The Body Snatchers - Wikipedia, the free encyclo...

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Bo...

The Body Snatchers

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Body Snatchers is a 1955 science ction novel by Jack Finney, originally serialized in Colliers Magazine in 1954, which describes the ctional town of Santa Mira, California, being invaded by seeds that have drifted to Earth from space. The seeds replace sleeping people with perfect physical duplicates grown from plantlike pods, while their human victims turn to dust. The duplicates live only ve years, and they cannot sexually reproduce; consequently, if unstopped, they will quickly turn Earth into a dead planet and move on to the next world. One of the duplicate invaders suggests that this is what all humans do; use up resources, wipe out indigenous populations, and destroy ecosystems in the name of survival. The novel has been adapted for the screen four times; the rst lm in 1956, the second in 1978, the third in 1993, and the most recent in 2007. Unlike two of the lm adaptations, the novel contains an optimistic ending, with the aliens voluntarily vacating after deciding that they cannot tolerate the type of resistance they see in the main characters.

The Body Snatchers

First edition cover illustrated by John McDermott Author Country Language Genre Publisher Publication date Media type Pages Jack Finney United States English Science ction novel Dell Books 1955 Print (Hardback) 191 pp 7148659 (//www.worldcat.org /oclc/7148659)

Contents
1 Critical reception 2 Editions 2.1 First edition 2.2 Revised edition 3 Film adaptations 4 See also
1 of 4

OCLC

2014-04-27 19:31

The Body Snatchers - Wikipedia, the free encyclo...

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Bo...

5 References 6 External links

Critical reception
In 1967, Damon Knight criticized the novel's scientic incoherence... [1] The seed pods, says Finney, drifted across interstellar space to Earth, propelled by light pressure. This echoes a familiar notion, the spore theory of Arrhenius. But the spores referred to are among the smallest living things - small enough to be knocked around by hydrogen molecules...In confusing these minute particles with three-foot seed pods, Finney invalidates his whole argument - and makes ludicrous nonsense of the nal scene in which the pods, defeated, oat up into the sky to hunt another planet. ...and its crude plot development: Almost from the beginning, the characters follow the author's logic rather than their own. Bennell and his friends, intelligent and capable people, exhibit an invincible stupidity whenever normal intelligence would allow them to get ahead with the mystery too fast. When they have four undeveloped seed pods on their hands, for instance, they do none of the obvious things -- make no tests, take no photographs, display the objects to no witnesses. Bennell, a practicing physician, never thinks of X-raying the pods. Under Jack Finney's entry in The Science Fiction Encyclopedia, John Clute remarks concerning the novel:[2] Horrifyingly depicts the invasion of a small town by interstellar spores that duplicate human beings, reducing them to dust in the process; the menacing spore-people who remain symbolize, it has been argued, the loss of freedom in contemporary society. Jack Finney's further books are slickly told but less involving. Galaxy reviewer Gro Conklin faulted the original edition, declaring that "Too many s-f novels lack outstanding originality, but this one lacks it to an outstanding degree."[3] Anthony Boucher found it to be "intensely readable and unpredictably ingenious" despite noticeable inconsistencies and its sometimes lack of scientic accuracy.[4] P . Schuyler Miller reported that, once Finney sets out his premise, the novel becomes "a straight chase yarn, with several nice gimmicks and a not entirely convincing denouement."[5]
2 of 4 2014-04-27 19:31

The Body Snatchers - Wikipedia, the free encyclo...

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Bo...

Editions
First edition
Finney, Jack (c. 1955). The Body Snatchers. Dell.

Revised edition
Finney, Jack (c1954, 1955, 1978). Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Revised and updated ed.). New York: Dell.

Film adaptations
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) Body Snatchers (1993) The Invasion (2007)

See also
"The Body Snatcher" (1884), a short story by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson The Puppet Masters (1951), a science ction novel by Robert A. Heinlein in which a trio of American government agents attempts to thwart a covert invasion of Earth by mind-controlling alien parasites It Came From Outer Space (1953), based on a Ray Bradbury story, involves an alien invasion wherein humans are duplicated by the aliens Contamination (1980) a lm that revisits parts of the novel. The Father-thing (December 1954), a short story by Philip K. Dick, appearing in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, uses the ideas of pods duplicating humans and re being the means of destroying the pods Invasion of the Pod People (2007), a mockbuster lm from The Asylum intended to coincide with the premiere of the 2007 lm The Invasion The Host (2008), a novel by Stephenie Meyer that depicts a world wherein the human population has already been taken over by parasitic aliens The Puppet Masters (1994), a science ction lm based on the Robert A. Heinlein novel

References
1. ^ Knight, Damon (March 1967). "Half-Bad Writers". In Search of Wonder (2nd ed.). Chicago: Advent. pp. 7275. ISBN 0-911682-15-5.

3 of 4

2014-04-27 19:31

The Body Snatchers - Wikipedia, the free encyclo...

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Bo...

2. ^ Clute, John (1979). The Science Fiction Encyclopedia. New York: Doubleday & Co, Inc. ISBN 0-385-13000-7. 3. ^ "Galaxy's 5 Star Shelf", Galaxy Science Fiction, July 1955, p.92 4. ^ "Recommended Reading," F&SF, May 1955, pp.71. 5. ^ Miller, P . Schuyler. "The Reference Library," Astounding Science-Fiction, September 1955, pp.151-52.

External links
The Body Snatchers (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?437) title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database Cinefantastique book review (http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/2007/08 /18/invasion-of-the-body-snatchers-book-review) Critique of book to lmed versions (http://www.denofgeek.com/movies /8781/versions_invasion_of_the_body_snatchers.html) Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Body_Snatchers& oldid=602460045" Categories: 1955 novels Novels by Jack Finney American novels adapted into lms Novels rst published in serial form Works originally published in Collier's Weekly Novels set in California 1950s science ction novels This page was last modied on 2 April 2014 at 19:25. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-prot organization.

4 of 4

2014-04-27 19:31