(No?) Nightmares from 2nd Grade
You may recall that when I was in 2nd grade, I read the "Scary Stories to tell in the Dark" books (1st one here), and was immediately traumatized for life. Most specifically, the stories were vaguely scary yet awesome and the illustrations ruined me forever.
Somewhere in my parent's basement, in one of my old boxes of books, I have no doubt that the 3rd Scary Stories is sitting (originally bought when it came out... the latter half of 2nd grade). Honest to Zep, in my mind, it is some kind of secret horror lying in wait for me to find it again, like the multi-chapter that-shit-is-waiting-for-you set-up in a solid Stephen King novel (point of fact: "The Shining" is the only writing that has actually scared me... I had difficulty turning pages).
And due to the profound influence of those scary, scary, scarypants pictures (my long-rooted fear is, naturally, a good laugh for you), I am downright angry that in the upcoming 30th anniversary edition of these books, which got my crazy little mind primed for a future in X-Files, THEY'RE SWAPPING OUT THE ILLUSTRATIONS FOR NEW ONES. Not that the new ones are bad, but the originals were the distinction of the series! How can they abandon them??
THAT is the horror of it all. Seriously: what is this I don't even.
And I'm not the only one who is shocked and dismayed. ONTD shares my outrage.
For the last 15min, I have been (literally) sitting here and trying to remember which illustration most scared the poop out of me, and I can't remember it, or the story it was next to, because my brain has successfully made me forget. Thanks brain... you've made the right decision. Whatever that pic was, I can tell you FOR A FACT that it is what haunts the shadows and dark parking lots in my soul.
Pro fact from Wikipedia, with italics from me: "This series is listed as being the most challenged series of books from 1990-1999 and seventh most challenged from 2000-2009 by the American Library Association for its violence. Also there remains the problem of it being classified as a children's book, due to the surreal and nightmarish illustrations contained within."
AND A ROOSTER JUST CROWED AND I SCREAMED. Time to turn all the lights on for a bit. Cripes.
~A
Edit for relevance:
Beautiful commentary on the importance of the illustrations.
The swap happened already! The Io9 source article is dated! Here's a blog post (no, I didn't bother scrolling though the pics, I'm traumatized enough for one night, thanks) listing the blogger's picks for scariest illustrations in the series.
Obligatory link to TV Tropes, which has a sub-page (links along top of the article) for a mere handful of the illustrations.
Somewhere in my parent's basement, in one of my old boxes of books, I have no doubt that the 3rd Scary Stories is sitting (originally bought when it came out... the latter half of 2nd grade). Honest to Zep, in my mind, it is some kind of secret horror lying in wait for me to find it again, like the multi-chapter that-shit-is-waiting-for-you set-up in a solid Stephen King novel (point of fact: "The Shining" is the only writing that has actually scared me... I had difficulty turning pages).
And due to the profound influence of those scary, scary, scarypants pictures (my long-rooted fear is, naturally, a good laugh for you), I am downright angry that in the upcoming 30th anniversary edition of these books, which got my crazy little mind primed for a future in X-Files, THEY'RE SWAPPING OUT THE ILLUSTRATIONS FOR NEW ONES. Not that the new ones are bad, but the originals were the distinction of the series! How can they abandon them??
THAT is the horror of it all. Seriously: what is this I don't even.
And I'm not the only one who is shocked and dismayed. ONTD shares my outrage.
For the last 15min, I have been (literally) sitting here and trying to remember which illustration most scared the poop out of me, and I can't remember it, or the story it was next to, because my brain has successfully made me forget. Thanks brain... you've made the right decision. Whatever that pic was, I can tell you FOR A FACT that it is what haunts the shadows and dark parking lots in my soul.
Pro fact from Wikipedia, with italics from me: "This series is listed as being the most challenged series of books from 1990-1999 and seventh most challenged from 2000-2009 by the American Library Association for its violence. Also there remains the problem of it being classified as a children's book, due to the surreal and nightmarish illustrations contained within."
AND A ROOSTER JUST CROWED AND I SCREAMED. Time to turn all the lights on for a bit. Cripes.
~A
Edit for relevance:
Beautiful commentary on the importance of the illustrations.
The swap happened already! The Io9 source article is dated! Here's a blog post (no, I didn't bother scrolling though the pics, I'm traumatized enough for one night, thanks) listing the blogger's picks for scariest illustrations in the series.
Obligatory link to TV Tropes, which has a sub-page (links along top of the article) for a mere handful of the illustrations.