[2Wycked]

“The Bewitchin’ Pool” was the final episode of the Twilight Zone aired. It is an episode that causes much consternation of those who view it. To be sure, the dubbing of the voice of the female child is annoying & the opening scene is rerun again verbatim again in the episode. However, it is a fascinating episode that highlights some serious issues in America that began to take off with abandon around the time it was aired. Do note limited funding & the like hindered the production of the episode.

Watch the full episode here.

A brief recap is needed. After the opener, the episode opens with a rich family of a successful father, a bored, histrionic wife & two young children, a daughter & son. It is clear from the outset the mother is a pure histrionic female who takes to new identities as she feels fit. The father is a cold, narcissistic man. Both are dismissive of the children and are very cruel & self-centered in dealing with them.

After yet another clash between the two parents, the children are approached, by the pool, by a young boy swimming around claiming there is a better life for them if they just follow him to the other side. Eventually the two kids agree, jump into the pool and come out into a different world. It is a fantasy world of happy children with a compassionate, loving maternal grandmother who unconditionally loves them all.

Eventually, they hear the voices of their parents and are worried their parents are missing them & concerned for their safety. They go back to reality and, once again, realize their parents are still all about themselves and their victim complexes. They desperately seek out the other world and eventually make it back, ignoring the cries of their self-absorbed parents.



The episode is “A Stop At Willoughby” for children. In “A Stop At Willoughby,” a man escapes a job he hates & a cruel, domineering socially-climbing wife by dreaming of the idyllic town of Willoughby. As Days of Broken Arrows points out, that episode has some serious red-pill knowledge in it; but understand that episode is a post for another day.

In “The Bewitchin’ Pool” the two kids sought out an alternate reality to their sufferings at the hands of terribly cruel parents. Like any other kid, they seek out a world where a parental figure gives them unconditional love and allows them the space to be a kid.

This is a typical fantasy of a child whose life has been supremely deficient from a parenting standpoint. They dream of life in which they don’t have to negotiate complicated relationships between two parents fraught with tension & anger. They desire a life where they get the unconditional love that will very much help them become well-adjusted adults. The twist, here, is that world isn’t just a fantasy but a reality if they can let go of the relationship with their parents.

This letting go has ruffled some feathers of those reviewing for many reasons, but let’s just talk about the relationship a child will have with parents like these. The views of the child are going to purely black & white – either they love their parents with no qualifications or they hate their parents to their very core. This supreme vacillation is emblematic of an unhealthy relationship. In his book “No More Mister Nice Guy,” Dr. Robert Glover notes this in his sessions with husbands talking about their wives. One second they are praising their wives to the Heavens, then muttering, “Fucking bitch.”

Back on point, towards the end when the parents give them the good news they are divorcing the daughter says they will be good now & she understands that the kid’s misbehavior is the cause of the divorce. This is a stereotypical response of a child upon learning their parents are getting divorced. Say what you will about divorce, but no matter how well intentioned by the parents, a child will always blame themselves for the divorce. The parents laugh and it represents the kids are no more than window-dressing. Sure, the kid’s existence strained relations but didn’t create any new tensions than those that were already there.

The culture of divorce is rooted in narcissism & a denial of psychological issues.

It most assuredly has its deepest foundation in hypergamy. However, it is worsened by our narcissistic society. Note the first benefit of divorce – happiness for both parents. In “The Bewitchin’ Pool” both parents are presented as highly dissatisfied with the relationship. The mother overestimates her potential – a proto-feminist – and a dismissive male who cares only about his own success. This is an unusual relationship, as most divorces are a female leaving a male who loves them.

This episode highlights the delusions around how divorce goes down. It presents two equally dissatisfied parties that would prefer divorce over working the relationship out. Further, it highlights the delusions around how personal psychology. Rarely is somebody simply a product an unhappy relationship. That assumes issues in a marriage stem merely from being matched with the wrong person. That is incredibly naïve & reeks of female delusion about how relationships work.

While often times, personal psychological issues get magnified in a given relationship - it is up to every person to handle their responses. It is one thing to admit your partner is making a certain trait of yours more obvious; however, it is up to you to decide whether to express it or not.

Chalk it up to our society’s desire to have everybody express their emotions – it is good that everybody be aware of what they are feeling , however, having them express it isn’t always a good idea. It is best to have people be honest with themselves above all else.



Back to my overarching point of female-driven divorce, the rhetoric & analysis around divorce is centered around female concerns. Always consider appearances. Women need to keep up appearances in the event of them choosing to divorce. They need social support networks to help them, they need court systems to ensure fiscal solvency and they need forces in the media assuring anybody who would judge them that the divorcing woman is making the right choice. Children, husbands, etc. are secondary or less concerns when it comes to their personal happiness. Always remember that their happiness is predicated on social approval of their decisions.

However, understand the impetus of these kids desire to flee their reality. Their parents were both awful and they craved the unconditional love any child deserves. In The Twilight Zone they got a real option to flee the reality of their situation; in America they just would have languished in the shadow of their parent’s issues.

I can personally attest to this situation. My parents had a horrid relationship in which I would spend much time in my room alone, playing with toys, reading & writing. My imagination took me places I could never go in real life. However, the call of your parents will always be there. You can only immerse yourself in your action figures or Legos for so long before the spell is broken by the barking of your mother.

Part of the reaction to this episode is people who have no idea what it is like to be in this situation. It can be very tiring talking about this episode with people who constantly bang on about how creepy the grandmother figure is & how they would never leave their parents, no matter how cruel. I completely understand the supreme reticence about leaving your parents, but this episode did & does speak to me about wanting to leave horrible parents.

I understand the wandering of any kid’s imagination in response to their deficient upbringing – their dependency necessitates understanding their parent’s issues insofar as it relates to their ability to survive. The problem is that everybody will at least, in theory, have the ability to support themselves independently when they become adults. The issue is that those complexes that carried a child through to adulthood are no longer necessary because they are no longer dependent on that parent.

In the end, “The Bewitchin’ Pool” was first aired in the summer of 1964, in the middle of the emerging Sexual Revolution. It is a conflicted episode, one that highlights the issues that will & still are fiercely debated in America.

It focused on the children who would be the primary victims of the slowly emerging divorce culture. It showed some kids who were subject to terrible parenting & needed to have an escape from that.
It has been said that this episode was a horrible episode to end the Twilight Zone series on because there was no twist in the ending.

There was a twist in the ending, alright.

Those two kids came into happiness when most American children won’t or will ever come close to that happiness.

[vinman]

I actually find myself dissapointed when I check the forum and I see that you haven't posted. I may not comment a lot on what you write, but it's usually interesting, well written, and thought provoking. Thanks.

[Samseau]

Really cool highlight of an episode that foreshadowed America's future. Well done.

[Days of Broken Arrows]

Another great recap of a classic "Twilight Zone." This episode does sadly predict America's future, as do several others, especially "Number Twelve Looks Just Like You" and "Eye of the Beholder," both of which foretell society's obsession with physical perfection and conformity.

Some other "Twilight Zones" I'd recommend (most of which are on YouTube or DailyMotion):

"On Thursday We Leave for Home"
"Shadow Play"
"Elegy"
"Miniature"
"A Nice Place to Visit"
"Valley of the Shadow"
"Third From the Sun"

And before "Twilight Zone," Serling wrote TV movies. Two that are considered classic are "Requiem for a Heavyweight" (which humanizes a boxer's life) and "Patterns" (which is positively futuristic in the way it predicts the coldness of the business world).

[2Wycked]

@DoBA:

Have you seen "A Big Tall Wish?"

I am planning a writeup about boys & their relationship with masculinity & adult male success.

Also, those episodes you list are excellent, Elegy in particular. I also would recommend "Old Man In The Cave" in Season 5.

I am privileged because I own the complete collection. Mind-blowing to just have a night of just watching episodes back to back. Good stuff.

[Days of Broken Arrows]

(06-28-2013 02:58 AM)2Wycked Wrote:  

@DoBA:

Have you seen "A Big Tall Wish?"

I am planning a writeup about boys & their relationship with masculinity & adult male success.

Also, those episodes you list are excellent, Elegy in particular. I also would recommend "Old Man In The Cave" in Season 5.

I am privileged because I own the complete collection. Mind-blowing to just have a night of just watching episodes back to back. Good stuff.

I've seen "A Big Tall Wish" and wasn't impressed with the acting. But it was during one of those SyFy marathons, so I might have been burned out on episodes temporarily and being cranky. I'll give it another go. I know I saw "The Old Man" too but have no memories of it so I'll check it out.

By the way, Serling's daughter just wrote a book. It doesn't go into as much detail about his work as I would have liked but does provide some insight into what made him tick. He apparently volunteered to be a paratrooper at age 18 during WWII.

[ColSpanker]

"I can personally attest to this situation. My parents had a horrid relationship in which I would spend much time in my room alone, playing with toys, reading & writing. My imagination took me places I could never go in real life. However, the call of your parents will always be there. You can only immerse yourself in your action figures or Legos for so long before the spell is broken by the barking of your mother."

You weren't the only one. I was a child of the 70's and still have horrid memories of my She-Wolf mother screaming at my father. The poor guy worked double and triple overtime to support us and died when he retired. He was from a fucked-up situation himself (parents divorced when he was 8, dumped on his elderly grandparents), so I guess having the intact nuclear family on a mechanic's wages was a dream he cherished.

[Blackhawk]

The dubbing over of the actor's voices is distracting.

Why do the children speak with southern accents that their parents clearly don't have? The parents live in a Colonial mansion, a reference to the New England industrial belt, where father works in an office and mother has her own car where she applies for jobs at television stations as a fashion model. The "bad" world is urban and industrialized (heated, chlorinated concrete swimming pool), while the "good" world is rural and pastoral (a pond surrounded by trees that supports fish and other life).

The "bad" world is that of the white collar office class: Men work in air conditioned offices and return home without having broken into a single sweat once all day, while unskilled women chase after prestigious but non-producing jobs like being an artist or model. Children are ordered about and punished for making mistakes by being isolated (sent to their rooms).

The "good" world is blue collar working class and a world of physical labor, where children have definite manual chores like polishing shoes and help in the kitchen. But they also have time for "old timey" leisure like rolling barrel hoops and learning traditional decorative hand arts like embroidery. Children aren't ordered about, but encouraged to make mistakes that will then become learning experiences.

The bad world is of the isolated nuclear family. The good world is multi-generational extended family (Aunt-T/Auntie).

The older sister Sport appears to be a reference to Scout Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962).

The reference to the Witch being in an gingerbread house is a reference to Hansel and Gretel, unwanted children left by their parents to starve in the woods after the food ran out. But here the parents are not starving from lack of food. They have an overabundance of material goods, even household servants like a maid.

There is no one past puberty in the good world. Why?

And is the apparent suicide then death defying disappearance of the children to reappear in a better world a hopeful reference to the show itself ending? It's not like Rod Serling had any major gigs after this.

[iknowexactly]

Very nice essay and special thanks for reminding us of the genius of the Twilight Zone.

People say about Marx, that he got the diagnosis correct and the prescription wrong. I'm afraid that your diagnosis is oversimplified, though I don't know if I can do any better.

It sounds like you are fitting the analysis to a pre-programmed ideological framework, rather than trying make a reasoned assessment of the different factors. Narcissism and hypergamy seem real, but are quite vague as far as determining "What should someone do?"

Of course a TV show can't go into the whole dynamics of a real life relationship and culture, although you've done a great job of using it to highlight aspects of where things are going wrong.

For one thing, divorce culture is class bound. Here's a more precise analysis of divorce rates, with the most important foil to the 50% canard being that college-educated women over 25 with an independent income have a divorce rate of about 20%, not 50%.
Also, the only half the divorces are in the first 10 years, so you've got a 90% 10 year survival rate.

If women make up the "guilty party" in those divorces 80% of the time ( which I feel is unreasonable when there are some % of guys who are drunks or workaholics; as well as people who just find themselves incompatible where it's no one's "fault".) that makes "climber divorces" out to thwart about 1/6 marriages-- among college graduates.

Using broad terms like "divorce culture" and hypergamy are useful in things like political campaigns ( like "deadbeat dads" was!) , but they don't slice things precisely enough to tease out exactly what factors foul up which marriages where.

It seems true the machinations of divorce, once it happens, seem to favor women in that they get to keep kids, interfere with visitation, etc.

But as with most bad things, the best approach might be to prevent the divorce from happening in the first place.

Unfortunately , right now the way many men are doing this is to not get married in the first place, which, if they have high pair-bonding circuitry, means they have to co-habit if a woman is willing, with some attendant disadvantages as far as work benefits and so forth.

[Therapsid]

(06-28-2013 10:28 AM)iknowexactly Wrote:  

For one thing, divorce culture is class bound. Here's a more precise analysis of divorce rates, with the most important foil to the 50% canard that college-educated women over 25 with an independent income have a divorce rate of about 20%, not 50%.

20% is still high. The divorce rate is about twice what it was during the time the Twilight Zone aired.

Also, this episode was timely, because in 1964 the divorce wave was just beginning. For people who watch Mad Men, this is around the same time that Don and Betty split. By the 70's divorce had become fashionable, even among the upper middle class, more so than today, where there's more of the class divide you mention.

Interestingly, looking at the divorce trend over the 20th century, the post-60's spike in divorce was preceded by a huge spike around 1945-46, that crested and receded to the post-war low. Guys around here can guess what that was about - G.I.'s coming home to find their wives had cheated on them and wanted out.

[cardguy]

I'm a big fan of The Twilight Zone. I really love shit like that. Also - for those enjoy short stories with a twist - I would recommend the adult short stories of Roald Dahl. They are wonderful - and it always saddens me he became a children's writer and didn't continue writing short stories.

Anyway - not to hijack the thread - but I just wanted to quickly mention the Twilight Zone Movie which was directed by John Landis. It came out in 1983 and is now more famous for a terrible accident that took place whilst filming.

During filming a helicopter crashed and killed three people. A child actor and the adult actor (Vic Morrow) were both decapitated. And the other child actor in the scene was crushed by the falling helicopter.

You can see footage on YouTube. There was a book written about the court case surrounding the accident and the working conditions that led to it. But I haven't gotten round to reading it yet.

[Samseau]

(06-28-2013 10:28 AM)iknowexactly Wrote:  

For one thing, divorce culture is class bound. Here's a more precise analysis of divorce rates, with the most important foil to the 50% canard being that college-educated women over 25 with an independent income have a divorce rate of about 20%, not 50%.
Also, the only half the divorces are in the first 10 years, so you've got a 90% 10 year survival rate.

That article is bullshit because it doesn't take into account the declining marriage rate. There are less divorces because less people are getting married. The ones who do get married are the ones who are committed to making it work, while people who avoid marriage are the ones who know better.

Thus, the divorce rate has dropped because men got educated and have been avoiding marriage completely unless it's with a woman they really trust.

[Therapsid]

(06-28-2013 11:51 AM)Samseau Wrote:  

(06-28-2013 10:28 AM)iknowexactly Wrote:  

For one thing, divorce culture is class bound. Here's a more precise analysis of divorce rates, with the most important foil to the 50% canard being that college-educated women over 25 with an independent income have a divorce rate of about 20%, not 50%.
Also, the only half the divorces are in the first 10 years, so you've got a 90% 10 year survival rate.

That article is bullshit because it doesn't take into account the declining marriage rate. There are less divorces because less people are getting married. The ones who do get married are the ones who are committed to making it work, while people who avoid marriage are the ones who know better.

Thus, the divorce rate has dropped because men got educated and have been avoiding marriage completely unless it's with a woman they really trust.

Also, because of hypergamy, divorce rates are highest among the young.

I looked through old government statistics on marriage and divorce. For example, take a look at this report from 1960 produced by what was then called the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (incidentally the broad scope of the department is indicative of how much smaller the welfare state was back then).

Link: See Page 37

Even back in 1960, it was disproportionately young women who divorced. In fact, in that year 46% of all divorces were among women who married when they were still teenagers! Bear in mind even then that was a young age to get hitched.

Statistics from fifty years ago show the familiar pattern that divorce rates are highest when the wife is in her twenties and thirties but declines precipitously thereafter.

Of course this is because relatively young wives still have or imagine that they have the opportunity to secure a higher-value man.

But to the extent that women today, especially upper middle class and upper class women delay marriage, they're compressing that period when they have a husband and family but are nevertheless still able to entertain the idea of divorcing and trading in for a better model.

[iknowexactly]

You guys make some good points that the percentage of semi-young chix (26-30) that might ditch could be worse than 20%.

It's all kind of become academic for me in the USA. I've managed to get together a small passive income, barely enough to pay for food and a small apartment.

I'm really enjoying my life doing creative things, today I do not have to do a single thing anyone else wants me to and as I type this, I'm listening to a song play back I wrote and recorded yesterday.

Then I rode my bicycle for a couple hours in the sunshine.

I passed some teenagers on a bike ride. I yelled "where are you going?"
"To LA".

I started thinking about going myself. I wouldn't have to ask anyone. I have no "boss."
Just have to look up the campsites on the internet.

If I could get a girl young enough to have a kid with--quite difficult, it means something like a 25 year age difference and I don't want a Walmart Whale-- in a few years she ditches out, there goes my passive income in child support, and I have to WORK again....it's not appealing. They'll set child support based on my 6 figure imputed income, not my low 5 figure investment income, because I should work if I have a kid, they determine my lifestyle.

It doesn't count that I told the girl "I'm poor and staying that way, don't expect housecarjunkalimony. The courts don't care what agreement you made with the woman. You are a wallet.

I'm much more likely to go to Siberia or the Philippines. There's no mutual child support compact with either country. Live there, bring the kid here when he's 6-8 .

There's no divorce in the Philippines-- for her. For YOU, there's divorce: A flight to the USA. So the power balance is much, much different. So she'll tend to act more correctly, provided you maintain security awareness around her relatives, etc. Any kids don't get US citizenship until and unless you go through a process of (voluntarily) doing DNA verification. If you want to be a hard-case, you can hold that over her head for any amount of years.

Since I have no lump sum assets to steal, there's little motivation for really nefarious shit like murdering me. I'm not buying any real estate. She acts up--oops, there goes her meal ticket.

Takes her a couple years to get permanent residency and ditch me, so the worst case is maybe 8 years of child support. Working at a job. That's a lot better than 18.

Bottom line is-- from a man's POV, unless he's got millions in assets and can weather a divorce with not much of a dent in his lifestyle, marriage/kids still doesn't look like a good bet in the USA unless you LIKE your job. Otherwise, you become her bitch.

[ColSpanker]

As the Dead Kennedys once said:
"Kiss ass for the bitch so she can get rich but the boss gets richer off you."

[Samseau]

(06-28-2013 12:02 PM)Therapsid Wrote:  

(06-28-2013 11:51 AM)Samseau Wrote:  

(06-28-2013 10:28 AM)iknowexactly Wrote:  

For one thing, divorce culture is class bound. Here's a more precise analysis of divorce rates, with the most important foil to the 50% canard being that college-educated women over 25 with an independent income have a divorce rate of about 20%, not 50%.
Also, the only half the divorces are in the first 10 years, so you've got a 90% 10 year survival rate.

That article is bullshit because it doesn't take into account the declining marriage rate. There are less divorces because less people are getting married. The ones who do get married are the ones who are committed to making it work, while people who avoid marriage are the ones who know better.

Thus, the divorce rate has dropped because men got educated and have been avoiding marriage completely unless it's with a woman they really trust.

Also, because of hypergamy, divorce rates are highest among the young.

I looked through old government statistics on marriage and divorce. For example, take a look at this report from 1960 produced by what was then called the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (incidentally the broad scope of the department is indicative of how much smaller the welfare state was back then).

Link: See Page 37

Even back in 1960, it was disproportionately young women who divorced. In fact, in that year 46% of all divorces were among women who married when they were still teenagers! Bear in mind even then that was a young age to get hitched.

Statistics from fifty years ago show the familiar pattern that divorce rates are highest when the wife is in her twenties and thirties but declines precipitously thereafter.

Of course this is because relatively young wives still have or imagine that they have the opportunity to secure a higher-value man.

But to the extent that women today, especially upper middle class and upper class women delay marriage, they're compressing that period when they have a husband and family but are nevertheless still able to entertain the idea of divorcing and trading in for a better model.

Exactly. And you know, all this talk about marriage rates is a red herring. What about birth rates? Who cares if women get married at age 39 but never get divorced? She's gonna be a barren wife so it's like she never got married in the first place.

From the country's standpoint, it's the women under the age of 30 you want getting married and producing children. Everything else is insignificant.

[xmlenigma]

So US laws are totally in favor of the DIVORCED witch who can have a FLASHY life on your alimony. (All your money!).. Unless you had a pre-nup.. And if there's child support (PUSHED on you) that makes it worse.

Usually I understand in several countries other than US that the woman & child dont get shit so some laws are created to protect them and give some sense of responsibility to the man.

Which countries laws are if at all at least SENSIBLE. Where you can CARE for the kid and not have to be bitch to HER and HER child support demands (e.g. Alan - 2 & a half men)