In this short gothic horror story from Ambrose Bierce, a boarded window symbolizes a grieving and possibly PTSD affected man’s desire to shut himself off from the outside world. Murlock shows no signs of traditional mourning over his wife’s passing, so his decision to live as he does could well result from a sense of shame and/or guilt over his part in her death. As we have only his version of the night’s events, it could even be that (with or without a panther) his wild shot was the reason for her throat wound! Themes: isolation, death, shame/guilt, loneliness. More…
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The Minority Report
Philip Dick’s The Minority Report is a dystopian adventure story set in a society that takes policing a step even further than the infamous “Thought Police” in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. Its premise is that the authorities have found a way to identify a crime and imprison the would-be perpetrator before he or she even thinks of committing it. Their methods in doing this are disturbing to say the least. Themes: (general) free will vs. fate, injustice, trust vs. paranoia, self-fulfilling prophesy, extrajudicial murder; (for the “precogs”) violation of human rights, enslavement, degradation. More…
Karma
Sir Mohan Lal, the pretentious high-ranking Indian official in this story by Khushwant Singh, is caught between two cultures. After rejecting his heritage and aspiring to identify with the British ruling class, he cannot escape his “Indian-ness”. His self-important behaviour is contrasted with that of his wife, who he treats with disdain but passively accepts her lot. Ironically, his humiliating treatment on a train (being unceremoniously thrown out of his first class carriage by two drunken British soldiers) highlights the dark side of the world he aspires to. Themes include identity, cultural alienation, social class, colonialism, narcissism, prejudice, humiliation. More…
A Sound of Thunder
What is the most dangerous thing about time travel? According to this story by Ray Bradbury, it is doing some small thing that may change the future. Five men travel back in time to hunt a T-Rex. One of them panics when he sees the monster and steps off a specially prepared path. Because of this, they return to a very different world. The last thing the clumsy hunter hears is a sound of thunder. Themes: arrogance, cowardice, the dangers of technology, connections between past and present, democracy vs. dictatorship, the ethics of game hunting. More…