Ray Bradbury’s “The Veldt”
“The Veldt” is the lead-off story in Ray Bradbury’s collection The Illustrated Man.
72 years ago, Ray Bradbury imagined a dystopian America rife with technological conveniences by way of domestic microcosm: a nuclear family comfortably ensconced in a cutting-edge house. Engineered with creature comforts that satisfy every need and entertain every whim, the HappyHome takes all the labor away and leaves a void in its wake.
The HappyHome cooks, cleans, and takes care of the children like a nanny. Its virtual reality nursery projects whatever the kids’ fantasies can conjure, even if it comes to murderous revenge.
Sound familiar? Be careful what you wish for.
The children want the freedom to indulge their fantasies. The parents feel threatened by the kids’ fixation on a violent African veldt setting — rife with lions, vultures, and death — and when they resolve to shut down the house and reclaim their relevancy as parents, the children want none of that and freak out, then get rid of Mommy and Daddy in the story’s eerie climax.
“The Veldt” is a projection of our anxiety over technology, how we use it to babysit children and labor-save ourselves toward irrelevancy.
