This story does a superb job of telling the tale of what could happen if technological advances get out of control. With the way that the world is today and with things changing so rapidly, I think this is an excellent story to read. Not only did it give many examples of what could possibly happen if things continue to follow the same technological pattern that they are following right now, I think there was also a subliminal message or two within the story.

I think the author says a lot about how unnecessary humans could possibly become by not giving any detail to the characters and giving it all to the house/nursery. The characters have bland names while the house is described as the thing that "clothed and fed and rocked them to sleep." (197) Bradbury also seems to eliminate any sort of love and affection between the parents and children - the things money can't buy.
There is a part in the story that I think tells the reader to be careful what you wish for, and shows just how powerless humans can become under technology. George thinks at first that his house is so wonderful, but on pg 200 he tells the lions to "'Go away.' and they did not go." After that Bradbury writes "He knew the principle of the room exactly. You sent out your thoughts. Whatever you thought would appear."

Obviously when writing this story, Bradbury was looking into the future, and bringing to light things that might happen with so much new technology. Could/will this really happen someday? I guess we'll all just have to wait and see.

I don't remember where -- whether an interview or forward or introduction, or what -- but I seem to remember Mr. Bradbury saying that he doesn't see himself as a prophet or fortune-teller, but that sometimes his stories can serve as warnings of what can happen if we don't take steps now.

If my memory is correct on this, perhaps we don't want to "wait and see", but should proactively try to fight the kind of de-personalization we see technology sometimes introducing into our lives.

Mr. Dark -- I've never read any interview or anything of any kind from Mr. Bradbury. I've only read VELDT and THERE WILL COME SOFT RAINS. Admitting that my knowledge about the author personally is slim, I just thought I would post about the way that I, was well as maybe others who know little about Mr. Bradbury, interpreted the story. Thanks for your reply!

I love this story, too. I will be teaching it again soon in my annual sci fi/fantasy unit, and I can't wait. I agree with your comments about the role of technology in the story, but I tend to focus more on the parent/child relationship, or actually the lack of a good one. Notice how the children are so spoiled and so stubborn that when the father finally tries to put his foot down, the boy actually threatens him. The parents have spent so little time with their children they really don't know them and they certainly have no control over them. Even when they locked them out of the room, the children defied them and broke in. My students always comment on how "bratty" the kids are and out of control. I think we are being warned about the lack of family connections as much as the misuse or overuse of technology. Of course I realize that since the house does everything that the parents normally do, this has contributed to the decline in their togetherness, so it's all kind of wrapped up together. But the parents still could have taken the time to be with the kids. You see this all the time--parents who work too much or for other reasons are just not spending the time with their kids. Unfortunately, sometimes I see the result of this phenomenom in some of my students. Anyway, that's my take on this story.

It seemed that these were directly relevant to a thread already opened and that it makes more sense to respond to them all in a similarly-themed thread, rather than having people respond to the same subject in three different threads.

I agree that the technology carries risk, but also agree with you that in "The Veldt" the parents abdicated their role as parents by just letting the kids do anything they want in the room, and by allowing them too much time in there. I think modern parents do the same thing in reference to video games, the Internet in general, and Instant Messaging in particular. The balance of letting kids have access to these kinds of things and what constitutes a moderate amount of time and privacy is debatable. What is not debatable is that parents sometimes -- through exhaustion, conflicts in schedules, overwork, or crappy parenting -- sometimes allow kids unrestricted access to these things in a way that ends up harming the kid and the total family.

So I think I basically agree with both "katieal" and "Love_Spell_03"

(Note: This copying activity does not preclude anyone from posting on these original posts. I just thought they were so related, it would be convenient to have them in one thread.)

=======================================
Author Topic: Technology or parenting?..or both?
**katieal**
Junior Member posted 02-11-2004 11:44 AM

I read The Veldt, by Ray Bradbury for my english class and really enjoyed it. It seemed to me that Bradbury does not want technology to get out of hand. I think this story does show that technology can get out of hand, but then again there were other factors contributing to this disaster that occurred.
The parents did not limit the time the children spent in the nursery until it was too late. The parents also could have tried to do more family oriented chores together. Maybe if they had even just cooked a meal together as a family once a week or went on little vacations like they were about to. These little activities might have prevented the loss of connection between them and their children. Even today when technology is not as advanced as it was in The Veldt, there are still some parents that lose connection with their children. This is due to the fact that parents may not know how to stay connected with their children.
I agree with Bradbury that technology can cause disaster. But I also believe other factors are contributed into technological disaster.

=========================================

Author Topic: Technology vs. Parenting in "The Veldt" and "There Will Come Soft Rains"
**Love_Spell_03**
Junior Member posted 02-11-2004 11:37 AM
It seems to me, that in both of these stories, technology has taken over the role of traditional parenting. By having a house such as the one in the stories, the parents and children didn't really have to interact. The house made breakfast, made suggestions, and even ran the baths and read the children stories goodnight. There was even a nursery, which appeared to me to act as a babysitter. By having this nursery, the parents did not have to play with their children as most do. And what was the outcome of all of this?
I believe that Bradbury was demonstrating the problems that can arise if we allow technology to have such a large role in our lives. While some technology is needed and does no harm, we cannot let machines run our daily lives and perform our daily tasks such as caring for children.

What do you think?



[This message has been edited by Mr. Dark (edited 02-11-2004).]

Yes i definitely cannot stress enough the fact that if the parents work hard enough, they can save the kids from being overtaken by technology. While I was growing up at home, my parents only allowed me on the instant messaging after I finished all my homework. And then not for longer than an hour or so. This caused many fights between me and my parents because all my friends were allowed on the computer all the time. I do not know how these kids relationships were with their parents but I know my relationship with mine. Even though I fought with my parents at the time, them not giving into my whining helped our relationship become what it is today. I do not live at home anymore and I am on the computer all the time. But because I had restrictions when I was younger, I call my parents to say hi before I go to check my email.

Kind of back on topic...

I took a reading enrichment class 25 years ago or so (yikes!!!) and saw what I thought was a pretty good movie of "The Veldt." Did anyone else see it? I know there has been a consistent problem with translating Bradbury to the screen, but I liked this one.

I also liked "Ray Bradbury Theater" but maybe my production standards are less exacting than some others'.

I have the Bradbury Theater episode of "The Veldt" on tape, and it's a good version of the actual story, but of course that's because Ray had his hand in the making of those shows. I am not aware of any other movie version of the story, but would love to see it if there is one.

The version I saw was very likely from "Ray Bradbury Theater." I kind of remember seeing it on TV again...

[This message has been edited by jfaronson (edited 02-13-2004).]

...ah yes, but if you saw "The Veldt" 25 years ago it can't have been the Ray Bradbury Theater episode, as this dates from 1989.

I think it's more likely that you saw "The Illustrated Man", the 1969 film starring Rod Steiger. This included an adaptation of "The Veldt". There's a detailed plot description here:

http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue258/classic.html

(Although a more wrong-headed review of a film I have never seen!)

- Phil

[This message has been edited by philnic (edited 02-13-2004).]

Gosh, that is by far the most positive review of "The Illustrated Man" that I've ever seen! Though in my opinion, the film simply doesn't deserve it. I thought the film was terrible (or close to it)--I distinctly remember thinking "Well, there's two hours of my life that I'll never get back," after seeing it for the first time. One of the many problems was a poor selection of stories featured in the film. "The Veldt" was a good choice, but I don't think I would have filmed either "The Long Rain" or "The Last Night of the World," given my pick of all the tales that appeared in the book...

Check the book again. I've yet to see that version of "The Last Night of the World" there or in any work of Ray's. The filmed version of "The Veldt" must have been from "The Illustrated Man" as there are no others that old. It could have easily been made for TV, but never was, as a lot of subjects were simply judged unacceptable for television back then.

Dandelion, I just had a quick look at The Illustrated Man--haven't read it for a while. And yes, you're correct--I had forgotten that the filmed version of "The Last Night of the World" is completely unlike the short story. That was the worst story choice for the film, I thought. I mean, I just didn't see any point in trying to film that, no matter what the ending was like. Oh, not that there was anything wrong with the story, it just wasn't particularly cinematic in nature. I would have included "Zero Hour" in a film version of the book most certainly. That was one of the better Ray Bradbury Theater episodes--would have made an excellent episode of "The Twilight Zone" too, come to think of it... But here I am again, totally off topic....

There were actually several older TV versions done of "Zero Hour," which, I believe, was scripted for "The Twilight Zone," but never filmed for it, but no older filmed versions of "The Veldt." A play version of "The Veldt" contained some details not found in the short story version, which made their way into the "Bradbury 13" radio version.

Well, now I'm not sure the exact year I saw the short film of "The Veldt." All I know for sure is that it was between 1980-ish and 1984 because I got too old for the reading classes after that. I was sad, because they were really fun!

Aside from reading authors like Ray Bradbury, I was also introduced to other "outside the box" artists like Edward Gorey.