Next week’s story To Build a Fire by Jack London
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This week we say goodbye to Kenechi as he moves toward graduation and the great job search. We all wish him luck, his voice will be missed on the podcast.
So, we finally read a story by the very catalyst of our rating system. The Veldt is an interesting story that crosses horror, sci-fi and literary fiction. Because of the depth of meaning, we had a wonderful discussion crossing many topics. We all seemed to really enjoy the story, but we also read the story very differently from one another.
Yes, we do have a rating scale based on Bradberries! For the history of this goofy system, see Anais’ post “Read Short Stories or Ray Bradbury Cries.” If you want to design a Bradberry, we’d love to see it. Anais has the urge to create a Bradberry collage… Imagine, Bradberries on your desktop! You gave last week’s story, Constance’s Law by Bridget Hardy, 3.75 Bradberries.
On a scale of 1-6 Bradberries, how do you rate ‘The Veldt‘? Tell us in the comments below or via voicemail, and we will give you the final tally on the next episode.
Next week we are reading To Build a Fire by Jack London.
So sorry to hear Kenechi is leaving, he is my "voice of reason." lol Best of luck Kenechi!
Another underlying theme in the story is “how do children actually develop morality?” If we look at Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory, “Stages of Moral Development.” We see that there are different stages of moral development in children. When children are neglected or not properly socialized, they do not get to the higher stages of moral development. They will remain in the first stage of infancy, “obedience/punishment" (If I act good, I avoid punishment), or even the second stage, “self- interest,” when the focus shifts from punishment to reward (if I act good, I’ll get rewarded). They never get to a stage when they’re able to recognize or separate right from wrong.
One thing is for children to have twisted or horrific fantasies, and another is to act out those fantasies. I don’t agree with Maya (sorry Maya), I don’t believe children are born with evil tendencies that we need to keep at bay. I think our job as parents is to help children develop properly by forming the right types of relationships, and their first relationship is with us parents.
The children in this story are neglected. They’re being raise by “the nursery”. Neglected children can’t usually form the necessary emotional attachments to properly develop moral or social skills. The fact that these children lack social skills is what we find odd, and it’s implied in the language Ray Bradbury uses in the parent/child interaction. When we look at the history of murderers, psychopaths, and serial killers, we will often find a history of neglect, and we will also find abuse of animals as kids.
There’s also the theme of the desensitizing effects of technology… so many themes which is what makes this short story literary fiction. I really enjoyed reading it, and it also left me thinking.
I give it 5 bradberries.
Hahaha, oh you totally just said children are naturally evil until we teach them to be moral creatures, no take backs lol! You just said it Soooo much nicer 😉 I love child psychology and your comment is right on! Parents are even more important than most people realize and this story was a wonderful exploration of neglect and technology. Great comment, I can ee myself re-reading this story often.
Haha I just had another thought, what if it’s not the children, what if it’s the room itself that kills them in self defense because it does not want to be shut down. I mean if the lions can come to life…artificial intelligence? Mind blown!
Good point. I think it could be the room and the children in cahoots. What about if the room is actually controlling the children?
But I did love how Bradbury foresaw the effect that technology would have on our society. Subliminal advertising to children, anyone? "Must buy Apple products, must buy Apple products …" It worked on me, anyway 😉
Yes, the children imagine it, and the room executes their idea.
P.S. good luck with everything Kenechi!
Not much to say about this one that you folks didn’t cover in the podcast. It has that wonderful mixture of prediction and hokiness so common in sci-fi from that era. If Bradbury extrapolated from black and white television to our current enslavement to technology, he deserves to have his face put on a berry or something. The message is stale yet more relevant than ever.
A couple of inconsistencies made me enjoy the story (andor like the characters) less:
When George and Lydia are in bed and hear screams they believe the kids must have broken into the nursery. Despite their misgivings about the room (and the chewed up bloody wallet) they don’t get up to check anything out? (It’s funny how a lot of 50s sci-fi have emotionally vacant characters)
Once Anais mentioned it, I realized that the lions becoming real did bother me a bit. It defies the physics of the nursery as laid out earlier in the story. The reader can’t tell if this is a supernatural occurrence or some kind of (impossible) flaw in the software or if the kids have rewired it.
In any case I wish the whole family had been devoured! Little bloodthirsty bastards
I wonder if the kids will ever feel bad about what they did or if the house will just become their parent, perhaps enticing them into the oven when it also realizes how spoiled they are!
3.5 Bradberries for me.
Not much to say about this one that you folks didn’t cover in the podcast. It has that wonderful mixture of prediction and hokiness so common in sci-fi from that era. If Bradbury extrapolated from black and white television to our current enslavement to technology, he deserves to have his face put on a berry or something. The message is stale yet more relevant than ever.
A couple of inconsistencies made me enjoy the story (andor like the characters) less:
When George and Lydia are in bed and hear screams they believe the kids must have broken into the nursery. Despite their misgivings about the room (and the chewed up bloody wallet) they don’t get up to check anything out? (It’s funny how a lot of 50s sci-fi have emotionally vacant characters)
Once Anais mentioned it, I realized that the lions becoming real did bother me a bit. It defies the physics of the nursery as laid out earlier in the story. The reader can’t tell if this is a supernatural occurrence or some kind of (impossible) flaw in the software or if the kids have rewired it.
In any case I wish the whole family had been devoured! Little bloodthirsty bastards
I wonder if the kids will ever feel bad about what they did or if the house will just become their parent, perhaps enticing them into the oven when it also realizes how spoiled they are!
3.5 Bradberries for me.