The Body Snatchers

[Foxbat]

I don't know why it's taken such a long time for me to get round to reading this Jack Finney novel but, finally, I have. It's an engrossing read and carries even more menace than any of the film versions. It's also interesting how the first movie version played highly on the 'red menace' of the times but, in the book, there is no feeling of analogy with the cold war. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the reasoning behind the events is even more frightening.

The only puzzle is why I waited so long to get around to this fine book

 

[Extollager]

I don't know why it's taken such a long time for me to get round to reading this Jack Finney novel but, finally, I have. It's an engrossing read and carries even more menace than any of the film versions. It's also interesting how the first movie version played highly on the 'red menace' of the times but, in the book, there is no feeling of analogy with the cold war. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the reasoning behind the events is even more frightening.

The only puzzle is why I waited so long to get around to this fine book

Did you read the original (I haven't) or the 1970s-era version?

 

[Foxbat]

It's the original(1953). I wasn't aware there were two different versions.

 

[Interference]

I haven't read the book and only remember the story as an allegory for communist witch-hunting. In this context, it stands as a clever and distinctive use of Science Fiction as a warning medium in film, if not outright propaganda. That it didn't delve too deeply into science - the 70's version at least brazenly described at the Triffid-like origins of the seed-pods - is, I think, to its credit. The audience for Science Fiction at the time was far less weighted in favour of amateur scientists and more for teenagers who need a right good scarifying, which is something I suspect modern writers get upside-down.

As a side-note, I'm frequently surprised at what words my spell-checker doubts, as well as those it recognises. Example: It doesn't red-squiggle Triffid

 

[Extollager]

It's the original(1953). I wasn't aware there were two different versions.

Yes -- it was revised in the Seventies. I would have preferred to read the earlier version, but the library supplied the later one. It didn't have a movie tie-in cover, btw. I think the revisions were probably minimal, just to remove things that would make the story stand out as 1950s vintage.

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?437

 

[Foxbat]

My mistake. I posted 1953. It was actually published in 1955.

As I read this book to its conclusion, I find it more about the indomitable Human Spirit more than any allegory or metaphor for the spread of Communism. Indeed, you could use this novel (if you wanted) to argue a similarity with the Vietnam conflict (even though that at the time of writing, America was years away from getting involved).

Perhaps I should explain myself -Ho Chi Minh knew that that an inhospitable country had its roots in an inhospitable population.
This is much like the attitude towards the Body Snatchers. Eventually, the effort to succeed outweighs the rewards of success.

Now, I'm not saying for one minute that there are any analogies to be drawn between Vietnam and this book. I'm merely showing an example of how works of fiction can be read to say what we want them to say. This, I believe, is what happened to this novel.

 

[Vladd67]

The audience for Science Fiction at the time was far less weighted in favour of amateur scientists and more for teenagers who need a right good scarifying, which is something I suspect modern writers get upside-down.

You think teenagers need scratching or have superficial incisions made in their skin
Mind you, to hasten the sprouting of (hard-covered seeds) by making incisions in the seed coats, probably makes sense when dealing with pod people

 

[Interference]

Exactly what I meant

 

[DBurseth]

One of my favorites!

 

[LouisWu]

It's very similar to Heinleins "Puppet Masters" which was written first I believe. Not suggesting plagurism, but they were both written at almost the exact same time.

 

[ginny]

I really loved the first film and at the time I watched it it was really scary. Even watching it today it hasn't lost its classic feel.

The newer version with Leonord Nimoy and Jeff Goldblum and Donald Sutherland was okay I especially enjoyed that cameo from the original of Kevin McCarthy from the 1956 version