Am just beginning a critical evaluation of "The Veldt" from "The Illustrated Man" with my class.

I would be very grateful if anyone had any resources they were willing to share and/or information regarding the t.v dramatisation of the story.

It was adapted once for an early sci-fi TV show which is obscure now--not Hitchcock or "Twilight Zone." As I remember, the movie adaptation was pretty lame. You might try getting the radio adaptation from "Bradbury 13," which was pretty good. There was probably also a version on "Ray Bradbury Theater."

Yes, it can be viewed in the first illustration that comes to life in the Illustrated Man movie starring Rod Steiger.
It is also a part of the 6 tape collection "19 Stories" which the author himself reads.

The story presents one of Mr. Bradbury's favorite themes - "a technology run rampant & the dehumanizing effect it will have on individuals or the family unit.

This story has been proved quite accurate in view of many current scientific gadgets: instant foods and drinks in a programmed kitchen, talking machines, shuttles or flights to anywhere one would like to go, kids and adults with too much time to spare, and thus the "virtual room" that satisfies the emotional needs of the children through the conjuring of the veldt.

In a previous string within the site's posts, I believe a discussion involved the possibility of computers (machines) to - in the very near future - evolve into areas they were not intended, as in HAL in 2001, Matrix, and so many more. The nursery seems to do the same, long before it became "in vogue" in sci-fi to do so!!

Mr. B as his best!


[This message has been edited by fjpalumbo (edited 05-08-2002).]

quote:

Originally posted by fjpalumbo:
The story presents one of Mr. Bradbury's favorite themes - "a technology run rampant & the dehumanizing effect it will have on individuals or the family unit.

Yet, it can be argued that it wasn't the the technology of the Playroom that turned the children into such vile brats, but their emotional distance from their parents. I always have a problem with the idea that reading or watching violent books, movies, etc. causes the viewer to become violent (or desensitizes him or her to violence).

Thinking about this issue of violence in media, a nice contrast to "The Veldt" is "Usher II" in which a man is inspired to commit violence on others by reading Edgar Allen Poe's works. Of course, in the story, we are supposed to feel a sort of vicarious thrill to see this violence meted out to seemingly-deserving victims. But it's interesting to see how with these two stories, Bradbury has sort of "reversed polarity" on the same theme. Surely it's not the mere availability of the technology itself that inspires violence.

He always says technology and its use is like a hand in a glove and everything depends on the sort of hand put into the glove. As to how the hand got the way it is and how it justifies its actions, well...?