Never too Late to Read Classics discussion

Our short story read for June is "It's a Good Life" by Jerome Bixby. Bixby was an American short story writer and scriptwriter, and this 1953 story is one of his most well-known, which fans of "The Twilight Zone" may recognize. He also wrote a few episodes of "Star Trek", among other science fiction shows and movies. The story is under 20 pages. Hope all who check it out enjoy!

Find PDF and audio versions of the story here: https://www.sffaudio.com/its-a-good-l...

A great story. I'm in!

A 5 star story! He paints the normality of Peaksville, then introduces the horror bit by bit, then finishes with the biggest horror of all.

I'm glad you enjoyed it, Bernard! I never watched "The Twilight Zone", but I am curious if fans of the show see the connection in this story.

I read it soon after I started reading SF, but was then surprised to not find more stories by him.

Bernard wrote: I read it soon after I started reading SF, but was then surprised to not find more stories by him.

As far as I know, Bixby never wrote any novels, but he wrote a fair number of short stories, most of them in the 50s and 60s. You can find a few digital collections bringing together his shorter works (there’s one, for example, published by Wildside Press). I don’t believe his stories have been anthologized all that often with one huge exception — “‘It’s a Good Life’”. In a way that’s understandable since it’s unlike most of Bixby’s stories. One reviewer described the typical Bixby tale as a “rambling stor[y] told by some guy at a bar”. They tended, too, to be rather good-humored. “Life” is anything but that. It’s frankly one of the most terrifying stories I’ve ever read. It’s not just the character of Anthony that makes this classic so effective; it’s the pitiful desperation evinced by the inhabitants of Peaksville as they try to stay alive in a world ruled by a kind of idiot god.

As Samantha notes, the story has been adapted at least twice. Rod Serling adapted it for the original Twilight Zone series. The episode aired in 1961 and featured Bill Mumy as Anthony. It’s a very good episode, but (in my opinion) only captures a fraction of the horror and despair found in the story. The story also appeared as a segment in the 1983 Twilight Zone movie. The screenplay for the film segment was written by Richard Matheson. Matheson could usually be counted on to produce decent stuff, but his adaptation of the Bixby story was a bit of a mess — I think it was meant to be both amusing and frightening, but ended up being neither.

Canavan, that is a very thorough breakdown of Bixby. Thank you for posting it.

Has anyone else gotten the chance to read this story or have thoughts they'd like to share?