It's a Good Life

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"It's a Good Life" is a short story by Jerome Bixby, written in 1953. In 1970 it was voted by the Science Fiction Writers of America as one of the 20 finest science fiction stories ever written. The story was first published in Star Science Fiction Stories No.2.

The story is an exploration of what might happen if, from birth, a child possesses the godlike power of warping reality at whim.

In the story, Anthony Fremont is only three and is only vaguely described as having a "wet purple gaze". He lives in the town of Peaksville, Ohio. The rest of the world does not exist; it was ripped away when Anthony was born, and outside the borders of Peaksville is nothingness. Nobody knows whether Anthony transported Peaksville somewhere or whether the rest of the world (or for that matter, the universe) was destroyed and only Peaksville remains.

There is no electricity, and the people of the town have to make their own things and grow their own food, which is difficult because Anthony controls the weather. They also have to satisfy Anthony's every whim or risk displeasing him and being turned into some horrible monstrosity. Nobody is safe from Anthony, including his own family, although they can sometimes influence him slightly; after a "cheerful" suggestion from his father, Anthony begins teleporting his victims into the cornfield behind the family's home after he has finished with them.

Even when Anthony tries to help other people, he has no understanding of what will actually help and usually causes things to be worse than before. Therefore no one wants to give Anthony a reason to change anything, and everyone pretends to be happy and content at all times, no matter how bad things are. Anthony thus passes his time manipulating animals with his mind, making a rat eat itself from the tail up, or building up a pleasant shady grove designed to suit the simple desires of animals, since he likes their happy and uncomplicated thoughts of satisfaction.

The story mostly takes place during a surprise birthday party for the Fremont's neighbor, Dan Hollis. In Peaksville, residents take turns passing around certain objects like books, music, or furniture since they cannot acquire it from the outside world anymore. Dan receives a Perry Como record for his birthday and wants to play it, but Anthony does not allow singing. Dan gets drunk and starts singing "You Are My Sunshine". Anthony turns Dan into some sort of horrific mutation before "thinking" him away to the cornfield. The next morning he makes it snow, which kills half of the crops.

But it is still a good day.

Adaptations

The story was turned into "It's a Good Life", an episode of the television series The Twilight Zone, which subsequently served as inspiration for one of the segments in Twilight Zone: The Movie decades later.

Trivia

Thanks to this story and its various adaptations, "being sent to the cornfield" has entered the lexicon of popular culture as a joking euphemism for dying or, more exactly, being deliberately killed.