There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.
— Season 1 opening narration
We’re two weeks out from the close of Summer Reading, and the procrastinators among us may have just one or two tasks to complete before they can take that victory lap. In honor of both the 60th anniversary of the premiere and Jordan Peele‘s new reboot, here are a few ideas to take your Summer Reading into the fifth dimension, because who doesn’t appreciate a timely theme?
Check off “read a celebrity biography” by diving into the life of the show’s creator and narrator, Rod Serling. Want to download an audiobook? You can listen to hours and hours of the Twilight Zone radio dramas through Hoopla. Watch a Sci-fi TV show by checking out, you guessed it, “The Twilight Zone” or “Night Gallery,” Serling’s twin vignette-style series, but with 70s hairstyles. Finally, you can refer to this list of short stories on which select episodes were based. Heck, you may even feel so compelled to finish the rest of the book and submit a review!
A few favorites with their first lines:
“Time Enough At Last” by Lyn Venable
Adapted for episode #8
“For a long time, Henry Bemis had had an ambition. To read a book. Not just the title or the preface, or a page somewhere in the middle. He wanted to read the whole thing, all the way through from beginning to end. A simple ambition perhaps, but in the cluttered life of Henry Bemis, an impossibility.”
Damon Knight’s “To Serve Man”
Adapted for episode #89
“The Kanamit were not very pretty, it’s true. They looked something like pigs and something like people, and that is not an attractive combination. Seeing them for the first time shocked you; that was their handicap. When a thing with the countenance of a fiend comes from the stars and offers a gift, you are disinclined to accept.”
Ray Bradbury’s “I Sing The Body Electric!“
Adapted for episode #100
“Grandma! I remember her birth. Wait, you say, no man remember’s his own grandma’s birth. But, yes, we remember the day that she was born. For we, her grandchildren, slapped her to life.”
“In His Image” by Charles Beaumont
Adapted for episode #103
“‘I waited, mister,’ the old woman said. ‘For thirty years; yes sir.’ She smelled of hospital corridors, pressed ferns, dust: age had devoured her. Now there was nothing left, except the eyes which flashed.”
