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''The Illustrated Man'' is a 1951 book of eighteen science fiction short stories by Ray Bradbury that explores the nature of mankind. A recurring theme throughout the eighteen stories is the conflict of the cold mechanics of technology and the psychology of people. It was nominated for the International Fantasy Award in 1952.〔(Locus Index to SF Awards )〕 The unrelated stories are tied together by the frame device of "the Illustrated Man", a vagrant former member of a carnival freak show with an extensively tattooed body whom the unnamed narrator meets. The man's tattoos, allegedly created by a time-traveling woman, are animated and each tell a different tale. All but one of the stories had been published previously elsewhere, although Bradbury revised some of the texts for the book's publication. The book was made into the 1969 film starring Rod Steiger and Claire Bloom, adapted from the stories "The Veldt", "The Long Rain", and "The Last Night of the World". A number of the stories, including "The Veldt", "The Fox and the Forest" (as "To the Future"), "Marionettes, Inc.", and "Zero Hour" were dramatized for the 1955-57 radio series ''X Minus One''. "The Veldt", "The Concrete Mixer", "The Long Rain", "Zero Hour", and "Marionettes Inc." were adapted for the TV series ''The Ray Bradbury Theater''. ==Story summaries== ; "The Veldt": Parents in a futuristic society worry about their children's mental health when their new virtual reality nursery, which can produce any environment the children imagine, continually projects an African veldt populated by lions feasting on carcasses. A child psychiatrist suggests that the automated house is not good for the children's development, and insists they disable the automation and become more self-sufficient. The children are not pleased with this decision, but later coolly agree to it. The children trap their parents in the nursery, where they become prey to the lions. They later have lunch on the veldt with the child psychologist, who sees the lions feasting but does not recognize what has happened. ; "Kaleidoscope" : The crew of a space ship drift helplessly through space after their craft malfunctions. The story describes the final thoughts and conversations of the crew members as they face their death. The narrator bitterly reflects on his life and feels he has accomplished nothing worthwhile. His final thought is a wish that his life would at least be worth something to someone else. As he falls through Earth's atmosphere and is incinerated, he appears as a shooting star to a child in Illinois. ; "The Other Foot" : Mars has been colonized solely by Black people. When they learn that a rocket is coming from Earth with White travelers, they institute a Jim Crow system of racial segregation in retaliation for the past mistreatment of Blacks by Whites. When the rocket lands, the travelers tell them that the Earth has been destroyed—including all of the horrific mementos of racial discrimination (such as trees used for lynching Blacks). The Blacks take pity on the White travelers, decide to accept them, and abandon their segregation plans. ; "The Highway" : A husband and wife living by a highway in rural Mexico live their simple, regimented lives while the highway fills with refugees of a nuclear war. They give assistance to some young travelers, who tell them that the nuclear war means the end of the world. After the travelers leave, the husband wonders what they meant by "the world", before returning to his work as normal. ; "The Man" : Space explorers find a planet where the population is in a state of bliss. Upon investigation, they discover that an enigmatic visitor came to them, whom the spacemen come to believe is Jesus. One decides to spend his life rejoicing in the man's glory. Another uses the spaceship to try to catch up to the mysterious traveler, but at each planet he finds that "he" has just left after spreading his word. Other members of the crew remain on the planet to learn from the contented citizens, and are rewarded by the discovery that "he" is still on the planet. ; "The Long Rain" : A group of astronauts are stranded on Venus, where it rains continually and heavily. The travelers make their way across the Venusian landscape to find a "sun dome", a shelter with a large artificial light source. The first sun dome they find has been destroyed by the native Venusians. Searching for another sun dome, the characters, one by one, are driven to madness and suicide by the unrelenting rhythm of the rain. At the end of the story, only one sane astronaut remains to find a functional sun dome. ; "The Rocket Man" : Astronauts are few in number, so they work whenever they wish and receive high pay. One such "Rocket Man" goes into space for three months at a time, only returning to Earth for three consecutive days to visit his wife and son, Doug. The story is told from the perspective of Doug, who also wants to become a Rocket Man. Doug learns of his father's constant battle, yearning for the stars while at at home and yearning for home while in space. The father has attempted to quit several times because his long absences have nearly destroyed his relationship with his wife. Before leaving for his final three-month mission, the father makes Doug promise he will never follow in his father's footsteps. The father takes off into space, but dies when his rocket crashes into the sun. His wife and son avoid the sun out of grief and become nocturnal. This story was the inspiration for Elton John's 1972 song "Rocket Man". ; "The Fire Balloons" : A group of priests travel to Mars to act as missionaries to the Martians. They discover that the natives are entities of pure energy. Since they lack corporeal form, they are unable to commit sin, and thus do not need redemption. ; "The Last Night of the World" : A married couple awakens to the knowledge that the world is going to end that very evening. Nonetheless, they go through their normal routines, knowing and accepting the fact that there is no tomorrow. ; "The Exiles" : Numerous works of literature are banned and burned on Earth. The deceased authors of these books live in a kind of afterlife on Mars. Though dead, they are still vulnerable in the sense that when all of an author's works are destroyed, the author himself vanishes permanently. The authors learn that people are coming from Earth, and they stage their retribution. Their efforts are foiled when the astronauts burn the last remaining books, annihilating the entire colony. ; "No Particular Night or Morning": Two friends in a spaceship, Clemens and Hitchcock, discuss the emptyness and coldness of space. The slightly eccentric Hitchcock embraces Solipsism, and repeatedly insists that nothing in space is real and there is no night or morning. He refuses to believe anything about reality without sufficient evidence and soon becomes skeptical of everything he cannot directly experience. He says that he doesn't believe in stars because they are too far away. Clemens learns that Hitchcock has left the ship. Hitchcock continues to mumble to himself as he dies of exposure to the void of space. ; "The Fox and the Forest" : A couple living in a war-ravaged future society on the brink of collapse uses time travel to escape to 1938 Mexico. They and others before them have used the technology to enjoy life before chemical, nuclear, and biological warfare ruined everything. Unfortunately, the authorities have also traveled back in time to return the exiles to the future. ; "The Visitor": Mars is used as isolation for people with deadly illnesses. One day, the planet is visited by a young man of eighteen who has the ability to perform telepathy. The exiles on the planet are thrilled with his ability and a violent fight breaks out over who will get to spend the most time with their visitor and enjoy the illusionary paradises he can transmit. In the struggle, the young man is killed and the escape he provided is lost forever. ; "The Concrete Mixer": A reluctant Martian soldier is forced to join the army as they prepare to invade Earth. When they arrive, they are welcomed by a world at peace, full of people who are curious rather than aggressive. The protagonist meets a movie director, and it becomes clear that the people of Earth have planned to exploit the Martians for financial gain. He tries to escape to Mars, but is run over by a car and killed. ; "Marionettes, Inc." : A married man buys a realistic robot to act as a surrogate so that he doesn't have to deal with his wife. When a friend decides to purchase his own robot, he discovers that his wife already has replaced herself with one. The robot of the protagonist falls in love with the man's wife, and locks the real man in the crate in which the robot was delivered.〔2001 printing by William Morrow〕 ; "The City": A rocket expedition from Earth lands on an uncharted planet and finds a seemingly empty city. As the humans begin to explore, they realize that the city is not as empty as it seems. The city was waiting for the arrival of humans, designed by a long dead civilization to take revenge upon humanity; the civilization was destroyed by human biological weapons before recorded history. Once the city captures and kills the human astronauts, the humans' corpses are used as automatons to take a final act of revenge: a biological attack on the Earth. ; "Zero Hour": Children across the country are deeply involved in an exciting game they call "Invasion". Their parents think of it as harmless fun until the invasion actually occurs. ; "The Rocket" : Fiorello Bodoni, a poor junkyard owner, has saved $3,000 to fulfill his dream to send one member of his family into outer space. The family cannot choose who will go, fearing those left behind will resent the one chosen. Bodoni instead uses the money to build a replica rocket containing a virtual reality theater that simulates a voyage through space. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Illustrated Man」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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