In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories
When I was a kid, late at night, I used to pull every item of clothing from my dresser and build a giant, human-sized birds nest out of them. Then, I would set up camp inside of it and read spooky books. Ones with lots of pictures.
Horror books were commonplace in my house when I was growing up And, seeing my mom’s giant collection of Stephen King hard covers first turned me onto the idea that scary things must be pretty interesting. But, it was snuggled up in that nest where I developed my own personal love for horror.
Luckily for me, my mom got my brother and I both access to library cards the second we could recognize letters. And so, my childhood was filled with books. But not just whatever was on our shelves at home. I had the whole library to choose from. This total freedom meant that I could discover my interests on my own terms. I loved it. Sitting in my nest with a stack of new books from the library, I was in heaven.
I don’t remember the first time I read “In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories” but, I’m sure it was in my nest and I’m sure I was fucking horrified.
Most of you who know the book are probably thinking, “Oh, I know! The Green Ribbon is so scary!” Well, yes. Yes, it is. But my trauma came from the first story in the book. The Teeth. Allow me to summarize. A boy is walking down the road where he meets a man. The man smiles at him and shows the boy that he has a very large set of teeth. Disturbed, the boy continues walking and meets another man. Again, the man smiles and shows the boy that he teeth are even larger. The story continues like this with the boy walking and meeting men who smile to reveal increasingly larger and scarier teeth. Until finally the boy can’t take it anymore and runs home. Guys. That’s horror! That is raw horror and 7-year-old me LOVED IT!
In a Dark, Dark Room was published in 1984 and, get this, was actually made with the purpose of teaching young children to read. Rated at a level 2 (which is described as “High interest stories and language play for developing readers”), it is suggested that the reader should have the help of an adult. OK! LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT! So the reader is not yet able to read fluently, but they’re deemed mature enough to handle the totally fucked up stories? Not to mention the nightmare fuel illustrations?
Well sure, why the hell not!! (no sarcasm intended, I think it’s great.)
The book is comprised of 7 bone chilling short stories, compiled and retold by Alvin Schwartz. You may recognize Alvin as the name on the front of the “Scary Stories to tell in the dark” books.
Born in New York in 1927, Schwartz attended both Colby College and Northwestern University. Before his death in 1992, he wrote over 50 books, mainly children’s literature. Schwartz specialized in folklore and wordplay so it’s no surprise that, what is widely known as his masterpiece, would be a collection of quirky, silly and sometimes dark rhymes and stories. Schwartz is a modern day Grimm brother. That’s my opinion anyways. He brought what I always loved most in a story back to mainstream reading for children. And that is, the unexpected morose ending. The realization of the protagonist’s worst fears. The head toppling off of the lover’s neck onto the floor before her husband’s feet. The little girl finally convincing herself to peek out from the blankets covering her face, only to find a ghost at the foot of her bed. The anti ‘all wrapped up with a bow’ ending.
Like the Grimm brothers, Schwartz didn’t write any of the stories in A Dark Room, he merely retold them. Carefully selected them from hundreds of tales told by different cultures throughout history and gave them to us in one easy to read children’s book. He paired them with eerie illustrations by artist Dirk Zimmer so that people of all ages and reading ability could understand the horror even if they couldn’t understand the words. Zimmer was born in Germany and attended the Academie of Fine Arts in Hamburg. His illustrations are bright and exaggerated, perfect for young children. They’re also beautifully detailed and subtly disturbing. The kind of disturbing that maybe children don’t see right away but, that the adults reading with them recognize immediately.
I, personally, love picture books. If I were ever to write adult fiction, I would include loads of illustrations on just about every page.
Zimmer was incredibly successful at creating illustrations that were appropriate for children even though the content of the story could have been drawn in much darker ways. Yes, I’m finally talking about The Green Ribbon. Based on European folklore, what we know as The Green Ribbon was originally, The Red Thread. No, that wasn’t the name of the story, but it was indeed a red thread marking where the head was cut off, then reattached. It seems that this is the best known story from the book and with good reason. It may be retold for children, but it is still a story about a woman’s head falling off no matter which way you spin it. Now that I think about it, maybe that’s why so many parents protested the book and demand that it be removed from libraries. (Bunch of fucking squares.)
Despite their efforts, the book remains available today, however only seems to be popular with older generations like my own. Have children become too sheltered? Are video games taking over? Are busier stories more appealing for generations with increasingly lower attention spans? Or is this just the natural progression of things? Out with the old, in with the new. Most of my younger coworkers know (and love) the Twilight movies but have no idea who Gary Oldman is let alone that he OWNED his role as Dracula and Bela Lugosi may as well be the name of a pasta dish.
So, my old friends (if you were born in or before the 80s, I’m talking to you.), it’s up to us to carry the torch. Read scary books from your past to your terrible children. Hide in their closets afterwards and jump out in the night. Chase them around with knives… wait, what was I talking about again? Ah yes. Keep the magic alive, folks. Snuggle into your own human-sized birds nest and enjoy a night learning to read again. But make sure you bring a flashlight so that you can do it, In a Dark, Dark Room.