The laugh by Robert Abernathy
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The laugh by Robert Abernathy is a science fiction short story written in the mid-20th century. It explores a technocratic society’s effort to suppress spontaneous emotion, focusing on the pathologizing of laughter and the shaping of children into obedient, efficiency-driven adults. A small boy named Dicky watches ants in his backyard and, delighted by their antics and a memory of a frog, bursts into uncontrollable laughter. His shocked mother rushes him to
a towering clinic, where a calm psychologist tests him and explains to the parents that laughter is a wasteful “emotional outlet” to be corrected so the child’s energy can be channeled into productive action. After treatment and guidance, Dicky returns months later to the same slope; the weeds are mown, the secret thrill is gone, and his wonder has thinned into indifference. Remembering a tongue-twister from the clinic, he methodically crushes the anthill under his new heel and walks back to the house without a flicker of feeling, a quiet sign that the system has done its work. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Abernathy, Robert, 1924-1990 |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Emshwiller, Ed, 1925-1990 |
| Title | The laugh |
| Original Publication | New York: King-Size Publications, Inc., 1956. |
| Series Title | Produced from Fantastic Universe, June 1956 (Vol. 5, No. 5.) |
| Credits | Tom Trussel (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature |
| Subject | Science fiction |
| Subject | Short stories |
| Subject | Psychological fiction |
| Subject | Boys -- Fiction |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 77941 |
| Release Date | Feb 15, 2026 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 194 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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