He finally becomes something . A shooting star watched by a child in Illinois.

The third story is The Other Foot. This story has a rather happy ending. The colonizers of Mars are only black people. They learn that a spaceship is coming from earth. The spaceship just happens to be full of white people. Before the rocket lands the Blacks agree on a segregation of races. They intend to treat the whites as they were once treated. Yet after they landed and the whites tell them of the Earths destruction. The Martians feel sympathy for the whites and welcome them to Mars.

The fourth story The Highway. This story is about a simple couple living a habitual but uninvolved life. They live next to a highway in outback Mexico. Soon the highway has many refugees escaping the aftermath of a nuclear war. The couple help a few of the young refugees. One them cries out that the nuclear war is the end of the world. The husband first ponders what the refugee meant by the words "The World". He has no idea of the concept "The World". He then goes about his everyday simple work.

The fifth story The Man. Is about a group of space explorers. That discover a planet where the inhabitants are completely happy. They soon discover that this is due to a holy man who visited the planet. The explorers believe the man to be Jesus. One of the crew wants to stay and be happy like the inhabitants. Another member of the crew decides to take the spaceship. He was hoping to catch up with the mysterious traveler. however as he lands on each planet along the way. He discovers that the traveler after spreading the word had already moved on. The other crew stay on the planet to learn the secret of why the people were so happy. They soon find out to their joy that "The Man" is still on the planet.

The sixth story is The Long Rain. This story is about the crew of a spaceship marooned on the planet Venus. Venus has continuous heavy drops of rain. The astronauts go in search of a "sun dome". Which is a safe haven from the torrential rain. The sun dome is an artificially lit shelter. To their dismay the native Venusians had destroyed the first sun dome. As they search for another sun dome the continuous pounding of the rain effects the crew. One by one they either go mad or commit suicide. At the end of the story the only sane crew member left finds a working sun dome.

The seventh story The Rocket Man Set in the future when astronauts are a rare breed. They have the privilege to work whenever and they are highly paid. The story is about one such astronaut "The Rocket Man". He works three months at a time in space. Coming back home to earth for only three days. The narrator is Doug the son of the Rocket Man. He wishes to also become a Rocket man. Doug realizes that his father has his own demons. Wishing he was back in space when home and conversely wishing he was home when in space. The Rocket Man has many times wanted to quit. As his long space trips have been affecting his relationship with his wife. As the father leaves for his last three month trip, he gets Doug to promise not to become a Rocker Man. The father rockets off into space swearing that this is his last mission. Unfortunately his rocket crashes into the sun killing him. Out of grief his wife and son keep out of the sun and come out only at night.

The Fire Balloons the eighth story is quite short. It is about a group of priests that decide to travel to Mars to enlighten the Martians. They find out that the Martians are beings of pure energy and that they lack any physical form. They thus are not able to commit a sin and are not in need of saving.

The last Night of the World is the ninth story. A husband and wife wake up to the fact that the world ends that very evening. They go about their usual lives accepting that there is no tomorrow.

The Exiles the tenth story. This is about a time on Earth when banning and burning of books is the norm. The authors of the books though dead live on Mars in a kind of afterlife. Even though they are dead they are at risk. This is because when the last book by the author concerned is burnt, the author disappears for good. The remaining authors find out that a spaceship is coming from Earth. The people on board are hell bent on their destruction. The authors decide to do harm to the people from Earth. But things do not go their way as when the astronauts land. They immediately burn the last remaining books. Thus vanishing the whole colony.

No Particular Night or Morning is the eleventh story. It tells of two friends aboard a spaceship. Their names are Hitchcock and Clemens. Hichcock is a little strange as he believes in solipsism. ( which is the belief that that only what you can touch is real.) He doubts the existence of the stars as they are light-years away. After a while Clemens notices that Hitchcock has left the spacecraft. As Hitchcock dies from exposure to space he is still mumbling to himself.

The Fox and The Forest is the twelfth story. The world is on the edge of destruction a couple use a time travel device to travel back to Mexico in 1938. People before them have also traveled back in time. Back to a world of peace. To their dismay the authorities have followed them back in time. Their agenda is to return them back to the future.

The Visitor is the thirteenth story. Mars has become a colony for people with incurable diseases. An 18 year old man with the physic powers of telepathy offers them an escape from reality. He would do this with his physic powers. Unfortunatly fights start as the exiles argue over who will enjoy the mans abilities. During the fighting the young man dies. Thus denying the exiles the bliss he provided.

The Concrete Mixer is the fourteenth story. It tells of an unwilling Martian ordered to join the army. They are planning to invade Earth. Buy when they land on Earth they find the inhabitants friendly and welcoming. They appear more curious rather than aggressive. The soldier after meeting with a movie director. Discovers that the people of Earth have an agenda. That to gain financially from exploiting the Martians. The soldier tries to return to Mars but gets killed by a car running over him.

Marionettes, Inc. is the fifteenth story. It tells of a man unhappy in marriage. Due to the fact that his wife tricked him into marriage by getting pregnant. She threatened to report him to the police for rape if he leaves her. The man purchases a lifelike robot to use as his replacement so he does not have to be with her. The robot happens to fall in love with the wife. He then locks the real man in the crate that he came in.

The City is the sixteenth story. Explorers from Earth land on an uncharted planet. They see before them an empty City. Upon exploring they soon discover that the city is anything but empty. Apparently the city built by a long dead civilization had been laying in wait for the arrival of Humans. Their civilization destroyed by Human biological weapons long ago. The city designed to inflict revenge on the Human race, captures and kills the astronauts. They then use their corpses as zombies in an attack on Earth with a biological weapon. The ancient peoples final retribution..

Zero Hour is the seventeenth story. All over the country children are playing a game called "Invasion". Everybody thinks that the children area playing a harmless game. That is of course until an Invasion actually happens.

Finally we come to the last story in the book. The Rocket.

A poor junkyard owner named Fiorello Bodoni. He dreams of sending one family member into outer space, for this he has saved $3,000. The family are at loggerheads as to who goes and who stays behind. Fiorello decides to build a rocket ship. Fitted with a virtual reality theatre. That gives the illusion of traveling through space.