It's A Toss-Up For Me Between The Veldt And Marionettes Inc. I Can't Offer An Analysis Of The Veldt After The Fine Job Mr. Dark Just Did And Any Attempt To Try And Meet That Standard With An Analysis Of M-Inc. Would Just Be Futile. I Can Just Say, Even Though I Kinda Saw It Coming, The Tick-tick-tick-tick Towards The End Actually Made Me Go Numb And Drop The Book.

Okay, Time For Some Group Therapy. My Parents Divorced When I Was Seven. After Reading Marionettes Inc. When I Was 11 Or 12 I Found Myself Wondering If My Father Had The Same Yearning To Escape A Dying Marriage As The Man In The Story. It Has Always Tripped Me Out That Dad's Bags Were Already Packed. They Argued, He Said He was Leaving, He Walked Into The Bedroom, Immediately Came Back Out With Two Suitcases, And Left. Twenty Years Later, As My Own Marriage Was Slowly Dying, I Found Myself Once Again Thinking Of Marionettes Inc.

Ok in the british publication I would say Kaleidoscope, No Particular Night or Morning,The Veldt.

The Exiles, no doubt...could you imagine, all your favourite authors and their characters alive on some far-off planet? Oh, and the Fox and the Forest; running away from a disastrous, war filled time period just to be dragged back! The whole book is amazing, its impossible to pick a fav. Btw, I saw that an eleven year old was writing on here...WOW, that is great. Keep it up! I wish I could get my little brother to read some Bradbury, all he does is watch tv and play N64...so good for you!

Why hasn't anyone said anything about "the Visitor' yet!? I, personally, thought that was a great story. Focusing on (As William Golding did in 'Lord of the Flies') man's inherent corruption and also our instinctual struggle toward pleasure. Basically, it proves the long-lived quote that 'you don't know what you've got till it's gone'. Talk about a moral of the story.

Oh, heh, by the way, I'm new here. A 14 yr. old student in CO. Hello all.

Basically I read this back in the day when i was 10, we just did it in school (I'm a 15 year old Freshman in WI), it was great. Everytime I read it, it gets more amazing. Every story was great, but I really liked "The Long Rain" "The Veldt" and "The Exiles."

Coma-man,

Several of Ray's short stories have been adapted to film. I used to work in an AV Library and made sure that we got several of them. Yes the Veldt has been done. The info I have shows that it was done in 1981, directed by Dianne Haak, is a Bernard Wilets production and released through Barr Films of Pasadena, CA. Check to see if your local library can get it through interlibrary loan. Our copy was on 16mm film but I bet that a VHS version was available also.

Among the other Bradbury films we had were The Flying Machine and Quest (based on Frost and Fire)

Marionettes Inc. was done also. We watched The Veldt in class, while I took it upon my own power to watch Marionettes.

About 40 of Ray's stories were made into half hour episodes for the Bradbury Theater. Since Ray was involved in making those episodes, they are all very true to the actual stories. I have seen every episode and have taped my favorites. None of them are currently on rotation at the Sci Fi Channel, but every few years they bring them back and run through all of them. They're well worth watching out for!!

My all time favorite story is the long rain. Although i love all of the other stories, this one seems to stay with me the most. I really enjoyed the story of the men that are kept in the rain, and the psychological effects they suffer from. Also, the ending was what really got to me. When he finds the sun dome and the rest of his team is dead, it is very sad yet somewhat ironic.

See a very well organized analysis of RB Theater episodes (65 over 6 seasons): http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/EpisodeGuideSummar...owid-3822/season-all

THX for the "Veldt" info... never thought that they did one...

As for the endings... what do you think? Is it madness? The rain finally won?

Man, that's jsut too hard to chose just one as a favorite. Maybe "The Veldt", "Zero Hour", or "The Long Rain." I heard about "The Veldt" back in etiher 6th or 8th grade, and I found it in The Illustrated Man and read through the whole book. I don't know if its just me, but "The Long Rain", can that be interpreted differently? Can't that be symbolic, or something like that..? I love these stories because they're so creepy. ^_^

Some significant comments on effects of RB tales on imagination in the above posts (back in 2003).

There have been many reports of individuals coming out of virtual reality arcade booths who have needed hours of re-adjustment to reality (if you will) because of the neurological alterations that occur viewing the high-tech images and stimuli.

Mr. Bradbury told us of this back in 1951 with The Illustrated Man classic (with those wonder children Wendy and Peter) in "The Veldt!"

Now this:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBI...vie.blues/index.html

Hi fjp451,

I read the article in your post. Have not seen AVATAR, but the post reactions some viewers seem to have remind me of what the character Lena experienced in "The Happiness Machine"(although not a story from THE ILLUSTRATED MAN).

The real happiness machine is Leo Auffman's own home/family.