XPost: rec.arts.sf.written

Michael F. Stemper <[email protected]> wrote:

On 30/10/2020 16.46, [email protected] wrote:

On Thursday, October 29, 2020 at 5:28:54 PM UTC-4, Michael F. Stemper wrote: >>> Every October[1], the question of "what are some good Halloween

stories?" comes up. Here are my suggestions.

You'll find very few that portray physical danger. There are no
slavering monsters or clanking chains. These lean towards the
direction of mental or psychological danger.

I've limited this list to one story per author. It was at times
painful to do this, but I stuck to the rule. After all, if I relaxed
it even just to allow two stories by Bradbury, I'd end up putting in
twenty stories by Bradbury.

I have done my level best to avoid spoilers. These capsules just give
the setups for the various stories.

I snipped your much-appreciated capsules just for brevity purposes,
and I've added some suggestions of my own at the end.

Jerome Bixby: "It's a _Good_ Life"
Ray Bradbury: "Zero Hour"
John Collier: "Evening Primrose"
Philip K. Dick: "The Father-Thing"
Richard Matheson: "Mad House"
Lewis Padgett: "The Twonky"
Clifford D. Simak: "Founding Father"
Norman Spinrad: "Carcinoma Angels"

Additional snips for brevity.

Kuttner & Moore: "Vintage Season"
Matheson: "Born of Man and Woman"
Tons of choices for Bloch, Lovecraft, Poe, and Bierce.
Le Guin: The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas
Clarke: The Haunted Space Suit (aka Who's There?)
Sturgeon: Bianca’s Hands
Campbell: Who Goes There?
Stephen King: The Mist

The Bixby, Bradbury, Kuttner & Moore and Le Guin are all known to me.
Among other publications, "The Father-Thing" appears in a twenty-four
short story collection called _The Philip K. Dick Reader_.
One of my goals is to migrate all of my unpolished, previously
private, rough draft reviews to a website. This thread motivated me to
publish my take on "The Father-Thing" as my premier _Reader_ review at: https://crcomp.net/arts/pkdreader/index.php#fatherthing
Near its top, my "under construction" Reader review shows cover art,
which indubitably portrays Ted Walton and his doppelganger. Then comes
"The Father-Thing" review in the middle, with a few words about its
recent TV adaptation. A link near the the end points to the pertinent
story in "Reader" via Internet Archive.
More story reviews will be published from my rough drafts as time
permits. Unfortunately, this thread grows staler with each passing day.
So it's better to publish something, anything, rather than nothing.

Given the Le Guin, there's probably a place for "The Lottery" (Jackson)
on this list. This Jackson shares a scapegoat theme with the Le Guin.
There's an interesting tidbit near the end of my "Lottery" review:

https://crcomp.net/arts/lottery/index.php

Thank you In Advance to readers who alert me to typos and whatnot.

Danke,

--
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