The Illustrated Man Part 2: Timeline and Continuity (WARNING: Spoilers for a 60-year-old Book!)

It is time to try to fit the stories of  The Illustrated Man into a single timeline, if it can be done.

Now, given that the Illustrated Man has tattoos over his body, given by a crazy woman from the future, this implies that the stories in the book are all on the same timeline. Of course, "crazy woman from the future" could explain any and all continuity discrepencies, but where's the fun in that?

It's much more fun to invent convoluted theories to explain things, even when it's easier just to ignore the issues that don't really much matter in the first place. In fact, I myself have developed the most insane, convoluted, completely unnecessary theory that's even bigger than the Tommy Westphall Universe Hypothesis. But that can wait for another time. Here is the timeline:

• "The Illustrated Man"
• "The Fox and the Forest"
• Frame Story (Prologue/Epilogue, snippets in between some stories)
• "The Veldt"
• "Zero Hour"
• "The Concrete Mixer"
• "Marionettes, Inc."
• "The Highway"
• "The Other Foot"
• "The Long Rain"
• "The Rocket"
• "The Rocket Man"
• "Kaleidoscope"
• "The Visitor"
• "The Exiles"
• "No Particular Night or Morning"
• "The Man"
• "The City"
• "The Last Night of the World"

First off, the story "The Illustrated Man" must come first. That was repetitive. Anyway, in the frame story, the man says he got the tattoos in 1900 when he was 20. "The Fox and the Forest" has time travelers in the 1930s and all the other stories (other than the frame story) take place in the future, of course, given the technologies seen and the worlds visited.


"The Fox and the Forest" has time travellers from an undisclosed time period (2155, to be exact). This date will come in handy later. But as I said, the story itself takes place in the 1930s in Mexico, of course, before the Searchers trap them and take them back to the future (now that'd be interesting...).

In the frame story, the Illustrated Man says he got the tattoos in 1900 and has been searching for the witch for fifty years, which places it in the 1950s.

"The Veldt" doesn't have a particular date, but since it deals with a family really sinking their teeth into some new technology (or, the other way around), it's probably in the late 1900s or early 2000s.

In the story "Zero Hour" the level of technology seems similar to that of "The Veldt", except aliens invade at the end. YAY!

Somehow the people must have defeated the aliens, since everything is fine again in "The Concrete Mixer", when the titular machine goes on a rampage... Oh, wait. That's like the sequel to Rubber or something. In the real story Martians invade. Now here is why I place the story here on the timeline (redundancy is redundant): the humans put on a celebration when the Martians arrive! The only plausible explanation for this is that humanity has been invaded before and they want to obtain mercy from their new masters, as well as to get the whole slavery thing over with. But instead, earth culture overwhelms them.

Then, in 1990 (it says on the card Braling Two shows Smith) the company Marionettes, Inc. is illegally producing robotic duplicates of people for a steep price. There are no Martian slave masters to speak of, so they must have died after Taco Bell really didn't agree with them.

"The Highway" is about people escaping from the terrible beginnings of a great war, the most terrible war ever, World War III.

Now, "The Other Foot". You might be wondering why there didn't seem to be black people on earth in the last several stories. Here's why: they escaped to Mars. Given that there are no native Martians, they must have died off. Curse you, Snuggy! Why'd you have to suffocate them? Anyway, the mother of the family which the story focuses on says she remembers white people from when she was a little girl in 1965. Her husband says it has been twenty years since he left for Mars at age 16. Assuming the man and wife are around the same age, it could be 25 to 30 years since 1965. Thus, I estimate that the story takes place in the early to mid 1990s.

The story "The Long Rain" tells of one of the first expeditions on Venus as the men try to reach shelter before it's too late. Obviously this story must be before any others that mention people living on Venus.

"The Rocket" could really take place anywhere in the timeline after interplanetary travel is achieved and people are living on Mars and Venus. But I place it during the time humans are still in the solar system since the mock rocket ride primarily focuses on Mars. And it can't be after "The Visitor", since I postulate that after that story Mars is abandoned for a time, as there were incurable, highly contagious sick people living there.

"The Rocket Man" and "Kaleidoscope" must take place in the same time period, since they likewise mention people living on Mars, Venus, etc. and show rockets routinely moving back and forth between them.

In "The Visitor" there are many people living on Mars with an incurable sickness, the "blood rust". Not sure what happened to all the Martian colonies, but they're obviously not there anymore. I wonder if there are still any people living on Venus, Mercury or Neptune at this time?

After the sick people on Mars all die out and the illness is cured on earth or something, Mars is empty, except for the spirits of restless classical authors who don't want their work destroyed. In "The Exiles" the year is 2120 and men from earth arrive with the last copies of these authors' books. And they promptly burn them, causing the authors and their creations to cease their existence. Very Fahrenheit 451 except for the supernatural part...although there is Something Wicked This Way Comes. Sorry. Getting ahead of myself.

"No Particular Night or Morning" is another ambiguous one. I placed it here since it seems possibly a longer trip out of the solar system, but I suppose it could go anywhere there is interplanetary travel.

In "The Man" some space faring men find a planet where apparenly Christ has just visited and left, possibly carrying out similar events to those on earth. This could be one of the first non-solar system planets man visits in the timeline.

Then comes "The City" wherein some men arrive on a planet and are promptly cut up and stuffed with clockwork parts--in short, they're basically turned into robots. The city waited for 20,000 years for this revenge on humans who so long ago fought with those who built the city, who spread disease among them and killed them all. Now the robots are turned back on earth. In "The Fox and the Forest", the refugees in time remembered being drafted into a long war and working with disease cultures in 2155. Perhaps this is the war that was against these aliens? (It would make sense, earth having been invaded twice before, for the humans to be hostile toward other extraterrestrial races. Obviously it was a bad choice.)

Finally, on "The Last Night of the World" everyone on earth has a premonition that the world is about to end, possibly at the hands of the robots in "The City".

Thus is my long attempt to make sense of this crazy timeline. Hopefully it works well.

This is also an example of what I will begin doing to larger fictional universes, those that span multiple books or movies.

Next Time: ...The Illustrated Man?