Silent Snow, Secret Snow

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"Silent Snow, Secret Snow" (1934) is Conrad Aiken's best-known short story, often included in anthologies of classic American horror and fantasy short fiction. It appeared in The Collected Stories of Conrad Aiken in 1934, and since then has been widely anthologized.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Interpretations 3 Adaptations 4 References

[edit] Plot

The story tells of a boy named Paul Hasleman, who finds it increasingly difficult to pay attention to his classwork and grows more distant from his family. He is, instead, becoming more and more entranced by daydreaming about snow. This began when he was lying in bed, awaiting the approach of the footsteps of a postman: he did not hear them, because the footfalls had become muffled by the snow.

Paul's increasing distance and indifference to the world around him alarms his parents. He had to struggle to get dressed and converse with others, because of the allure of his daydream about snow. They eventually call in a physician, who makes a house call to examine him. After revealing that he likes to think about snow, Paul tears himself away from the meeting with the physician and retires to his room. When his mother pursues him, he tells her "Go away... I hate you!" and is lost in the dreamworld of the snow.^[1]

[edit] Interpretations

It tells of a normal boy's descent into Asperger's Syndrome,^[2] in this case a dream world of snow that he finds preferable to the "dirty," mundane world. The story can also be thought of as a Symbolist rejection of reality.^[3]A descent into Asperger's seems unlikely, as it is felt to be a congenital condition. This clinical presentation of progressive withdrawal from reality and social relationships, as well as preoccupation with idiosyncratically meaningful ideas would be more characteristic of schizophrenia.^{[original research?]}

[edit] Adaptations

In 1951 the story was adapted for radio and broadcast on NBC Presents: Short Story.

In 1966, a now nearly-forgotten version was produced by Gene Kearney, who also wrote some episodes of Night Gallery, and can be seen on the Internet Archive.

It was dramatized as an episode of Night Gallery, starring Radames Pera and narrated by Orson Welles. The original broadcast date was October 20, 1971.

[edit] References