ABSTRACT
At the risk of dating myself, I wonder how many of you remember the Twilight Zone episode entitled “It’s a Good Life,” in which Billy Mumy plays a little boy named Anthony who possesses special powers to do just about anything he wants. Being an omniscient child had its scary side. The things he took delight in were, in equal measure, facile and horrifying. His self-absorption amplified his insecurities, compelling him to demand complete and unwavering assurance from the terrified, yet powerless, adults around him, that everything he did was the most marvelous, beautiful, funny, or intelligent thing that any of them had ever seen—even when he had given into his most craven and grotesque impulses. And if anyone questioned his actions or broke under the unrelenting pressure of maintaining this delusion, they were either transformed into some pitiable deformed creature or “sent to the cornfield.” We never do find out what being sent to the cornfield actually means, but by everyone’s terrified and sycophantic exclamations of “That’s a good thing that you done, Anthony, real good!” to stay on his good side, we know that it must be something truly awful.
