Alex Weller’s Reviews > The Illustrated Man > Status Update

Finished "Kaleidoscope"! Sure enough, somebody does see Hollis burning in the atmosphere: a little boy in Illinois, who mistakes Hollis for a falling star. His mother tells him to make a wish. Overall, great story! And one that has inspired me to never go to space. Maybe this can happen to Elon and his billionaire buddies!

Hollis feels jealous of a fellow astronaut who's dying happily after living a fulfilling life, while Hollis's life was crap. After making peace with a rival and listening to another astronaut's joy at being taken by a beautiful meteor cluster, Hollis wishes he could do something to make up for his empty life, but there's nobody there. He wonders if anybody will see him when he burns in Earth's atmosphere.

As the men argue with each other and go crazy, Hollis has a fantasy where he kills a screaming astronaut by punching through his helmet. After that, his hand is severed by a passing meteor, and Hollis has to seal the leak in his suit and tighten it to make a tourniquet. Shit's really going down now.

As the men keep falling away from each other, two of them start to go insane and doubt the situation before Hollis orders them to shut up. Good luck getting them to do that, Hollis!

Just started reading the second story, "Kaleidoscope". After a rocket blows up in space, the astronauts inside are all sent scattering away from each other in different directions. They communicate through radio, but will soon lose contact with each other within an hour. Captain Hollis feels he's headed straight back to Earth, where he'll burn in the atmosphere. That sounds horrifying!

The framing story's narrator watches as the Illustrated Man shifts in his sleep, revealing another illustration on his chest that comes to life. Here we go!

Finished "The Veldt"! McClean comes back and sees Peter and Wendy having a picnic in the nursery while the lions feed in the distance. I think we know what they're feeding on. What a duo of fucked-up kids. Overall, great story!

A psychologist, David McClean, examines the nursery and views it as the children venting their rage from their parents taking privileges away from them. The parents allow their children one last moment in the nursery before going on vacation. But when they go back to the nursery later, the children lock them inside and they scream as they are killed by lions. Now we know why the screams sounded familiar. Yikes!

Peter isn't too happy to learn that George and Lydia are considering locking up the nursery and shutting off the house. He threatens George to stop considering it before going off to play. That doesn't feel okay.

George tries to change the nursery setting, but it won't work. When Peter and Wendy come home, the parents question them about the veldt setting but they deny it. George checks it again, but the children have changed the setting to a forest, and he finds a wallet of his, all bloody and mangled by lions. That night, the children break into the nursery, and the parents hear familiar screams followed by lion roars.