![]() ![]() Best known for the classic Fahrenheit 451, he is also the author of hundreds of short stories. These tales comprise Ray Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man.īradbury is perhaps one of the most widely recognized and celebrated American science fiction writers of all time. As the Illustrated man lays back under the stars and tries to relax-he cannot sleep because he “can feel them, the pictures, like ants, crawling on skin”-the narrator watches as the eighteen Illustrations tell their eighteen tales. Some are violent, some sad, and all surround the one blank place on his back-a place that will slowly resolve itself into a glimpse of the observer’s future if one looks long enough. ![]() Pressed by the narrator, the Illustrated man explains that the old crone was a witch and the Illustrations are magic-they come to life at night and play out their small, frightening dramas on the canvas of his skin. He wears the Illustrations like the black mark of a curse he cannot keep a job or a home and is never able to stay among people for long. But they aren’t tattoos, he explains, they are Illustrations, given to him by a mysterious old woman years before. They sit companionably under a tree for a while, until finally the stranger uncovers himself: Removing his shirt, he reveals vivid, lifelike tattoos covering his entire body. ![]() It all begins with a chance encounter between an unnamed narrator and an aging carnie whose skin is carefully covered despite the hot weather. ![]()
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