Sunday, June 27, 2021

Alfred Hitchcock's Monster Museum


This was a book that I found at the local library in the 70s.  I wanted to read about monsters and the helpful librarian found this for me.  I don't remember how old I was, or if I had even heard of Alfred Hitchcock, either.  It seems like I might have known who he was, though, as he was still someone that people talked about.  He passed on in 1980, so was still alive when I read this.  My mother also knew who he was, so I'm sure I was aware of the name.  I think I might have been a bit young for this book, though.  It was published in 1965, making it as old as I am, and is a collection of previously published short stories.  I didn't quite understand all of them, and only remembered three of the twelve stories that were presented in here.  Two of those stories scared me silly.

The first stories is called "Day of the Dragon", written by Guy Endore and published in 1934.  A scientists creates a new form of life that takes over the world.  This one is not that scary.  The second one I remembered is called "Slime" by Joseph Payne Brennan, written in 1953.  It's about a black ooze from the bottom of the ocean.  It comes ashore to feed.  Blob monsters have always scared me, because they could exist.  The final story that disturbed me is "Shadow, Shadow, on the Wall" by  Theodore Sturgeon.  I just re-read that one, and completely misunderstood it the first time.  It was far less scary this time.

I'm looking forward to reading the other stories now and seeing if I remember them at all.

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