Most readers will identify the major theme of Richard Matheson’s Button, Button as greed: the immoral pursuit of ‘easy money’ by pushing a button in a mysterious box that will result in the death of an innocent stranger. One character comments that this may be OK if the person that dies is some old Chinese peasant ten thousand miles away. This suggests that the story may also be an allegory. Pressing a button to launch a missile in war, and dealing in commercial quantities of drugs in peacetime, have one thing in common. The victims are all faceless strangers. More…
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Counterfeit Bills
Richard Matheson is renowned for his novels and traditional short stories in the fantasy, horror and science fiction genres. This is one of his few published flash stories, and the fact that it is a spoof of the science fiction cloning model makes it especially interesting. The story is based on the premise of how nice it would be to have a ‘double’ to carry out all the mundane tasks in your life, so you could spend all your time going out and having fun. Despite (or perhaps thanks to) the corny puns, it is a very enjoyable Quick Read. More…
Born of Man and Woman
Many readers find this short horror story by Richard Matheson incredibly moving. One of its major themes is Beauty vs. Ugliness. The protagonist is an eight-year-old child who has been locked in a basement for most of its life because of his/her monstrous form and size. The child does not appear to be possessed by an evil or supernatural force. The child is inquisitive about the outside world, but is cruelly beaten every time he/she ventures upstairs. The horror aspect comes from the cruelty the child suffers and the threat of impending violence if it continues. More…
Slaughter House
Although highly regarded as a classic, chilling ghost story, die-hard Richard Matheson fans may find Slaughter House somewhat disappointing. Matheson deliberately changes his normal crisp, easy to read writing style to experiment with the formality of mid-Victorian writing. The result: some extremely obscure vocabulary and very long, pompously formal sentences that are sometimes disjointed and confusing. The story itself is captivating. Two brothers, whose described relationship suggests a little more than brotherly love, fall for the lustful ghost of a young woman that enchants, has its way with, and then tries to kill them. Only one of the three survives! More…
Prey
In this famous horror story from Richard Matheson, a young woman buys her new boyfriend a Zuni fetish doll for his birthday. A scroll inside the box reads This is He Who Kills…. He is a deadly hunter. As she prepares to shower, the doll turns out to be the real deal. It escapes the gold chain designed to keep the hunter’s spirit locked inside, and sets off in search of prey. You get the feeling that both the girl and the spirit are at least temporarily happy with the outcome. However, the girl’s controlling mother may not be! More…