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SCIENCE FICTION THAT SCARS CHILDREN I Did Not Suffer from Over-Protective Par- Night

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SCIENCE FICTION THAT SCARS CHILDREN I Did Not Suffer from Over-Protective Par- Night EDITORIAL Sheila Williams SCIENCE FICTION THAT SCARS CHILDREN I did not suffer from over-protective par- night. Convinced that Clarke was a hor- ents. One cold November weekend dur- ror writer, it was ten years before I found ing my childhood, they took me to see the courage to read any of his other sto- Konga, a low-budget horror movie set in ries and novels. London about a mad scientist and a gi- My grandfather managed to add to my ant rampaging ape. My tiny New Eng- fears by retelling Richard Matheson’s land town was hosting a horror film se- The Incredible Shrinking Man. After ries: for 25 cents, this King Kong rip-off that, I was sure that if I went into the could be seen in the auditorium of my el- basement alone I was bound to en- ementary school—the only venue large counter a black widow spider.A daunting enough to hold events of any significant thought even if I wasn’t shrinking. size. I was completely traumatized by Ray Bradbury’s “The Veldt”—a story the movie and demanded a nightlight at about scary children and their belea- bedtime. My parents obliged, and I’m guered parents—was a classic horror tale certain they would have kept that night- from the Golden Age of Science Fiction light burning for the next two weeks if that I discovered on my own. I remember necessary. Unfortunately, a couple of reading the tale as a young girl, and then evenings later we were among the thirty rereading it to be sure I’d gotten the end- million people plunged into darkness by ing right. I had not previously encoun- the Great Northeast Blackout of 1965. I tered such horrible children and wasn’t still think of that as the longest and per- quite certain that kids could behave so haps the most terrifying night of my life. badly. It took me a couple of reads to be I’m not sure if that’s why I’ve always certain that yes, the story had played out been a wimp when it comes to horror, exactly as I’d originally thought it had. whether it’s presented in movies or liter- Although I managed to avoid most hor- ature. There’s a good chance I was des- ror movies, I was still drawn to some ter- tined for my squeamishness. I had always rifying works of literature like a moth to stayed out of the TV room when my fami- a flame. As a young woman, I must have ly watched horror flicks. I was so fright- read George R.R. Martin’s Hugo and Neb- ened by the dinosaurs that I couldn’t sit ula-award-winning novelette “Sandkings” through my dad’s readings of the Edgar five or six times. Not because I didn’t get Rice Burroughs’s Pellucidar series. I left it—I did. But each subsequent reading the room so often during his rendition of gave me the mesmerizing frisson of fear John W. Campbell’s “Who Goes There?” that I’d felt the first time through the tale. that I only remember snatches of Camp- In Danse Macabre, Stephen King says, bell’s story about a protean alien thing “I recognize terror as the finest emotion wreaking havoc on an intrepid band of . and so I will try to terrorize the read- Antarctic explorers. er. But if I find that I cannot terrify One terrifying tale that I did manage him/her, I will try to horrify; and if I find to sit through was Arthur C. Clarke’s “A I cannot horrify, I’ll go for the gross-out. Walk in the Dark.” That story, which I’m not proud.” I really don’t like the leaves so much to the reader’s imagina- slice and dice approach to fiction, but tion, probably scarred me for life. I can there are stories that render pain so ex- still hear the rattle of those monstrous quisitely I sometimes find that I just claws whenever I’m out walking alone at can’t turn away. Paolo Bacigalupi’s tale 4 Asimov’s about the depraved future that fosters ally pass on tales of the occult submitted “The Fluted Girl” is one of those brutal sto- here. Asimov’s is primarily a science fic- ries that have left indelible marks on me. I tion magazine, after all. My favorite tales let my own daughter read the tale when of terror are psychological SF stories like she was twelve, and while she now loves Chris Beckett’s “Day 29,” where both the all of Paolo’s work, she says she’s never reader and the main character aren’t ex- quite recovered from the experience. actly sure about what he’s done and what The range of emotions discussed by he will do next, but we have a pretty bad King and pervasive in the stories that idea. Yet there has always been a little disrupted my childhood can be found in leeway for fantasy and the outré in Asi- some of the tales published in Asimov’s mov’s. Our annual slightly spooky Octo- over the years. The magazine has never ber/November issue leaves the door been much of a home for horror, but dark cracked open just enough for ghosts and stories do slip into our pages from time other supernatural creatures to creep in. to time. Mike Resnick, Lucius Shepard, Another parent might have been more Suzy McKee Charnas, and Kit Reed protective of their children’s reading and have given us monsters. S.P. Somtow has viewing encounters. Someone else might twisted the scalpel far more skillfully wonder at my dad’s choices for bedtime than any maniac with a chainsaw. S.N. reading, but children are resilient. I may Dyer, Connie Willis, Esther M. Friesner, not have developed the taste for horror and Cherry Wilder have all found ways that my father had, but my wounds gave to disturb my dreams with haunting me some appreciation for the thrill of be- tales of stolen lives and restless spirits. ing frightened. Just don’t expect me to be We’ve had enough supernatural stories the one who investigates the noise in the to fill anthologies about vampires, were- basement. wolves, and ghosts. I still read horror sparingly and I usu- Copyright © 2012 Sheila Williams Editorial: Science Fiction That Scars Children 5.
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