These two short stories by Ray Bradbury were very much unlike anything I have read before. I have read some scifi in my time, and I have actually read a book with a sentient house in it as well, but never one like these. I think its interesting how much paranoia comes through the text. I feel that he is very scared of people becoming so hung up on technology that it brings out the worst in us rather than helps us along.
While I understand some of his sentiment, I actually don’t really enjoy these sorts of super paranoid stories where children kill their parents because they’re so enamored with technology, or houses that stay alive even though its inhabitants are dead. I think it’s nice to read about when the hosue is sentient, but in both of these scenarios, there was a ceratin coldness, almost cruelty, to both of these homes. They killed without concern or consequence, and were wholly apathetic to the people who lived inside of them.
I wonder what in the authors life caused him write not only one, but TWO stories of weird, super houses, that have somehow gone on past the people who made/bought them?
Something else that stood out to me is how despite the lack of people in one of the stories, it managed to emit the same eerie feeling though the actions it took to take care of the people that were supposed to be there. It almost implies that the house killed off its own inhabitants.
I also wonder how other people feel about these houses? Personally I wouldn’t mind having some of the functions of the house with the children living in it. It sounds nice to be able to kick back and not do much sometimes, but I think the appeal lies in the fact that it’s done at your own leisure. That’s why I think the other hosue sound like my own worst nightmare. Having this disembodied house voice yelling at you every few mintues telling you exactly what you need to do at what exact minute would make me want to promptly either shut it off or run away and never come back
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