> This film brought back to mind the story of the boy who
> first becomes distant then goes catatonic dreaming of snow. It
> was a short story then done on the original and newer twilight
> zone.ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~
> Clapp, Jeffrey - Educational Television Developer
 
 
The short story to which Jeffrey refers is Conrad Aiken's "Silent Snow, Secret
Snow."  I've never seen the newer TWILGIHT ZONE's adaptation of it, but the
original TWILIGHT ZONE episode (with narration by Orson Welles, possibly?) is
what sent me to the short story in the first place.  I ended up teaching the
story to literature students later.
 
Perhaps there are similarities to *The Piano*, but the differences are
significant:  the young boy in Aiken's story and its TV adaptations refuses,
through his silence, to participate in a world of indifference, cruelty, and
ugliness, but ultimately that refusal constitutes a retreat into madness as
well!
 
Alison McKee
Department of Film and Television
UCLA
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