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Pif Magazine
Pif Magazine |
Impostors : Page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 When things get too dense to endure, I have found that the best respites are found in the dark. For me, the most satisfying moment in Invasion of the Body Snatchers comes when we discover that Leonard Nimoy, who plays a psychiatrist in the film, has already been supplanted by a soulless, pod-spawned double. I get a kick out of the idea that in this case the alien replica is more or less impossible to differentiate from its human counterpart. I am not sure whether this is meant as a comment on psychiatrists or on Leonard Nimoy, but the ambiguity does not dampen my pleasure. I do not mean to minimize the political implications or the more notorious horrors in this film. As Kevin McCarthy devotes himself to outing the pods, he finds himself part of an ever-shrinking minority. ("I'm not crazy. Make them listen before it's too late." Who hasn't been there, or thereabouts?) Imagine our planet completely populated by Uncle Basils. A chilling prospect. ("I'd hate to wake up some morning and find out you weren't you," our hero jokes, when it is still fairly early in the film and the prospect still unbelievable.) And so the question arises: in a false world, what does it mean to be genuine? Film buffs will realize that I've conflated the 1956 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers with the 1978 remake, the latter which is generally agreed to be inferior, the Leonard Nimoy bit notwithstanding. Certainly it has proved far less memorable and less moving than the original. Remakes have ever been the opportunistic pods of the industry. Let us persevere with a moderate spirit: if we must not grovel, neither should we strut. Woe to the emperor who, having banished every tailor from the realm, has gone naked so long that he never feels a breeze. And yet, his subjects still crane their necks to see him wave from the balcony. They would be disappointed if he did not make an appearance, and, possibly, a little afraid. In mythology, Perseus survived by indirection, looking at neither the Medusa nor his own reflection dead on. Impostors all, we, too, must only obliquely approach what we hope to be, even as we avoid what we fear we might be after all. Tell us what you think. Email talkback@pifmagazine.com Arthur Saltzman is Professor of English at Missouri Southern State College and the author of seven books, most recently This Mad Instead: Governing Metaphors in Contemporary American Fiction and Objects and Empathy, which won the First Series Creative Nonfiction Award from Mid-List Press.
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