I put off reading Ray Bradburry’s stories because technological dystopian science fiction tends to leave a bad taste in my mouth before bed. However, in the case of The Veldt, something about the story just didn’t stir anxiety within like other stories do. Perhaps it was the behavior of the main character’s which I didn’t find believable or maybe it was an inability to connect with the text due to my own biases. I frequently found myself question how near this future could be considering the massive scale of societal upheaval which would need to take place in order to get to this point, not to mention the countless innovations that would surely take place before people began building houses that would tie your shoes and get you dressed, cook and feed you, not to mention rock you to sleep, which would only cost 30,000 dollars. We are currently experiencing a moment in human history that is massively redefining our cultural and societal ways of existence, but the world itself isn’t much different from 5 years ago. Other dystopian stories like these play to the evil in the human heart in a manner that seems achievable, such as the use of surveillance control someone’s life influence their thoughts and eliminate their freedoms. Or the manipulation of history and documentation on a massive scale to change people’s perception and guide their actions. But perhaps those stories were more provocative because those are things people have actually done.
by Drezdany-stocks
