Here There Be Tygers

[Srbo]

Short story from Skeleton Crew.

I`ve read it last night three times in a row and didn`t get it - could someone please explain to me what this story is about ?

Thanks.:smile2:

[csk27]

Well SK was really young when he wrote it, so I think it's horror for the sake of horror. There really isn't any meaning to it.

[Srbo]

Thanks.:smile2:

But didn`t find to much horror in it either. Just the imagination of a kid.

Anyone else ?

[racheypen80]

Thanks.:smile2:

But didn`t find to much horror in it either. Just the imagination of a kid.

Anyone else ?

*whew* I thought I was the only one. I don't get it either and have reread it about 10 times. I think I was looking for more meaning than was there.

[Born In Sin]

Short story from Skeleton Crew.

I`ve read it last night three times in a row and didn`t get it - could someone please explain to me what this story is about ?

Thanks.:smile2:


Has been a long time since I read this one, must go back and re-read. It is quite short yes?

[jackson992]

not horror? It had a tiger eating people. what can be more horror than that.

[Srbo]

Yes, it is short.
3-4 pages is all there is...

[luvdthestand]

When I think back on my time in grade school, getting a restroom pass was like going on a safari!:biggrin2: I wouldn't have been suprised to find a tiger lurking in the girls restroom....I'm pretty sure that when the prefered meal of 5th graders are in short supply, they could live on the ever growing 'wet toilet paper wad' stalactites forming on the ceiling. :biggrin2:

[JRLauer]

Its been so long since I read that story that I'm not even sure what its about anymore.

[Sterling]

I have always wondered message Sai King was trying to convey through writing this story.

[staropeace]

Didnt he write that because one of his children had a fear of asking to go to the washroom in elementary school?

[Srbo]

Didnt he write that because one of his children had a fear of asking to go to the washroom in elementary school?


Cool.
That may be the answer i was looking for.

[Sintify]

Good story, confusing, but good.

[foster]

I think it is just for the fun of it...(I have always enjoyed it)..and what is more fun than a teacher eating tiger:wink2:

[constantreader85]

thank god, i am not the only one who didnt find any meaning in it. thought i was losingm y mind

[The Outsider]

Maybe just that a child's imagination is more potent than you think....

Or he just got a random idea for tigers in an elementary bathroom?

[DanishReader]

I liked it, it's up to the reader if the tiger's real or not. I would say it's real. It just appeared, just popped up. To the boy's favor.

[strange]

I recently read it and thought it was about the sort of line between imagination and reality because at the end when he returns to class you hear nothing about what happened to his teacher or Kenny so it leaves it open to whether or not you think there was actually a tiger there

[SereneShadow]

I tutor, and I came across a guy whose English teacher made him pick a story out of a list (not all were King's work) and he chose this one. Before we talked about it, I had no idea what was going on. But later, we ended up coming to the conclusion that the tiger represents the deeper part of our minds that truly hates other people and wants them to be destroyed. The boy created the tiger (metaphorically or not is still a good question) from his mind to unleash his anger on the people he disliked.

[God]

I couldnt grasp any deeper meaning in this story, but it is a fun read.

[Twilight2388]

This is one of my favorite off all the short stories! It is about the fear of humiliation in front of peers, the fear of mean teachers (which you can't know unless you had one), and fear in general. I got it and I loved it, I even memorized it for my drama class in High School. I may be wrong, I didn't read anything into it that wasn't obvious so maybe I am way off! :blush:

[Pucker]

I think this is a good example of story where all the meaning is right there in front of you and looking for "deeper meaning" would be to miss the forest while marvelling at the trees.

Maybe kids don't wish their teachers would be eaten by tigers in this day and age, but I'm sure they still imagine horrible things.

Times change. People don't.

[GNTLGNT]

It's wish fulfillment in a most perverse way-how many of us wanted to "get" that mean teacher? There were a few I would have enjoyed giving a feline come-uppance to-and then some(but I'm not bitter...No, really!)

[wally wonder]

apparently, i'm the only one who wanted to pee in the sink?....better late than never, i always say....oh, you nasty boy!

anyone else have those long troughs at school, water gushing through, mr. darcy standing over by the door, arms folded across his chest, all of us little heathens in there mucking up the walls and soap dispenser? dropping wet, soggy brown paper on the floor, or throwing it at the ceiling while kris talked to mr. darcy?

[Hand_of_Roland]

Simple, King has a very overactive imagination, he has quoted that he wont go in his basement because he is convinced there is a velociraptor down there waiting to eat him, this was written a long time ago and basically describes a childhood fear/imagination only this time the kid was right and the teacher got what was coming " an ending that a kid would love"

[ChickenStu]

Yeah, it is an odd one this. I was somewhat confused by it myself.

[deroche]

This one actually scared me quite a bit when I first read it. I got scared quite badly too. Tigers and lions are now my biggest and worst nightmares. Thank you, Sai King!

[bookslinger]

"...a child's imagination." that says it best. But to analyze it, the public restroom can be terrifying for a small child. The tiger was a manifestation of that fear, the tiger eating the teacher was just revenge for her sending him in there in the first place. Now I hav't read it in awhile, but I think that just about covers it. Don't forgrt, too, that Here there be tigers is the title of a story by Bradbury , and a tribute to it by Harlon Ellison. There may be another author with a story by the same name, but i can't remember their name.

[Shawshank]

I just read it.
I didn't get it.

Wikipedia says he wrote it in high school. I guess even Stephen King was a bad writer at such a young age.

[Bryan James]

Too many readers require a fat brick of a book. The "Mignonette Story" (I just made that up, so it's copyrighted) can be equally tasty.

Cronin's "The Passage" or King's "Under the Dome" lost flavor because they were TOO long. Five pounds of the same flavor of chewing gum is 4.95 pounds too much.

I can have a good rare filet de boeuf and enjoy it all...but if I try to chow down a porterhouse, I'm going to get pretty tired of steak.

"Tygers" is a very short story. The operative term in that sentence is "story."

So there ya go.

[cappeca]

Am I the only one who's got a Calvin and Hobbes vibe from this? I mean, the Tyger only appears to the kid, and the way he's desperate and paranoid, that's Calvin on sugar. And he pees in the sink! "There's a tiger there!!!!!" :biggrin2:

[Seb Shaw]

I enjoyed the simpleness of the story. The kid doesn't wan't to go to the 'basement'. The teacher makes him call it 'the bathroom', so he gte's very angry and imagins a 'tiger' to do his bidding.
... I like to think that the tiger was real :D

[Pucker]

I enjoyed the simpleness of the story. The kid doesn't wan't to go to the 'basement'. The teacher makes him call it 'the bathroom', so he gte's very angry and imagins a 'tiger' to do his bidding.
... I like to think that the tiger was real :D

I like to think that, too, Seb.

To me the story is about how children are powerless in an adult world, and the only effective weapon at their disposal is imagination. This story reminds me a great deal of that Twilight Zone episode where Will Robinson wished everyone he didn't like into the cornfield.

[lunar]

I suppose it could be reasonable to say that the tiger was in the bathroom and the tiger was also not in the bathroom....enter Quantum Mechanics. Reminds me of Shrodinger's Cat.

[bobledrew]

I think there's an interview with King where he talks about cartoonist Gahan Wilson and how some of his images were inexplicable and horrible. I suspect that this story bounces from an image in King's head. Reminds me a bit of "The Moving Finger" in that there's something weird and totally inexplicable.

Also, I think this could be an early working out of how fear manifests itself in the real world. The boy is afraid of a tiger, so the tiger becomes real -- just like Pennywise, and like the generators in DT 7 (or is it 6) that force Jake to confront his fear of dinosaurs by trading places with Oy.

[CaseyM]

I like to think the tiger is real too. Unless the people coming to check on him are his imagination, they never come back after encountering the Tiger. Makes me think the mean old tiger ate them both up!

[Aericanwizard]

This story had a bit of a personal meaning for me. I remember once, when I was very young (3 or 4 at the oldest), and I was watching Sesame St. on TV. It was doing one of those "A is for Apple", "B is for Boogeyman" segments. When they got to "L", it was "L is for lion", and the lion looked at me, stepped out of the TV screen, and roared. I immediately dashed behind my Grandma's protective Arm Chair (if you don't have one, beware!), and when I braved the TV again, the lion was thankfully banished, and a sad-looking Zebra was on the screen.

I think the story speaks to the power of children's imagination. In High School, I read a story by Bradbury called "The Veldt", which has a similar feel to it. To children, the imaginary is the real.

Long days and pleasant nights.