Bradbury, Ray - Veldt, The (1950)

Bradbury takes readers into a disturbing version of technology-based Utopia in this short story, which depicts the life of the Hadley family. Their dependence on electronics and virtual reality has become so extreme that it is literally an addiction for the children, who are the epitome of spoiled brats. It's perfectly normal for children to react negatively when they are denied a toy by their parents, but most children don't have the smarts or the long-term memory to respond as violently as the Hadley children do. Many authors have wirtten on how children y have extremely violent thoughts, but are restrained from carrying out said due to their lack of long-term planning abilities, but in Bradley's world the children are more than capable. This twisted depiction is very much in line with Iain Bank's The Wasp Factory, but somehow not actually seeing the parents murdered is more disturbing... ( )