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A review by sucreslibrary
The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
3.5
I believe I bought this for my brother over a decade ago so when I picked it up this month I had somehow forgotten it was a collection of short stories. it was honestly a pleasant surprise since I tend to enjoy Bradbury in short stories more than his longer fiction (though I do love Something Wicked This Way Comes!). this was a good selection of his works, but I think I prefer Martian Chronicles (it's been a looong time since I read it, so maybe I will in the next few months to determine which is truly better for me!).
in the past couple years I've watched the entirety of the original Twilight Zone series, and that was forefront of my mind while reading this collection. it's not surprising to me that Bradbury held some resentment for Rod Serling, since Bradbury had wanted to have some of his works adapted for the show but was consistently rejected (outside of one story, 'I Sing The Body Electric', which was a bit too saccharine for my own tastes). the tone of these stories is so similar to many of the episodes, and Mars + space + astronauts are a consistent theme in both works, though that has more to do with the time period than any kind of plagiarism accusations (of which many sci fi authors held for Serling). there are also moments in both where the stories can become surprisingly dark, or very emotionally hard hitting. both are the kinds of works that are easily accessible for many but don't dumb down things for their audience. they're satisfying to read, a quick bite of fiction that can leave an impression and give the reader a lot to think about afterwards.
my favorite stories were 'The Veldt' (originally read this in high school and still love it!), 'The Long Rain' (this particularly felt like a Twilight Zone episode to me, and especially reminded me of 'The Midnight Sun'), 'The Rocket Man' (a simpler one, but the character work is so expertly crafted that even though the ending can be seen from a mile away, it's still a gut punch), 'The City' (one of the ones that really took me by surprise in its brutality and description of gore) and 'Zero Hour' (very creepy ending to this one that's gonna stick in my brain for a while).
it's a shame we haven't gotten more adaptations of Bradbury's short form works, as I do think they could lend themselves well to an anthology series much like The Twilight Zone. some of the issues in the past were that the budget simply didn't exist for the type of fantastical tales Bradbury wrote, but that would no longer be a problem given just how much money executives are willing to throw at television shows these days. there seems to be a film adaptation of this book in particular from 1969, so I'll think I'll treat myself to watching that tonight (by all accounts it seems universally hated, including by Bradbury himself, but that hasn't stopped me in the past!). apparently Zack Snyder was supposed to make an adaptation back in the early 2000s, but thank goodness that never came to be! maybe now someone else with a better eye could pick up these stories and do something interesting with them.
in the past couple years I've watched the entirety of the original Twilight Zone series, and that was forefront of my mind while reading this collection. it's not surprising to me that Bradbury held some resentment for Rod Serling, since Bradbury had wanted to have some of his works adapted for the show but was consistently rejected (outside of one story, 'I Sing The Body Electric', which was a bit too saccharine for my own tastes). the tone of these stories is so similar to many of the episodes, and Mars + space + astronauts are a consistent theme in both works, though that has more to do with the time period than any kind of plagiarism accusations (of which many sci fi authors held for Serling). there are also moments in both where the stories can become surprisingly dark, or very emotionally hard hitting. both are the kinds of works that are easily accessible for many but don't dumb down things for their audience. they're satisfying to read, a quick bite of fiction that can leave an impression and give the reader a lot to think about afterwards.
my favorite stories were 'The Veldt' (originally read this in high school and still love it!), 'The Long Rain' (this particularly felt like a Twilight Zone episode to me, and especially reminded me of 'The Midnight Sun'), 'The Rocket Man' (a simpler one, but the character work is so expertly crafted that even though the ending can be seen from a mile away, it's still a gut punch), 'The City' (one of the ones that really took me by surprise in its brutality and description of gore) and 'Zero Hour' (very creepy ending to this one that's gonna stick in my brain for a while).
it's a shame we haven't gotten more adaptations of Bradbury's short form works, as I do think they could lend themselves well to an anthology series much like The Twilight Zone. some of the issues in the past were that the budget simply didn't exist for the type of fantastical tales Bradbury wrote, but that would no longer be a problem given just how much money executives are willing to throw at television shows these days. there seems to be a film adaptation of this book in particular from 1969, so I'll think I'll treat myself to watching that tonight (by all accounts it seems universally hated, including by Bradbury himself, but that hasn't stopped me in the past!). apparently Zack Snyder was supposed to make an adaptation back in the early 2000s, but thank goodness that never came to be! maybe now someone else with a better eye could pick up these stories and do something interesting with them.