![]() Adversity brings out the monster and the best of humanity. As the last man alive he learns they had landed on Earth, with civilization just over the hill. One man decides he will not share, he will survive at any cost. A spaceship crashes into a desert, leaving the astronauts with limited supplies. Share With Others, gleaned from I Shot An Arrow into the Air, written by Serling. The choice is ours, made every day, every moment, by the actions we conscious or unconsciously take.and you can file that under L for Life Lessons." Many chapters end with a guest lesson for this chapterMarc Scott Zicree writes, "we can live in a universe of love and compassion, or chaos and destruction. It warns us about mob mentality, fear of people who are 'different', and shows how evil arises from suspicion and division. Some of my favorite examples from the book, whose lessons need to be heard again, include:ĭivided We Fall, highlighting Serling's script The Monsters are Due on Maple Street. As Anne Serling writes in her forward, her father "truly and deeply cared about all of us." If we have ears to hear, Dawidziak shows us, there are fifty lessons to be gleaned from these stories. The Twilight Zone stories are teaching parables. As he matured, his writing incorporated social commentary, convicted it was "the writer's role to menace the public's conscience." He entered Antioch College, founded by Horace Mann who wrote, "Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity." After graduation, Serling lived in Cincinnati where he wrote for the radio station, then for television. In 1943 he enlisted and served in the Pacific front as a paratrooper, the roots of his horror of war and hope for humanity. ![]() Then came the reveal-the spaceship was from the United States, the menacing spacemen were human and the woman was the alien.Īfter reading the preview available online I ordered Mark Dawidziak's book and began reading it upon arrival.īorn in a Reform Jewish family in Binghamton, NY, Serling had an ideal childhood but encountered prejudice as he grew up. They were more frightening because of their diminutive size, for they could creep up unseen. The episode that most scared me was The Invaders, told without dialog, about a witchlike old woman whose primitive cabin is invaded by tiny spacemen. I thrilled to the eerie and chilled to the scary. Over the years I enjoyed the reruns but it was while my son and I watched hours of marathon reruns that I realized that perhaps more than any book or Sunday school class it was Rod Serling who had instructed me in how to live.Īs a kid, I liked the ironic endings, the comeuppances, and just desserts. I was seven years old in 1959 when Twilight Zone first aired. Here was a book that spoke to what I had long believed: that Rod Serling had taught me my basic values. When I read a review of Everything I Need to Know I Learned in the Twilight Zone: A Fifth Dimension Guide to Life in the local paper I couldn't believe I had missed this book. And it is then that writing becomes a weapon of truth, and article of faith, an act of courage. It has forever been thus: so long as men write what they think, then all of the other freedoms-all of them-may remain intact. No matter what kind of inspiration you're looking to get from one of the best television shows ever made, it can be found in these pages. A visit from an angel blares out the wisdom of “follow your passion” in “A Passage for Trumpet.” The meaning of “divided we fall” is driven home with dramatic results when neighbors suspect neighbors of being invading aliens in “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street.” The old maxim about never judging a book by its cover is given a tasty twist when an alien tome is translated in “To Serve Man.” The notion that “it’s never too late to reinvent yourself” soars through “The Last Flight,’’ in which a World War I flier who goes forward in time and gets the chance to trade cowardice for heroism. Written by veteran TV critic Mark Dawidziak, this unauthorized tribute is a celebration of the classic anthology show, but also, on another level, a kind of fifth-dimension self-help book, with each lesson supported by the morality tales told by Serling and his writers. ![]() The proof is in this lighthearted collection of life lessons, ground rules, inspirational thoughts, and stirring reminders found in Rod Serling’s timeless fantasy series. Can you live your life by what "The Twilight Zone" has to teach you? Yes, and maybe you should.
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