Many years ago I read a short story called The Public Hating. It was in one of those SciFi anthology/best of/annual type books and I think from the late 50’s early 60’s? A really old guy loaned it to me and the pages were all coming unglued so I think it got thrown away. Anyway, criminals were placed in the center of an arena. The announcer proclaimed the vileness of the perps crimes and then instructed the audience to focus their hatred upon individual body parts until they were made to burn. As each part blackened and burst into flames it was described in vivid detail by the narrator. I have never read anything like it. I would like to read it again to see if it still creeps me out. I would also like to read other stuff by the same author if I knew who it was! Any help out there?
The only story by that name in the Locus database is by . . . strangely enough, Steve Allen.
Here’s the entry. Is that the anthology you’re thinking of? (The database only goes back to 1984 – but earlier, reprinted stories do appear, and the original publication was in 1955)
Yes, it really is that Steve Allen. There’s a reason he was known as the Renaissance Man of television. He wrote enough short stories to fill a well-received collection, called, not surprisingly, The Public Hating and other Stories and a series of fairy tales in modern slang called Bop Fables that got even more attention. He wrote enough to fill two more collections of short stories in the 1990s.
That, and the acclaimed albums, and the starring roles in movies, and his autobiography and books on comedy, made him the leading “intellectual” on television. I mean, who thought of Milton Berle or Bob Hope writing?
“The Public Hating” first appeared in Bluebook magazine, of all places. It was selected for Judith Merril’s Best SF anthology for that year. That’s been reprinted in paperback. It’s also been reprinted in:
SF: The Best of the Best, (1967, Judith Merril)
Social Problems Through Science Fiction, (1975, Martin H. Greenberg, John W. Milstead, Joseph D. Olander, Patricia S. Warrick)
Criminal Justice Through Sf, (1977, Joseph D. Olander, Martin H. Greenberg)