The body eaters are coming
The Body Snatchers , original title The Body Snatchers is a science fiction - novel of American author Jack Finney . It was first published in 1954 as a three-part serial in the weekly magazine Collier's Weekly and in the following year as a paperback by the New York publishing house Dell. A first German translation was published by Heyne Verlag in 1962 under the title Invisible Parasites , and a new translation by Tony Westermayr was published by Goldmann Verlag on January 1, 1979 as The Body Eaters .
action
The doctor Miles Bennell lives and works in the idyllic town of Mill Valley in California . One day his childhood friend Becky visits him with a strange request. Allegedly, her friend's uncle is no longer himself. Miles investigates the case, but sees nothing unusual. In the days that followed, more and more people came to him with the same problem. He sends her to the psychiatrist Manfred "Mannie" Kaufman, who dismisses the events as mass hysteria . Miles believes this explanation until his friend Jack finds a half-finished copy of himself in the basement of his house. Together with their partners, Miles and Jack begin to investigate and discover that the inhabitants of the city are gradually being replaced by aliens who came to earth as seed pods. The aim of the aliens, who live in a de-individualized, conformist social order, is world domination. Because of the strong resistance of the people who were not exchanged, the invaders finally give up their project and leave the earth.
background
The body eater come has been revised twice by Jack Finney, the first time on the occasion of the paperback first edition from 1955, and again in 1978 for a new edition for the start of Philip Kaufman 's film adaptation of the same name . In the 1960s, the original title The Body Snatchers was expanded for reprints and reprints to The Invasion of the Body Snatchers , based on the title of Don Siegel's film adaptation Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956).
In the course of increasing interpretations of Don Siegel's film adaptation as - depending on the point of view of the reviewer - a warning of a communist infiltration of the USA or of the conformism of the McCarthy era , there was also speculation about a possible subtext in Finney's novel. Finney himself denied an intended statement in the book: “I have read interpretations of the 'statement' of the story which amuse me insofar as there is no statement. The story was meant to be entertainment and that was their only concern. "
The reviews of Finney's book have been mixed. While the verdicts of Anthony Boucher (in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction ) and John Clute (in The Science Fiction Encyclopedia ) were positive, Damon Knight (in In Search of Wonder ) and Groff Conklin (in Galaxy ) complained about a lack of logic and originality .
There is a mental illness called Capgras syndrome . The sick believe that close relatives and friends have been replaced by doppelgangers. Whether Finney was aware of this disease and used it as a suggestion for his novel has not been established.
expenditure
- First print: The Body Snatchers . In Collier's , November 26th, December 10th, December 24th, 1954.
- Original edition: The Body Snatchers. Dell Publishing, New York, 1955.
- German translations
- Invisible parasites. Translated by Fritz Moeglich. Heyne # 166, 1962.
- The body eaters are coming. Translated by Tony Westermayr. Goldmann Science Fiction # 23324, 1979, ISBN 3-442-23324-0 .
- The body eaters are coming . HJB Verlag (Scipio), Mühlhausen-Ehingen 2014, ISBN 978-3-937355-82-5 .
Film adaptations
- The Demonic , USA 1956, directed by Don Siegel . This first film version is, except for the changed ending, the most faithful implementation of the book.
- The Body Eaters are Coming , USA 1978, directed by Philip Kaufman . The action has been moved here to the city of San Francisco .
- Body Snatchers , USA 1993, directed by Abel Ferrara . The location is an army base in the USA.
- Invasion , USA / FRG 2007, directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel . Here again an urban setting was chosen as the starting point, the aliens themselves receding into the background.
literature
- Hans Joachim Alpers , Werner Fuchs , Ronald M. Hahn : Reclam's science fiction guide. Reclam, Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-15-010312-6 , p. 154 f.
- Review of Anthony Boucher in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction , New York, May 1955.
- Entry for Jack Finney in The Science Fiction Encyclopedia , Doubleday & Co., New York, 1979.
- Review of Damon Knight in In Search of Wonder , 2nd Edition, Advent, Chicago, 1967.
- Review of Groff Conklin in Galaxy Science Fiction , New York, July 1955.
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Body Eaters come to Internet Speculative Fiction Database.
- ↑ "I have read explanations of the 'meaning' of this story, which amuse me, because there is no meaning at all; it was just a story meant to entertain, and with no more meaning than that. ”- Jack Finney, quoted from: Harold Schechter: The Bosom Serpent - Folklore and Popular Art , 2nd edition, Peter Lang Publishing, 2001.