Arthur C. Clarke once said “Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.” Of the two possibilities, which do you think is more terrifying or do you agree that they’re equal?
While we’re talking terror in short packages; the shortest horror story:
“The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door.”
An even shorter version exists.
“The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a lock on the door.”
Which of those two variants do you find more terrifying, or are they equal?
Two questions for the price of one; multiple choice poll - Q1 is on the possibilities of the Clarke quote, Q2 is on the shortest horror story.
Neither story is horrific. The second could be a commonplace - bathrooms commonly have locks on the door - and the first could refer to the fact that while he might be the last man on Earth, there might be plenty of women left.
Now, if the first started, “The last human on Earth…”, that would be a different matter.
Disagree. The lock is scarier because the brain is creating reasons it’s there and the possibility the lock will never be used…but it MIGHT be tested. The knock is in the past as soon as it happens.
Also the knock isn’t nessecerily a bad situation, a lock is used to keep things out.
While neither will make you fill your drawers in fear, granted, think of the question as which best evokes the spirit of horror. In the time it was written, 1948, ‘man’ would possibly mean ‘all humans’, and the 1904 original it adapts from makes that explicit; “Imagine all human beings swept off the face of the earth, excepting one man. Imagine this man in some vast city, New York or London. Imagine him on the third or fourth day of his solitude sitting in a house and hearing a ring at the door-bell!”
As it stands though here and now you’re right that we don’t know if there are women left, another thing left to the imagination of the reader.
Being the Last Man on Earth™, the lock would be entirely unnecessary (unless there’s aliens about with opposable thumbs. Or tentacles).
If you were truly the Last Man on Earth™, forgoing the seemingly useless lock, then: KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK…
Well… who, or what the fuck IS that?!?!
They both invoke a sense of fear and unease. I suppose it comes down to what gets your panties in a bunch more: Fear of the Unknown, or Irrational Paranoia.
Being alone is more terrifying IMO because if we fuck up that is the end until another intelligent species comes along.
I don’t know what we have that aliens would want which would make them hostile. What do we have? We make shitty slaves compared to alien built machines, aliens aren’t going to want our natural resources in a universe with trillions of uninhabited planets and stars. We are too irrelevant to declare war on. If aliens exist they think of us like we think of a beetle in a forest 100 miles away. They don’t.
I was on the fence about being alone in the universe vs. Aliens!
One is a (profoundly) depressing fact, yet the other could mean a bunch of things from profound excitement and curiosity to obliteration, to no communication at all.
If I could change my vote (both equally terrifying), I’d pick being alone in the universe, as I’m not convinced an advanced alien species would be malicious or view us as insignificant biological primitives, of no interest whatsoever.
I don’t see being alone in the universe as terrifying. We are already living as if we were alone in the universe, so what would change if we confirmed it?
On the other hand, not being alone opens up a lot of options. Some options are viscerally scary, like aliens gestating inside human hosts and having acid for blood. But I also expect contact between two alien species will involve vast differences in technology… and for the next thousand years (and more, probably), the smart money is on the aliens being the more advanced ones. Even if they’re primarily benevolent, finding out that everything we own is a million years obsolete is going to be hell from an employment and economics standpoint. Worse yet are Lovecraft-style aliens that are so alien and so advanced they hardly recognize us as life forms in the first place.
As for the knock or the lock… Maybe there’s something bad outside, and that would be bad. However, a knock on the door is actually quite hopeful in my mind. After all, the opening line specified the last man on Earth. So maybe it’s a woman knocking? That’s not such a bad story.
As for the lock… if he doesn’t need the lock to protect him, then he has it purely out fear/paranoia. It’s bad enough being the last person alive, but to live alone in fear is truly awful. If the person is either locked in (as a prisoner or something) or he’s locked something else out, those are both bad options too.
So… knocking has the possibility of a happy result, while locking always seems bad to me.