Quote:
Originally Posted by gmw
But I felt some parts were clumsy, overdone or strained to breaking point. The Happiness Machine was one such, a cute idea that was warped into a bludgeon for the reader.
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I'm going to comment briefly that the Happiness Machine was the one truly sour note in the book for me, for the reason you state. Bludgeon is the perfect word, and why do that? Bradbury was managing to convey his meaning at least slightly more subtly in the other vignettes.
It was even more sour for me in that it's the single element that strayed too far into the flatly impossible, as opposed to the implausible or "perhaps-who knows?". The book would have been better without that particular Machine.