Even a hard dystopian work of Bradbury’s like Fahrenheit 451 (1953) seems less an ideological polemic than one that that nostalgically mourns a loss of the literary imagination. Ray Bradbury is the science-fiction equivalent of Walt Whitman – he pines for a forgotten smalltown American childhood summer and a time before progress and technology made the world a less complicated place. Ray Bradbury’s work swims in poetic allegory and densely laden imagery that doesn’t quite fit into what most people construe science-fiction to be. Screen science-fiction is often construed as being planets, robots and spaceships and little more than adventure stories. Part of the problem is Bradbury’s writing itself. The works of science-fiction writer Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) have never fared very well on screen. One couple give the pills to their children, but elect not to take them themselves. It is decided that all the children will be given suicide pills to prevent them suffering. The Last Night of the World:– Everybody has a dream that the world is going to end that night. However, tensions within the party and the maddening effect of Venus’s ceaseless rain endanger the journey. The Long Rains:– Four astronauts trek across Venus from the site of their crashlanding to a survival shelter. They become concerned when the children demonstrate a preference for an African veldt scene and then start feeding the lions, even though there are no lions in the program.

The Veldt:– Two parents buy a nursery that simulates different environments for their children to play in. While Carl sleeps, Willie sits and watches the illustrations as they come to life to tell stories.

The man opens his coat to reveal that he has tattoos, or ‘skin illustrations’ as he prefers to call them, from head to foot.

As he settles down for the night in the open, Willie comes across Carl, a strange and brooding man who wears an overcoat and gloves despite the heat. During The Depression, a drifter Willie hitchhikes across country.

The illustrated man