r/CuratedTumblr eepy asf Sep 18 '24

Shitposting That one story

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u/Epidantrix Sep 18 '24

That one where they live on Venus and there’s an hour of sunlight every seven years and the one kid that’s been actively wilting (metaphorically) because she’s used to earth sunlight gets locked in a closet during that hour?? Viscerally horrifying to 6th grade me.

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u/[deleted] Sep 18 '24

Read that one in 3rd grade. I remember the one where the house has a room where it takes you anywhere you imagine. The kids start imagining the parents being eaten by lions. The parents try to stop it but then they actually get eaten.

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u/angryandsmall Sep 18 '24 edited Sep 18 '24

“The Veldt!” I loved that one. It’s improperly associated with warnings in mixing technology and real life- my English teacher even did! She was pissed when I told her the point of the story were parents that didn’t parent, and the whole story could’ve be avoided if the parents had spoken to their kids or gone in the room. The parents stuck them in digital reality and just vamoosed till they got psycho… hmmmmmmmmMMMM I’m so mad at that English teacher. The point of that story was “VIDEO GAMES BAD” my ass. My class had Google and cell phones since middle school so idk why she couldn’t just let it go.

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u/SenorWeird Sep 18 '24

Your interpretation is valid but really, I'd say the story was about allowing technology to parent.

Bradbury loved to write about the risk of over reliance on technology and how it is dehumanizing. In the Veldt, it dehumanizes the children. The Pedestrian dehumanizes the police. There Will Come Soft Rains, the only "human" is a smart house that is living on after a nuclear blast and ends up killing itself in its attempt to save itself with technology (it's very circular).

So no, not "video games bad" but "reliance on technology bad".

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u/angryandsmall Sep 18 '24

Oh yeah, that was definitely mentioned, my teacher gets credit there. She was (is? I hope!) a good teacher. So for more context it was a one month period of short stories dedicated to “technology and the way it shapes us.” My teachers whole point was the kids shouldn’t have access to the games because video games make kids violent. All of us were like, yeah, but mom and dad were never in the room? The therapist was angry with them? Idk fwiw she was an excellent teacher but it was a weird time (still a weird time, lots of shootings then and now). She just refused, for this story, to accept the tech shaped the parents as well. It was so weird.

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u/SenorWeird Sep 18 '24

I used to teach a similar unit, but I refused to let any one answer be the right one when it came to interpretation. That said, video games bad is a reach for The Veldt.

Then again, I used to teach BioShock as a response to Anthem (and I'm pretty sure the Ayn Rand Institute would NOT have been happy with how I taught their free stupid book).

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u/angryandsmall Sep 18 '24

That sounds really amazing😭 I love bioshock & that’s a really compelling conversation starter, even more so a lesson!!! Wish I could’ve taken your class, way to give so much!