See that book image? Look closely at the green-skinned alien in the upper corner. Frightening little guy, isn't he?
I found this book at the local supermarket and bought it for Kid #1. Stonehenge, the Loch Ness monster, UFOs: it was screaming out his name. He read most of the volume, then returned it to me with a tremble. He declared that I never should have purchased the thing because the alien on its cover is so so so creepy.
He awakened me at 3:28 this morning, right after the nightmare that this image provoked had awakened him, to ensure I got his point.
Mordant chuckles all around this house. At least, there will be until I remind Alison of the scary bear (F + bear), or walrus, or squirrel from Kubrick's Shining, which is the 3 seconds of film calculated to give wifey nightmares most effortlessly.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was Kid #1's age what creeped me out worst were uncanny apparitions of my dad standing before my bedroom door at night, glowing bluely. Not because my dad was scary--far from it--but because I knew he was asleep (like me, he snores like a mofo) or at work. When I finally read, and taught, Freud's essay on the Uncanny, I experienced a not wholly welcome shock of recognition: how dare that bourgeois Austrian have such insight into my terrors?