October 25, 2016 WELCOME TO THE MACHINE

I love Halloween.  It's really fun to run around town checking out the decorations people display in their yards. Some people are GUNG-HO even carrying on decorating traditions long after their children grow up and move away. Those are the folks I like best--they have orange lights, ghosts, pumpkins, witches, werewolves, spider webs-- all kinds of  SCARY things arranged just so kids will have more fun trick-or-treating. HALLOWEEN IS SOO MUCH FUN it makes me wish I were a kid again. Since Halloween reminds me of spooky, scary stories--ALSO A HUGE FAVORITE OF MINE--I thought I would write about a great classic from Ray Bradbury called The Illustrated Man.

Bradbury, who passed away in 2012,  was the winner of several awards including a special Pulitzer Prize in 2007 for his contributions to science fiction and fantasy. He was  truly a Renaissance man--with a career that spanned seventy years--can you tell I pretty much idolize him??  He wrote short stories, novels, television and movie screenplays and even starred in his own television show The Ray Bradbury Theater back in the 1980's. I can't say enough about his novels Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles and Dandelion Wine--just to name a few off the top of my head, but The Illustrated Man is different. It's a collection of 18 short stories tied together by a man homeless man covered in tattoos--a former carnival worker--in the freak show--known as "the illustrated man". The stories examine human nature and Bradbury's life long fear--technology. The issue of technology is addressed in the story "The Veldt" and it's one of my favorite in the book. It will scare the pants off of you, but the reality is that  Bradbury was right on target even back in 1951.  After you read it, think about how much you are controlled by technology and make a change. Anyways, this is a great book to read this time of year--it's less than 300 pages--of startling tales from the master. Happy Halloween.