The fantastic according to Matheson is therefore not limited to the traditional paradigms
of the mode, but can also incorporate elements from the uncanny without loosing its structural
integrity; and, as we will see now, if the uncanny is not safe from the fantastic, neither is
scienc e fiction.
Flirting with Science Fiction
The first episode of The Twilight Zone based on a short story by Matheson, “And When
the Sky Was Opened,” demonstrates the importance of syntagmatic organization over
paradigmatic selection when it comes to generating the fantastic effect, and how a narrative
mode is not necessarily determined by the connotations of its paradigms. The main elements
of “And When the Sky Was Opened" seem indeed typical of the science fiction mode: an
experimental spaceship with three astronauts aboard has disappeared from the radar for
twenty four hours during a test flight before crashing in the Mojave desert, leaving the three
astronauts unharmed and the ship only slightly dented. The primal elements of the narration astronauts, spaceship, space travel and suggested black hole - belong to the narrative
vocabulary of science fiction, however, they are solely organized in reference to our reality, for
when the story begins, the mysterious incident in outer space and subsequent crash have
already happened and their only function is that of as a point of departure for the narrative
conflict. The tension itself is created by the irruption of an unexplainable phenomenon which
takes place on earth, within the rather familiar environments of a hospital room and a homey
bar: the three men and their spaceship are progressively being erased from reality, leaving no
trace of their existence, not even in the memory of those around them. The means by which
the protagonists discover that they are being unexplainably eliminated from reality involve as
well very familiar elements and actions, easily identifiable by the receptor as corresponding to
our collectively accepted notion of normalcy. For instance, one of them attempts to reach his
parents from a phone booth and simply vanishes after first his mother and then his father
inform him that they do not have a son with his name. The family, by definition - if only
etymologically - the most “familiar” environment in our collective consciousness, that which is
perfectly known and cannot betray, is therefore the most elementary reality that serves as a
revelator for the impossible occurrence. This particular narrative paradigm - the breakdown of
the family - is a pervasive motif in the horror mode, as pointed out by Tony Williams in Hearths
o f Darkness, which contextualizes the triumph of horror cinema within the generation that
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