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dustydigger
Posted 2025-01-25 5:26 AM (#30767 - in reply to #30713)
Subject: Re: Dusty's Pick & Mix challenge for 2025		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		Enjoyed my reread of John W Campbell's Who Goes There .Even in the 50s when I was a child Scott,Amundsen,Shackelton et al were international heroes,widely admired as the Right Stuff.Certainly Campbell emphasiss that it was a tragedy that the men taken over by the alien had come to such an end,and having to kill them was both a tragedy but a grim necessity
I assume Campbell's 1938 tale was inspired by Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness in 1936.
Campbell really grounds the story in a realistically described scientific camp in the the brutal winter ice and snow. I couldnt read it without remembering the incredible endurance courage and stamina of all those antarctic explorers.
The story is a bit clunky,and it has a LOT of characters involved,but it still packs a punch with me today,as it sure did on its original publication,and is rated as Campbell's best work.
Got to put in a word of course for Cronenberg's 1982 take on the story.It stayed fairly close to the origal tale in tone plot and characterisation,but in typical early 80s style had to have a totally bleak andepressing ending! lol.

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