I don't know... What is wrong with stories that asks a question? It does have an ending. it is just the interpretation of the ending that is open. These kind of stories sometimes wants to make you think and that in turn makes them memorable. So i think at least some public takes to these kind of endings. Granted, this story is not the best in that cathegory but obviously it worked or we wouldn't be talking about it.
We’re only talking about it bc it’s the featured story. Frankly, if it weren’t an assigned reading, I’d’ve forgotten about it PDQ. But there is nothing wrong with stories that ask questions; in fact, there’s everything
right about them!
Here are some stories that will ”make you think” but that — sorry, all you Stephen King fans — aren’t in the Horror genre:
The Big Front Yard, Desertion, Immigrant, New Folks’ Home, Drop Dead, and Skirmish (My oft-cited list of Clifford D. Simak shorts)
What Have I Done? (Mark Clifton) — I just sent a link to that story to Dr. Paul Ekman of the Paul Ekman Group (upon whom the series Lie to Me starring Tim Roth is based); it’s right up his alley.
In Hiding (Wilmar Shiras)
By His Bootstraps, The Roads Must Roll (Robert Heinlein)
Baby Is Three (Ted Sturgeon)
With Folded Hands (Jack Williamson)
History Lesson (Arthur C. Clarke)
A Martian Odyssey (Stanley G. Weinbaum)
Bloodchild (Octavia Butler)
Consider Her Ways (John Wyndham)
Arena (Fredric Brown)
Common Time, Surface Tension (James Blish)
The Marching Morons (Cyril Kornbluth) — there’s major horror in this one, but it’s almost all offscreen.
He Who Shrank (Henry Hasse)
Mimsy Were The Borogoves, Vintage Season (Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore)
The Bright Illusion (C. L. Moore)
Four In One (Damon Knight)
Sidewise in Time (Murray Leinster)
Fondly Fahrenheit, The Men Who Murdered Mohammed (Alfred Bester)
And a few novels:
Lest Darkness Fall (L. Sprague de Camp)
Midsummer Century (James Blish)
A Torrent of Faces (James Blish and Norman L. Knight)
The Demolished Man, The Stars My Destination (Alfred Bester)
The Space Merchants (C. M. Kornbluth and Frederik Pohl)
The Midwich Cuckoos, The Chrysalids (John Wyndham)
Greener Than You Think (Ward Moore)
That’s enough for now.