Run Dick, Run Jane 39 years old

This version of the Dick and Jane and Baby Sally tale was influenced by Dorothy Bloch, who stresses the role of childhood fear that the parent will kill the child. An alternative title, “The Scissors Bird,” is intended as a reference to “The Story of Little Suck-aThumb” in Hoffman’s Struwwelpeter, in which little Conrad has his thumbs cut off. The clearest issue from the stormy advance of family history over the last two decades is that adult perceptions of children are unanchored and self-absorbed. By killing the imaginary child, Run Dick, Run Jane skews the adult viewer’s inner child narrative investment. —Tony Conrad