The Illustrated Man - Definition and Overview

The Illustrated Man is a book consisting of science fiction short stories by Ray Bradbury that explore the nature of humankind. The stories are mostly unrelated, but many demonstrate how technology can destroy mankind, and are played out through various scenarios in the moving tattoos on a vagrant's body. The scenarios are broken up into 18 different stories:

• "The Veldt"
• "Kaleidoscope"
• "The Other Foot"
• "The Highway"
• "The Man"
• "The Long Rain"
• "The Rocket Man"
• "The Fire Balloons"
• "The Last Night of the World"
• "The Exiles"
• "No Particular Night or Morning"
• "The Fox and the Forest"
• "The Visitor"
• "The Concrete Mixer"
• "Marionettes, Inc."
• "The City"
• "Zero Hour"
• "The Rocket"

Elton John wrote his song "Rocket Man" based on the story of the same name from this book. It is perhaps the greatest example of filk music to date.

The book was made into a 1969 film staring Rod Steiger and Claire Bloom. It was adapted by Howard B. Kreitsek and directed by Jack Smight.

External link

• The IMDb entry on the movie (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0064473/)