Ben’s review of Invasion of the Body Snatchers > Likes and Comments
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The book ends on a positive note so jarring it's as if Jack Finney just ran out of time and decided to wind it up. Remember the scene in the film where Miles and Becky hide in the disused tunnel and she turns into a bodysnatcher? I always felt that was the only lapse in the film - a galling one, because how did it happen so suddenly, with no pod nearby? So I was keen to see if the book handled it any better, but that scene isn't in the book at all. Instead they just keep running, and as they near the freeway Miles decides since they're as good as beaten anyway he's gonna go out with a bang. He gets some petrol or similar from a nearby barn and lights up a whole field of pods, and this one setback is enough for the aliens to suddenly retreat! Worse still, pods all over the countryside just break loose as if under remote control and float away into space! And then we get the (apparently un-ironic) cosy little fireside coda about how these days Santa Mira is just a normal place again (with 99% of the population decimated by soulless automaton aliens!).
I was happy with the framing device in the film - I like that they at least had a fighting chance.
That does sound like a bad way to wrap it up. Awful, actually. I'm fine with the framing device too. Hell, the situation's still dire, and it gives the film a sort of "literary" touch. That bit with her so quickly turning into a pod person has always bugged me too.
It's funny how it makes you feel so bad, isn't it? The whole film is so brilliant, I get so swept up in it, and then that happens. And I want to like it, cos of course she has to turn into one, but I just can't accept it! It's like being woken from a dream before it resolves itself. Had high hopes the book would finally give me closure.
I tried to explain it to myself by saying somehow the technology involved in turning someone into a pod person had made rapid advances in the previous hour or so that obviated the need to place a pod in the immediate vicinity of the victim, but that doesn't really wash either.
I used to be into the film Carnival of Souls but one time while watching it I noticed that when the main character was pulled from the river, drowned and dead, I saw her eyelids flutter, and it ruined the entire film for me. Actually sold my dvd of it and haven't watched it since.
Haven't seen that one but it's strange how the mind works - this delicate balance of disbelief-suspension. And I don't buy your rapid advances in technology theory either.
One thing that bugs me in the extreme is when a writer chooses a form with strict limitations and then keeps stepping out of it. For eg I recently read 'Doktor Glass' and was infuriated by the narrator's quoting verbatim long trivial conversations with friends while supposedly sticking to a diary format. It wasn't that it was impossible, but just jarring, unlikely. In another context it would only have been dull, but in this one it was throw-the-book-across-the-room hate-inducing. Plus the entries got longer and longer till he would have had to have been writing all day and there was way too much exposition of the kind that would have been unnecessary were he writing for himself.
On the other hand, Poe's 'MS Found in a Bottle' uses a similar device and is hardly realistic but I think it works brilliantly.
just piping in here to say how much i love jack finney. agreed that body snatchers sort of stalls at the end but the getting there is so much fun. i've read whatever else of his i could get my hands on. i think he's my ray bradbury. i'd recommend About Time: 12 Short Stories which is a collection of short stories which aren't really all about time, but mostly are. my favorite in the collection is called "of missing persons". the title is probably a marketing scheme to capitalize on the goodwill of those who had read the other book i'd recommend, considered his best book, Time and Again.
Hey Maureen, good to hear from you. I'll look out for these books as I was impressed with Finney's writing style. And anyone who could birth the body snatchers has got to be some kind of genius.
Ben wrote: "Hey Maureen, good to hear from you. I'll look out for these books as I was impressed with Finney's writing style. And anyone who could birth the body snatchers has got to be some kind of genius."
hi ben! yes, i'm flittery these days. rod's got me thinking about the flitcraft story again, and i'm on my second re-read of Mortal Leap which i am quite enamoured of but presents some problems i am trying to work through -- i am not sure if they lie in the book's philosophy or execution but i suspect the former. :)
anyway, look what i found! a present for you! :) http://homepage.mac.com/georgepratt/i...
Oh, the book is actually set in Nor Cal? I assumed it was just filmed here because everything low budget of that era was, from Pollyanna to Touch of Satan.
Yeah it's set in a (presumably fictional?) town called Santa Mira. Not sure if I imagined it, but I think Crescent City was mentioned?
Oh and thanks Mo! I'll take a look at it.
Oh, sure, Crescent City's on the coast near the Oregon border. Is that where Santa Mira is supposed to be? 'Cuz there aren't a lot of Spanish place names that far North...
Maybe the damp up there helps the pod people grow. It certainly does wonders for the marijuana.
Like I said I could be imagining the Crescent City part, cos I have been there years ago and I kinda liked it. I swear he says Northern California though - I think it's partly the isolation he's stressing, the small-town family values. And yeah the damp would help. 'I named my shit the chronic, cos I gotsta fire it up.' West side.
Wikipedia says it was filmed in several different areas of both Northern and Southern California. That's pretty common for that era of film making. I've seen familiar areas representing locales from Midwestern farms to European forests to alien planets.
Funny you've been to Crescent City -- not exactly an international tourist destination.
Sheesh, sorry Miriam, I didn't see your last message. Yeah, I've been there twice actually - I like Northern California. When I was a kid it was cos I wanted to see the Return of the Jedi forests, then later on I was just wandering down the coast from my temporary home in Vancouver. Big trees, mountains, jagged coastline - what's not to like? Except the rain.
Yeah, the coast is pretty awesome. I usually drive that way for the scenery even though it takes twice as long as 5.
One of my all time favourites! And no happy ending, imagine...
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The book ends on a positive note so jarring it's as if Jack Finney just ran out of time and decided to wind it up. Remember the scene in the film where Miles and Becky hide in the disused tunnel and she turns into a bodysnatcher? I always felt that was the only lapse in the film - a galling one, because how did it happen so suddenly, with no pod nearby? So I was keen to see if the book handled it any better, but that scene isn't in the book at all. Instead they just keep running, and as they near the freeway Miles decides since they're as good as beaten anyway he's gonna go out with a bang. He gets some petrol or similar from a nearby barn and lights up a whole field of pods, and this one setback is enough for the aliens to suddenly retreat! Worse still, pods all over the countryside just break loose as if under remote control and float away into space! And then we get the (apparently un-ironic) cosy little fireside coda about how these days Santa Mira is just a normal place again (with 99% of the population decimated by soulless automaton aliens!).I was happy with the framing device in the film - I like that they at least had a fighting chance.
That does sound like a bad way to wrap it up. Awful, actually. I'm fine with the framing device too. Hell, the situation's still dire, and it gives the film a sort of "literary" touch. That bit with her so quickly turning into a pod person has always bugged me too.
It's funny how it makes you feel so bad, isn't it? The whole film is so brilliant, I get so swept up in it, and then that happens. And I want to like it, cos of course she has to turn into one, but I just can't accept it! It's like being woken from a dream before it resolves itself. Had high hopes the book would finally give me closure.
I tried to explain it to myself by saying somehow the technology involved in turning someone into a pod person had made rapid advances in the previous hour or so that obviated the need to place a pod in the immediate vicinity of the victim, but that doesn't really wash either.I used to be into the film Carnival of Souls but one time while watching it I noticed that when the main character was pulled from the river, drowned and dead, I saw her eyelids flutter, and it ruined the entire film for me. Actually sold my dvd of it and haven't watched it since.
Haven't seen that one but it's strange how the mind works - this delicate balance of disbelief-suspension. And I don't buy your rapid advances in technology theory either. One thing that bugs me in the extreme is when a writer chooses a form with strict limitations and then keeps stepping out of it. For eg I recently read 'Doktor Glass' and was infuriated by the narrator's quoting verbatim long trivial conversations with friends while supposedly sticking to a diary format. It wasn't that it was impossible, but just jarring, unlikely. In another context it would only have been dull, but in this one it was throw-the-book-across-the-room hate-inducing. Plus the entries got longer and longer till he would have had to have been writing all day and there was way too much exposition of the kind that would have been unnecessary were he writing for himself.
On the other hand, Poe's 'MS Found in a Bottle' uses a similar device and is hardly realistic but I think it works brilliantly.
just piping in here to say how much i love jack finney. agreed that body snatchers sort of stalls at the end but the getting there is so much fun. i've read whatever else of his i could get my hands on. i think he's my ray bradbury. i'd recommend About Time: 12 Short Stories which is a collection of short stories which aren't really all about time, but mostly are. my favorite in the collection is called "of missing persons". the title is probably a marketing scheme to capitalize on the goodwill of those who had read the other book i'd recommend, considered his best book, Time and Again.
Hey Maureen, good to hear from you. I'll look out for these books as I was impressed with Finney's writing style. And anyone who could birth the body snatchers has got to be some kind of genius.
Ben wrote: "Hey Maureen, good to hear from you. I'll look out for these books as I was impressed with Finney's writing style. And anyone who could birth the body snatchers has got to be some kind of genius."hi ben! yes, i'm flittery these days. rod's got me thinking about the flitcraft story again, and i'm on my second re-read of Mortal Leap which i am quite enamoured of but presents some problems i am trying to work through -- i am not sure if they lie in the book's philosophy or execution but i suspect the former. :)
anyway, look what i found! a present for you! :) http://homepage.mac.com/georgepratt/i...
Oh, the book is actually set in Nor Cal? I assumed it was just filmed here because everything low budget of that era was, from Pollyanna to Touch of Satan.
Yeah it's set in a (presumably fictional?) town called Santa Mira. Not sure if I imagined it, but I think Crescent City was mentioned?
Oh and thanks Mo! I'll take a look at it.
Oh, sure, Crescent City's on the coast near the Oregon border. Is that where Santa Mira is supposed to be? 'Cuz there aren't a lot of Spanish place names that far North... Maybe the damp up there helps the pod people grow. It certainly does wonders for the marijuana.
Like I said I could be imagining the Crescent City part, cos I have been there years ago and I kinda liked it. I swear he says Northern California though - I think it's partly the isolation he's stressing, the small-town family values. And yeah the damp would help. 'I named my shit the chronic, cos I gotsta fire it up.' West side.
Wikipedia says it was filmed in several different areas of both Northern and Southern California. That's pretty common for that era of film making. I've seen familiar areas representing locales from Midwestern farms to European forests to alien planets.Funny you've been to Crescent City -- not exactly an international tourist destination.
Sheesh, sorry Miriam, I didn't see your last message. Yeah, I've been there twice actually - I like Northern California. When I was a kid it was cos I wanted to see the Return of the Jedi forests, then later on I was just wandering down the coast from my temporary home in Vancouver. Big trees, mountains, jagged coastline - what's not to like? Except the rain.
Yeah, the coast is pretty awesome. I usually drive that way for the scenery even though it takes twice as long as 5.
One of my all time favourites! And no happy ending, imagine...
I know that the film originally was not going to have the framing device, and was going to end with him standing in the middle of the freeway screaming for his life, but somebody balked. How's the book end?