000 02445cam a22003853u 4500
001 77941
003 UtSlPG
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040 _aUtSlPG
041 7 _aen
_2iso639-1
050 4 _aPS
100 1 _aAbernathy, Robert,
_d1924-1990
245 1 4 _aThe laugh
264 1 _aSalt Lake City, UT :
_bProject Gutenberg,
_c2026
300 _a1 online resource :
_bmultiple file formats
336 _atext
_btxt
_2rdacontent
337 _acomputer
_bc
_2rdamedia
338 _aonline resource
_bcr
_2rdacarrier
490 1 _aProduced from Fantastic Universe, June 1956 (Vol. 5, No. 5.)
500 _aRelease date is 2026-02-15
508 _aTom Trussel (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
520 _aThe 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.)
534 _pOriginally published:
_cNew York: King-Size Publications, Inc., 1956
653 _aScience fiction
653 _aShort stories
653 _aPsychological fiction
653 _aBoys -- Fiction
700 1 _aEmshwiller, Ed,
_d1925-1990
830 0 _aProduced from Fantastic Universe, June 1956 (Vol. 5, No. 5.)
856 4 _uhttps://archive.org/details/Fantastic_Universe_v05n05_1956-06_Gorgon776/page/n3/mode/2up
856 4 0 _uhttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77941
999 _c118661
_d118661