Goodnight Moon

Set in a dystopian future in which genetically engineered animals have devoured humanity, GOODNIGHT MOON is told from the perspective of a unseen, dying victim of the ravenous hordes. As he reflects on the scene with his last breaths, MOON provides a terrifying eulogy for the human race.

Margaret Wise Brown’s approach to the apocalypse is a minimalist one. Leaving only vague hints about the world in the wake of DR. MOREAU-style takeover by anthropomorphic animals, the slowly expiring narrator describes his deathbed — a seemingly normal bedroom and its mundane, but symbolically sinister furnishings.

As illustrated by Clement Hurd, the room is green (a metaphor for Earth), while a balloon the color of bright arterial blood hangs over the tableau, suggesting both a fading sun and the blood spilled across the world in humanity’s losing battle against the cunning beasts.

These elliptical clues are mere indications of the global slaughter — more-overt signs appear as the narrative unfolds. Pictures of bears sitting in chairs and of cows able to jump to extreme heights show that the animal-creatures’ emergence was not only welcomed by humanity, but, in fact, celebrated. The only explicit sign of humanity’s fate is a freakishly mutated rabbit-woman putting her rabbit child to bed in a room that was obviously once a human home; their very existence exposes the horror of the otherwise-Rockwellian scene.

As the other animals in the room run wild — cats and mice roam unchecked — mittens and socks obviously meant for humans hang on a clothes rack, never to be used in a winter the narrator will never see. These rabbit creatures have settled in, and the ravenous rabbit-child’s nightstand holds a brush that reads “Bunny” and a bowl full of “mush” that’s obviously a slurry of the narrator’s entrails.

The rabbit woman tries to hush the narrator’s dying gasps, but he manages, before the end, to say goodbye to his former possessions, to the air that once gave him life, to the “nobody” that represents Earth’s absence of humanity, and to the silent, ever-present moon, which serves as a mute witness to the genocide that unfolded under its unblinking gaze.

While GOODNIGHT MOON will inspire nightmares, it’s also a parable — a warning to any who might dabble in genetic engineering. If we don’t control the unintended consequences of science, we all might eventually be saying “goodnight moon,” and by then, there will be no escape. —Ryun Patterson

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