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Study 060 - The Anything Box (Patreon)

Published:
2023-09-29 02:25:41
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

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Content

We are delighted to discuss Zenna Henderson's short story about childhood magic: The Anything Box!

Special thanks to equally delightful reader Heather Klinke!

And don't forget to check out Manos: The Hands of Fate - A Coloring and Activity Book by friend of the show Keith McCaffety!

Closing track is Jubilation by Anything Box - BUY THEIR MUSIC!

Comments

It's a Ghost.

I absolutely love this story, whatever it is.

Illegal_Structures

Damn, boys, this episode made me tear up. Thank you for sharing it with us, and for your sensitive treatment. I definitely have to check out that wagon story now! By the way, maybe the name Alpha is a knowing reference to the Borges story El Aleph (mentioned by another commenter). If I’m not mistaken, Borges was being published in the New Yorker around the time that Henderson would have been actively writing (others can correct me if I’m wrong). Either that, or perhaps Alpha is a subtle bit of sci-fi scene dressing; along with references to “noticing day”, which felt like a rite-of-passage in a Twilight Zone episode.

Andi Watson

This one had me in tears. Great reading from Heather.

Mythology Translated Podcast Second Edition

I was gifted this short story collection when I was 12. I still have it and still reread it! Thank you for bringing it to peoples attention!! I HIGHLY recommend the whole collection!

Jourik De Vetter

Ah Celephais, one of my favourite hppodcraft tracks!

Steve

It's a bit like Jesus.

Ben Gilbert

I read all her paperbacks that were available in the 70s. I also saw the TV movie »The People «. It was pretty good though with 70s TV production values. Shatner played an outside doctor who befriends the new schoolteacher Kim Darby.

Jenny Richardson

I forgot all about Anything Box- the band! Living in Oblivion was the song played most at the club I haunted.

Mochi needs Catnip

This is the best wonderful story I have ever listened to. Never grow old! Keep imagining! I too wish I had an anything box!

Erik Gordon

Most times your show makes me laugh, or read. This one made me cry a little. Cudos to Heather for a FANTASTIC reading!

Ben A

Thanks for covering this beautiful tale. Weirdly enough, I'd call this the anti-Bradbury story. As much as he wanted to write about childhood innocence, most of his works were about how that innocence is lost. How refreshing it is to have a tale where innocence and a sense of the magical is not only kept for the child, but for the adult as well! It's also wonderful to read a magical realism tale that doesn't try to use that as a deeper lesson about life's capriciousness (see any episode of the Twilight Zone or the recent series "The Big Door Prize" for a counter-example).

Erik Gordon

Also I bought the Anything Box album that had the song that you played. Chad thank you for turning me on to something that I missed. It's always awesome to find a gem that hits hard. These are the unexpected benefits of your show.

Alan Ricks

Aren’t cellphones the anything boxes we get lost in while staring at our hands now…

Jim Cannon

The twist was that there was no twist! Just nice people looking out for one another - with the occasional body slam for color. Hope you do more Henderson stories at some point.

Aaron La Vene

“Back in my day I could see anything just with my hands and imagination! “ “Ok grandma…” *stares at iPad*

Richard Horsman

When I was an adolescent in the 80s, I used to haunt used bookstores and library sales looking for those yearly Best of Fantasy and Sci-Fi collections. You got the greats who were still doing it at the time: Ellison! Pohl! You got the relatively obscure stuff like C.M. Kornbluth and Avram Davidson. And then you got these Zenna Henderson stories that --if you were me-- you dismissed as sentimental trash that you were too mature for. When I got older and returned to Harrison I discovered the opposite was true: I hadn't been mature ENOUGH to appreciate what she was putting down. I'm so glad you covered her, and I hope you do more.

Richard Horsman

Also I just reread “The Cold Equations” for the first time since I was a teenage edgelord, and I’m REALLY glad you, um, jettisoned that for this.

Hayden Orr

Man, between your horlas and your men without bones, you guys cover stories like this one, or The Lake, or Mr. Arcularis, that just kick you right in your emotion balls.

Matthew Alderman

Avram Davidson got mentioned above—I’d love to see y’all tackle one of his Dr. Eszterhazy stories, which are a bit like a four-way cross between PG Wodehouse, a Viennese operetta, Indiana Jones, and the Almanach de Gotha.

Professor Murder

As an educator, this one gave me a great deal of intense feelings, compounded by the fact that I was on the way into work when I was listening. I work with students on the other end of their learning timeline: High School Juniors and Seniors in college level courses. It can often feel like I am some final barrier meant to tamp down childhood enthusiasm and prepare them for the "real world" waiting outside with hungry teeth. You hope they forgive you, and you find a way to do your job of peeling away the child and reveal the adult. You do what you can and you try to live with it.

Zachary Nickle

I was listening to this while driving to a doctor's appointment. When it got to the last reading I just started crying and I couldn't figure out why. The rest of the episode hadn't really hit me like that. In the brief time I have had to reflect on it I think the innocent compassion of that moment really got to me. Also Heather's delivery was top notch. So kudos to her and Zenna for making a 40 year old man weep in a parking lot.