I recently reread A Walk In The Dark by Arthur C. Clarke. It is widely considered a classic little suspense/horror/science fiction tale. It is about an astronaut on a planetoid who has to walk, in the dark, between the planetoid’s base and its launch pad. The author is probably best known for 2001: A Space Odyssey.

I decided to take a more academic eye to the story to learn from it. For example, I tried to take note of how much Clarke describes what the protagonist looks like. He doesn’t.

I tried to take note of how often Clarke describes the protagonist’s surroundings. That came up fairly regularly. Clarke described rocky terrain, the stars overhead, etc., but he never went into long asides on the subject. It happened organically.

I took note of how much characterization Clarke gave the main character. It was a fair amount for how short the story was. The character had traveled extensively in space. He was quite rational and kept his fear in check by being logical about his situation.

Despite how short the story is, Clarke still used flashbacks. A good chunk of the story was the character remembering conversations about an unknown threat that lurks in the dark.

As for the threat itself, it is only hinted at. Clarke gave bits and pieces about what it might be: caves, a giant whetstone, the clicking of claws and that’s about it.

Things are not tied up in a neat bow at the end. No real character arc exists. The character doesn’t grow or change. He simply discovers that he’s in trouble despite his rationality. There is some juxtaposition between how advanced mankind has become, yet the simple threat of darkness can still overcome man, but it is not heavy-handed. It is in the background.

So there you have it, a pretty short story, no description of the character’s appearance, flashbacks, vague threat, open ending…it seems like the sum of its parts should not equal a classic, but they do, which goes to show that good writing is sometimes hard to boil down into a formula. Despite the simplicity of the story, I find myself rereading it every now and again. I slip right into the mindset of the character and feel like I am part of his journey. The story works.

As an aside, I think the creator of the film Pitch Black must have read A Walk In The Dark at some point. It seems to me that the creatures in Pitch Black are born straight out of A Walk In The Dark.

It is interesting to see that it seems like stories like A Walk In The Dark are not being published right now, at least I am not seeing them. It seems like the present flavor is meandering tales that tell the reader, look here, this is what I’m trying to say! A Walk In The Dark does not meander and says, read me, have fun and maybe take something away from me if you wish.

I honestly don’t know if A Walk In The Dark would be accepted today, yet it is still being read and remembered. I’m not remembering a lot of new stories I read, but such things are subjective.