Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury

3 reviews

erebus53's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.25

Ray Bradbury, as always develops his what ifs into emotionally twisty short stories, in this collection of works published in 1951. The thread that bids this lot together is a carnival performer, who has had his body tattooed with prophetic visions by a twisted old witch. The narrator meets him sleeping rough and by the light of the campfire he watches the tales play out on the man's enchanted skin, telling tales of what will be, both soon, and centuries from now.

Because this is written in the 1940s-50s it is coloured by dreams of the future than include the space race, automation and other fantastic futuristic inventions. It's a marvellous muddle of nearly real and utterly unreal that appears unself-conscious. I was lucky to happen upon a publication that has a foreword by the author written in 1997 (he eventually passed in 2012). He tells some of the background behind stories like "The Other Foot", a fanciful story about what happens when Mars is colonised by African Americans who stay there alone because of Earth delving into a civilization-destroying nuclear war, only to have a refugee ship with White people in it turn up decades later, begging for help. This was a story that nobody wanted to publish in 1951.

I did find it funny to hear 80 year old ideas about what VR and smart houses might be like... now I want a shoelace tying machine. Ideas about hiking over the surface of Venus have a gothic and emotional quality, that is only unsettled for me a little by the presumption that Venus might have day and night like Earth does (whereas Venus has a night ~4 Terran months long).

I guess I am used to Bradbury's quirks a lot more than I used to be as a child, because I have a quirk of amusement every time I figure out 'the trick' of the story. It's always fun though... though sometimes in a somewhat macabre way.

The Exiles tells the story of the ghosts of horror, fantasy, magical and mystical authors and stories in a time when these have all been outlawed. The idea amused me and so I have constructed a reading challenge from the "outlawed" authors, stories and themes that Bradbury mentioned in this story - everything from Lovecraft to Lord Dunsany, Dickens to Poe.

Definitely worth a look.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Grief, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexism, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Xenophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Gaslighting, Racism, War, Violence, Alcoholism, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, and Genocide

random19379's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Genocide, Gore, Racism, War, Fatphobia, Bullying, Car accident, Classism, Colonisation, Body horror, Violence, Body shaming, Cursing, Death, Grief, Murder, Racial slurs, Sexism, Suicide, and Xenophobia

bexi's review

adventurous dark mysterious reflective

• Loveable characters? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming

Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Death, Fatphobia, Murder, and Racism

Minor: Alcohol, Gun violence, Misogyny, and Sexism