<tkmailers@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message news:g15mbu$pkl$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Mike stone wrote:
> > "Mike Stone" <mwstone@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
> >
news:b0f3f648-d525-4bfa-9c04-9f371516c72b@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > On May 4, 9:22?pm, "Dan Tilque" <dtil...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> >
> >
> >> Yes. As somebody once said on another thread, it has a kind of
> >> "timeless" air to it. In that, imho, it rather resembles _The Day of
> >> the Triffids_. Both are in some ways _more_ topical now than >when
theywere
> > written.
> >
> >
> > Just had a couple more thoughts on the "dated" question.
> >
> > Hunting round google groups just before rasw disappeared from it, I
> > discovered an earlier review of _Needle_, in which someone thought it
dated
> > because a person growing into adolescence seems to have no problem
with
a
> > being inhabiting his body and observing his every action.
> >
> > Personally, though, I suspect this has more to do with the
personalities
> > than the times. Clement's juvenile characters (almost always male) are
> > pretty consistently extrovert types, not given to self-consciousness
or
> > sensitivity. In this, I suspect they reflect Clement himself. Wasn't
he
a
> > scoutmaster or something? So perhaps it isn't so surprising.
> >
> > Mention of adolescence, however, brings me on to a glaringly "dated"
aspect
> > of the book, on which nobody (myself included up to now) has so far
> > commented. The complete absence of girls.
> >
> > Offhand, I can only recall two female characters in _Needle_. Bob's
mother
> > appears a few times, but is barely more than a voice off stage, a bit
like
> > the narrator's wife in Wells' _War of the Worlds_. Miss Rand, the
resident
> > nurse at Bob's school, is at least named, but makes only a very brief
> > appearence in Ch 4. Apart from them, the cast (as in much sf of that
> > vintage) is exclusively male. As far as the opposite *** is concerned,
Bob
> > might as well have remained at his boarding school [1].
> >
> > Not that Bob seems to mind. He is fifteen, but still isn't showing the
> > slightest interest in girls, and if any of his friends do we are never
told
> > about it [2]. They seem to take an all-male "universe" for granted.
> >
> > I find it curious that commentators have been so slow to remark on
this.
Is
> > it something we take so much for granted in older sf that we simply
don't
> > notice it?
> >
> >
> >
> > [1] I'm not sure if we are ever actually _told_ that the school is for
boys
> > only, but given the era I think this can probably be assumed.
> >
> > [2] A modern novelist might offer an explanation for it, but in 1949
one
> > there was of course no question of _that_.
> >
> > --
> >
> > Mike Stone - Peterborough, England
> >
> > You can tell what God thinks of money by looking at the people He
> > gives it to.
>
> Could this not be because they were irrelevant to plot? I read _Needle_
> less than 3 months back, & was thinking only of the boy, his alien host,
> & the alien fugitive. All other characters were sort of background.
>
> This outlook may also be individual specific, of course.
I think it was genre specific too, at least for the time. There are few
female characters in Eric Frank Russell's work either. '50s sf was like
that. I suspect that a similar book today would include at least a passing
reference to such matters.
>
> Thing that I found most curious in the story was, however, the ease with
> which the fugitive was caught. He had time, & chose to stay on the
> island! How likely would detection have been had he really moved around
> earth & ended up in a little village in Peru, say?
>
Doesn't even have to be a village. He could lose himself pretty thoroughly
in LA or Mexico City.
Basically, he had to be kept on the Island for there to be any realistic
chance of catching him. Perhaps he assumed smugly that even if found there
was not a lot the Hunter could do to him, so he didn't worry very much.
Iirc
he came over as an arrogant so and so.
I felt that "Problem Three" at the end was also a bit contrived. After
all,
they were all at Doc Seever's surgery, and Seever knew the situation. Why
not just fill Bob's father in on what had been happening? It wouldn't need
to go any further, save presumably to his mother, and between them they
could probably concoct a "cover story" to explain the fire. I suspect
Clement just wanted a slightly "fun" ending and didn't trouble too much
about plausibility.
Still, enough nitpicks. It's still well worth a read.
--
Mike Stone - Peterborough, England
You can tell what God thinks of money by looking at the people He gives it
to.
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