I read this in middle school, and thought it was odd but forgettable. I reread it, and still don’t really understand the point.
Okay, so the family is made from…
sugar. Is there supposed to be some deeper meaning, like it represents Communism or the Red Scare or the banality of fifties suburban life? Actually, that last one does make sense since they’re such a seemingly perfect family. I mean, when I describe the story to people it just sounds so random and kind of dumb–“Oh, and the twist is that the woman thought they might be made of sugar jokingly…and then they were.”
Don’t know, but that’s kind of a cool little story. Though to my mind it says more about their oh-so-annoying, nosy, neighbor wife than it does about them.
Hey, you know, totally off topic - I met someone the other day who bikes from Niskayuna to Albany every day. I met him because I also am biking to work - from Albany to Colonie. :eek: I was wondering how he did it!
I only tell you because you know of what I speak, fellow Capital Region Resident.
All I can tell you is, that story bugged the *shit *out of me when I was nine and read it for the first time! The ending was pretty shocking stuff to a kiddo stumbling onto it unexpectedly, and the notion of innocent and vulnerable sugar people lured to their doom by their nasty, normal neighbors really got to me and haunted me sporadically for the next few years too. Can’t quite see why now…I found it online a few months ago, after many, many years, and you know what? I actually got the giggles reading it. It’s just such an out-there premise for someone to have imagined and written a story around.
In school, I just figured, “Eh, throwaway story–something for the kids to learn story structure on.” But when I later learned it was by Asimov…I guess I expected greatness. Not that I’ve ever read him, but he’s got a big name.
ETA:
Well, they hardly seemed lured by nasty neighbors. I mean, they kind of had it coming if they decided to, you know, go to a planet filled with something that could destroy them. (If they were aliens.) That is what we all say about “Signs,” anyway. Sucks to be you, Sakkaro family.
Sometimes big names mean they were good in their day, but it doesn’t mean that everything they wrote will appear as genius to people today. Sometimes that’s because what was once groundbreaking has become commonplace. Sometimes it’s just a matter of personal taste. Sometimes we try so hard to avoid showing things which might offend someone that what is left is bland nonsense. Sometimes people just have a bad day.
Take Shakespeare, for example, I had to explain to my Mexican friend that no, it isn’t evidence of her limited grasp of the English language that she had failed to understand large swaths of whichever Shakespearean play had been produced at that year’s Shakespeare Festival. But people still turn out in droves to see Shakespeare performed, even if they don’t expect to get all of it. (And to be fair, some plays and some performances are easier to understand than others).
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