Illustrated Man Book

"And I think it's gonna be a long long time
'Till touch down brings me round again to find
I'm not the man they think I am at home
Oh no no no I'm a rocket man
Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone"

Rocket Man - Elton John - Inspired by a story from The Illustrated Man

Sometimes when I read Ray Bradbury, I feel like I am not worthy.

That was definitely the case this time! Not just a 5 star book - all the starts in the universe!

Bradbury is a master story teller. He is a weaver of the unique and bizarre. His words and stories dig into your brain and set up shop. What once seemed normal . . . what once seemed reasonable . . . will quickly become unstable and other-worldly in the hands of this master. While maybe not every one of the stories in The Illustrated Man will blow you away, I can almost 100% guarantee they will all leave you thinking in their own special way.

While reading this collection, I got into a discussion about how Bradbury writes. That discussion included a side journey into the old Twilight Zone episodes. That is exactly it - every Bradbury story reads exactly like an old episode of the classic sci-fi show. Often, things appear normal and Bradbury will shift them in a slight and unexpected way which takes the story in a way just slightly outside the norm. These shifts are rarely monumental or explosive - just enough to throw off the norm. For example, and this is not one he used, but should illustrate what I mean: he might write a story in a world where the letter A has been banned and go through all the ramifications that might have on the fictional society in his story.

Another huge factor that is obvious in these stories is the affect the world of 1951 (year of publication) had on these stories. You can tell that these stories were written under the pressure of the cold war, nuclear threat, governments in turmoil, Communist fears, civil rights, etc. So much of the world from that time period seeps between the lines. I would almost say that some of this book is in a genre of its own - historic sci-fi. If you have any interest in how the world affected literature in the mid-1900s, this would be the perfect case study.

As it is pretty obvious by now, I loved this book! I love Bradbury! I cannot wait until the next one!