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Le Cose
FANTASCIENZA - L'altra faccia della Cosa: la vicenda del grande classico rivisitata dal punto di vista dell'Alieno. Premio Shirley Jackson, finalista premio Hugo, Locus e Sturgeon
Nel grande classico di John Wood Campbell jr "La cosa", dal quale sono stati tratti ben tre film, abbiamo seguito la storia degli uomini della base nell'antartico che scoprono nei ghiacci una creatura aliena, un mostro, una "cosa" terrificante. Ma la storia può essere vista anche da un altro punto di vista. Quello di un viaggiatore dello spazio che dopo un incidente si risveglia circondato da esseri alieni che gli danno la caccia. Esseri che a loro volta, dal "suo" punto di vista, sono mostri, sono "cose" altrettanto terrificanti. Finalista a tutti i maggiori premi del settore e vincitore del premio Shirley Jackson per il suspense psicologico, un piccolo classico che non vi farà più vedere i mostri nello stesso modo.
Canadese, classe 1958, Peter Watts ha vinto il premio Hugo nel 2010 col racconto "L'isola", ma c'era già arrivato vicino nel 2006 col romanzo "Blindsight". Biologo specializzato nei mammiferi marini, Watts ha sfruttato le sue conoscenze scientifiche nel romanzo con cui ha esordito, "Starfish", al quale ha dato finora tre seguiti.
Nel grande classico di John Wood Campbell jr "La cosa", dal quale sono stati tratti ben tre film, abbiamo seguito la storia degli uomini della base nell'antartico che scoprono nei ghiacci una creatura aliena, un mostro, una "cosa" terrificante. Ma la storia può essere vista anche da un altro punto di vista. Quello di un viaggiatore dello spazio che dopo un incidente si risveglia circondato da esseri alieni che gli danno la caccia. Esseri che a loro volta, dal "suo" punto di vista, sono mostri, sono "cose" altrettanto terrificanti. Finalista a tutti i maggiori premi del settore e vincitore del premio Shirley Jackson per il suspense psicologico, un piccolo classico che non vi farà più vedere i mostri nello stesso modo.
Canadese, classe 1958, Peter Watts ha vinto il premio Hugo nel 2010 col racconto "L'isola", ma c'era già arrivato vicino nel 2006 col romanzo "Blindsight". Biologo specializzato nei mammiferi marini, Watts ha sfruttato le sue conoscenze scientifiche nel romanzo con cui ha esordito, "Starfish", al quale ha dato finora tre seguiti.
52 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 78 reviews
September 16, 2022
Q:
What kind of a world rejects communion? (c)
One of a kind. What do you do when you lose a thousand worlds?
Q:
I am being Blair. I escape out the back as the world comes in through the front.
I am being Copper. I am rising from the dead.
I am being Childs. I am guarding the main entrance.
The names don't matter. They are placeholders, nothing more; all biomass is interchangeable. What matters is that these are all that is left of me. The world has burned everything else. (c)
Q:
I see myself through the window, loping through the storm, wearing Blair. (c)
Q:
I was so much more, before the crash. I was an explorer, an ambassador, a missionary. I spread across the cosmos, met countless worlds, took communion: the fit reshaped the unfit and the whole universe bootstrapped upwards in joyful, infinitesimal increments. I was a soldier, at war with entropy itself. I was the very hand by which Creation perfects itself.
So much wisdom I had. So much experience. Now I cannot remember all the things I knew. I can only remember that I once knew them. (c)
Q:
It's the simplest, most irreducible insight that biomass can have. The more you can change, the more you can adapt. Adaptation is fitness, adaptation is survival. It's deeper than intelligence, deeper than tissue; it is cellular, it is axiomatic. And more, it is pleasurable. To take communion is to experience the sheer sensual delight of bettering the cosmos. (c)
Q:
At first I thought it might simply be starving, that these icy wastes didn't provide enough energy for routine shapeshifting. Or perhaps this was some kind of laboratory: an anomalous corner of the world, pinched off and frozen into these freakish shapes as part of some arcane experiment on monomorphism in extreme environments. (c)
What kind of a world rejects communion? (c)
One of a kind. What do you do when you lose a thousand worlds?
Q:
I am being Blair. I escape out the back as the world comes in through the front.
I am being Copper. I am rising from the dead.
I am being Childs. I am guarding the main entrance.
The names don't matter. They are placeholders, nothing more; all biomass is interchangeable. What matters is that these are all that is left of me. The world has burned everything else. (c)
Q:
I see myself through the window, loping through the storm, wearing Blair. (c)
Q:
I was so much more, before the crash. I was an explorer, an ambassador, a missionary. I spread across the cosmos, met countless worlds, took communion: the fit reshaped the unfit and the whole universe bootstrapped upwards in joyful, infinitesimal increments. I was a soldier, at war with entropy itself. I was the very hand by which Creation perfects itself.
So much wisdom I had. So much experience. Now I cannot remember all the things I knew. I can only remember that I once knew them. (c)
Q:
It's the simplest, most irreducible insight that biomass can have. The more you can change, the more you can adapt. Adaptation is fitness, adaptation is survival. It's deeper than intelligence, deeper than tissue; it is cellular, it is axiomatic. And more, it is pleasurable. To take communion is to experience the sheer sensual delight of bettering the cosmos. (c)
Q:
At first I thought it might simply be starving, that these icy wastes didn't provide enough energy for routine shapeshifting. Or perhaps this was some kind of laboratory: an anomalous corner of the world, pinched off and frozen into these freakish shapes as part of some arcane experiment on monomorphism in extreme environments. (c)
June 16, 2021
Voto: 3,5
Godibile racconto breve che riassume la storia del capolavoro cinematografico di John Carpenter, "La Cosa" (1982), narrandolo dal punto di vista della creatura secondo la quale i veri mostri siamo noi.
Forse giusto un po' troppo corto, ma se siete fan del capolavoro diretto da John Carpenter dategli una letta.
Molto meglio a mio parere La Cosa di John W. Campbell Jr., il classico originale che ha ispirato finora ben tre film.
June 21, 2020
A spectacular short story that challenges the human perspective in one of my all time favorite films. I often find that Horror storytelling faces challenges in the medium of reading in that it's often too hard to "scare" a reader in the traditional sense via words on a page, but that written Horror actually thrives in the unsettling.
This story unsettled me from start to finish. Its prose and imagery assimilated me into a mindset that I was uncomfortable sharing, like the main character of its work. It felt like wearing a wet skin-suit that had been thrust over me, and that I could not remove. For fans of the movie or not, for fans of horror or reading, whatever drives you to consider this piece of fiction, do not pass it up. Peter Watts has crafted something undeniably unsettling.
This story unsettled me from start to finish. Its prose and imagery assimilated me into a mindset that I was uncomfortable sharing, like the main character of its work. It felt like wearing a wet skin-suit that had been thrust over me, and that I could not remove. For fans of the movie or not, for fans of horror or reading, whatever drives you to consider this piece of fiction, do not pass it up. Peter Watts has crafted something undeniably unsettling.
June 30, 2022
It's a short story novelization of the movie The Thing from the Thing's point of view.
That was all I needed to know to get hyped up for this and I have a hard time imagining anyone else needing any more. But I'll try: It's well written. The "Thing" isn't just a monster out to consume people, but a sentient being whose biology is completely normal and views our, not just humans but all life on Earth, as not just alien--it's familiar with aliens--but wrong. I had fun revisiting one of my favorite sci-fi horror movies from the Thing's perspective.
Read it here:
That was all I needed to know to get hyped up for this and I have a hard time imagining anyone else needing any more. But I'll try: It's well written. The "Thing" isn't just a monster out to consume people, but a sentient being whose biology is completely normal and views our, not just humans but all life on Earth, as not just alien--it's familiar with aliens--but wrong. I had fun revisiting one of my favorite sci-fi horror movies from the Thing's perspective.
Read it here:
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watt...
October 30, 2022
Fascinating alternative perspective of the events in, John Carpenter's The Thing, from the viewpoint of the Thing.
A few certain ambiguous details of the film are brought to revelation. Namely the fact (I've always fought so, anyway) that Of course, it's all up for interpretation, that's one of the many great things of, John Carpenter's The Thing.
A must read for fans of John Carpenter's The Thing.
A few certain ambiguous details of the film are brought to revelation. Namely the fact (I've always fought so, anyway) that Of course, it's all up for interpretation, that's one of the many great things of, John Carpenter's The Thing.
A must read for fans of John Carpenter's The Thing.
July 13, 2022
An interesting telling of The Thing from the point of view of the alien.
An enjoyable short read with last line that felt like a straight up punch in the gut.
An enjoyable short read with last line that felt like a straight up punch in the gut.
January 31, 2020
I had no idea this existed until yesterday, and I found a copy of it today!
If you're interested in reading "Who Goes There?" or "The Thing" from the perspective of....well, the Thing, check it out!
clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/
If you're interested in reading "Who Goes There?" or "The Thing" from the perspective of....well, the Thing, check it out!
clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/
May 6, 2014
One of the best short stories I have ever read. A necessary companion piece to John Carpenter's masterpiece, which it almost manages to transcend.
With this story, Watts takes the greatest monster in film history and bestows upon it a consciousness and psychology at once recognizable and terribly, horrifically alien.
This piece provides the most chilling answer ever given to the question of whether we are alone in the Universe:
There is life out there. But we are more alone than we could ever have imagined.
With this story, Watts takes the greatest monster in film history and bestows upon it a consciousness and psychology at once recognizable and terribly, horrifically alien.
This piece provides the most chilling answer ever given to the question of whether we are alone in the Universe:
There is life out there. But we are more alone than we could ever have imagined.
August 22, 2022
“Prima ero molto di più, prima dello schianto. Ero un esploratore, un ambasciatore, un missionario.”
“Le cose” offre un punto di vista molto diverso rispetto alla “Cosa”, in quanto a raccontare i fatti è l’alieno che perso sulla terra, si ritrova circondato da esseri umani che vogliono ucciderlo.
Questo diverso punto di vista offre un notevole spunto di riflessione, in quanto mostra l’incapacità degli esseri umani di gestire e comprendere qualcosa di diverso da loro. L’unico modo che gli scienziati hanno di confrontarsi con la cosa è la violenza.
“…e il mondo mi aggredì. Mi aggredì.”
La creatura, che ora vede loro come cose, non può far altro che difendersi e l’atteggiamento violento mostrato invece dal punto di vista degli umani ora è invece soggetto a “compassione” da parte nostra.
“E quando assimilai anche loro – quando la mia biomassa cambiò e fluì in forme non familiari a occhi indigeni – entrai in comunione in solitudine, avendo imparato che al mondo non piace quello che non conosce.”
La creatura non riesce però ad entrare totalmente in contatto con il corpo umano, mentre con altre forme di vita la “comunione” avviene in simbiosi e il contatto unisce totalmente i due esseri, il corpo degli scienziati sembra rifiutare l’essere. Che non comprende, nemmeno dopo essere entrato in contatto con loro, la motivazione di tanta violenza.
“Perché tirarmi fuori dal ghiaccio, trasportarmi così lontano attraverso quella landa desolata e restituirmi alla vita solo per aggredirmi nel momento stesso in cui mi svegliavo? Se lo scopo era lo sterminio, perché non uccidermi là dove mi trovavo?”
Gli esseri umani di fronte a ciò che è diverso si atteggiano con violenza e diffidenza, arrivando a una totale mancanza di fiducia, che risultata incomprensibile. Sono totalmente impauriti sia da ciò che non comprendono, ma nemmeno da quello che non riescono a vedere. “La cosa” si nasconde ai loro occhi e lo fa mimetizzandosi tra gli scienziati.
“Avevano semplicemente smesso di fidarsi di ciò che non potevano vedere. Si erano semplicemente messi gli uni contro gli altri.”
La creatura ha solo questo modo per difendersi, gli umani non riescono a farle comprendere le loro azioni e lei non è in grado di conoscere e capire. Il nostro mondo risulta debole e corrotto, non in grado di funzionare, spesso e volentieri il termine che usa è tumore, qualcosa di nocivo ed estraneo.
“Potrei già conoscere il mondo, se il mondo non stesse tentando così intensamente di uccidermi.”
Di fronte al pericolo non c’è unità ma divisione, al contrario dell’atteggiamento della creatura che si unisce per sopravvivere.
“La loro paura e sfiducia reciproca stavano crescendo, ma non univano le proprie anime; cercavano il nemico solo fuori da se stessi.”
La creatura ormai fa parte degli uomini, è passata di corpo in corpo e gli scienziati pur di distruggerla non si fanno scrupoli (come abbiamo visto nel primo libro).
“Nel distruggere me, hanno distrutto se stessi.”
La creatura sopravvive, gli uomini si sono distrutti a vicenda. Non sono stati in grado di comprendere e fraternizzare con cose estranee a loro, è lo stesso atteggiamento che si ha con lo sconosciuto, lo straniero. Ciò che non comprendono causa paura e l’unico modo che hanno di gestirla è la violenza.
“Sono semplicemente così avvezzi al dolore, talmente accecati dalla loro disabilità, che letteralmente non concepiscono un altro tipo di esistenza. Quando ogni nervo è lacerato e scoperto, si reagisce con violenza anche al minimo tocco.”
“Le cose” offre un punto di vista molto diverso rispetto alla “Cosa”, in quanto a raccontare i fatti è l’alieno che perso sulla terra, si ritrova circondato da esseri umani che vogliono ucciderlo.
Questo diverso punto di vista offre un notevole spunto di riflessione, in quanto mostra l’incapacità degli esseri umani di gestire e comprendere qualcosa di diverso da loro. L’unico modo che gli scienziati hanno di confrontarsi con la cosa è la violenza.
“…e il mondo mi aggredì. Mi aggredì.”
La creatura, che ora vede loro come cose, non può far altro che difendersi e l’atteggiamento violento mostrato invece dal punto di vista degli umani ora è invece soggetto a “compassione” da parte nostra.
“E quando assimilai anche loro – quando la mia biomassa cambiò e fluì in forme non familiari a occhi indigeni – entrai in comunione in solitudine, avendo imparato che al mondo non piace quello che non conosce.”
La creatura non riesce però ad entrare totalmente in contatto con il corpo umano, mentre con altre forme di vita la “comunione” avviene in simbiosi e il contatto unisce totalmente i due esseri, il corpo degli scienziati sembra rifiutare l’essere. Che non comprende, nemmeno dopo essere entrato in contatto con loro, la motivazione di tanta violenza.
“Perché tirarmi fuori dal ghiaccio, trasportarmi così lontano attraverso quella landa desolata e restituirmi alla vita solo per aggredirmi nel momento stesso in cui mi svegliavo? Se lo scopo era lo sterminio, perché non uccidermi là dove mi trovavo?”
Gli esseri umani di fronte a ciò che è diverso si atteggiano con violenza e diffidenza, arrivando a una totale mancanza di fiducia, che risultata incomprensibile. Sono totalmente impauriti sia da ciò che non comprendono, ma nemmeno da quello che non riescono a vedere. “La cosa” si nasconde ai loro occhi e lo fa mimetizzandosi tra gli scienziati.
“Avevano semplicemente smesso di fidarsi di ciò che non potevano vedere. Si erano semplicemente messi gli uni contro gli altri.”
La creatura ha solo questo modo per difendersi, gli umani non riescono a farle comprendere le loro azioni e lei non è in grado di conoscere e capire. Il nostro mondo risulta debole e corrotto, non in grado di funzionare, spesso e volentieri il termine che usa è tumore, qualcosa di nocivo ed estraneo.
“Potrei già conoscere il mondo, se il mondo non stesse tentando così intensamente di uccidermi.”
Di fronte al pericolo non c’è unità ma divisione, al contrario dell’atteggiamento della creatura che si unisce per sopravvivere.
“La loro paura e sfiducia reciproca stavano crescendo, ma non univano le proprie anime; cercavano il nemico solo fuori da se stessi.”
La creatura ormai fa parte degli uomini, è passata di corpo in corpo e gli scienziati pur di distruggerla non si fanno scrupoli (come abbiamo visto nel primo libro).
“Nel distruggere me, hanno distrutto se stessi.”
La creatura sopravvive, gli uomini si sono distrutti a vicenda. Non sono stati in grado di comprendere e fraternizzare con cose estranee a loro, è lo stesso atteggiamento che si ha con lo sconosciuto, lo straniero. Ciò che non comprendono causa paura e l’unico modo che hanno di gestirla è la violenza.
“Sono semplicemente così avvezzi al dolore, talmente accecati dalla loro disabilità, che letteralmente non concepiscono un altro tipo di esistenza. Quando ogni nervo è lacerato e scoperto, si reagisce con violenza anche al minimo tocco.”
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April 28, 2021Well, here's one for the file of classic stories retold from another perspective: John Carpenter's The Thing as seen by the Thing. Would you believe it's much more horrifying that way, this poor lost traveller unable to comprehend how these poor stiff, dead creatures, these "haunted skins", cope without communion, stuck in their single shapes – something it initially assumes must be a morally questionable experiment? Gradually, though, it realises the terrible truth: "They've never known communion, can aspire to nothing but dissolution. The paradox of their biology is astonishing, yes; but the scale of their loneliness, the futility of these lives, overwhelms me. "
All the same, it tries its best to survive, even if at times it's not quite sure what for.
"I can still feel joy, should there be sufficient cause.
And yet, how much more there used to be.
[...]
I'm such a pitiful fragment of what I was.'
I know the feeling, mate.
All the same, it tries its best to survive, even if at times it's not quite sure what for.
"I can still feel joy, should there be sufficient cause.
And yet, how much more there used to be.
[...]
I'm such a pitiful fragment of what I was.'
I know the feeling, mate.
October 5, 2023
First review: Excellent story. It could have been a good story if seen from the human point of view, but this point of view takes it to a whole new level. I can see other reviews guessing it may be based on an old movie. It makes perfectly sense without knowing that.
Update 2020-12-01:
I found the movie on Netflix - or so I though - it turned out to be a 2011-prequel, but it gave some background I hadn’t guessed. And then I read the story again appreciating new small details like understanding what the title refers to. I have to add an extra star. The idea and the execution is both excellent and there is something here no matter if you have seen to movie or not.
Update 2020-12-01:
I found the movie on Netflix - or so I though - it turned out to be a 2011-prequel, but it gave some background I hadn’t guessed. And then I read the story again appreciating new small details like understanding what the title refers to. I have to add an extra star. The idea and the execution is both excellent and there is something here no matter if you have seen to movie or not.
October 18, 2021
I feel I haven't exactly read science fiction that goes more towards the biological side of things (more or less, but it generally comes off as superficial), so this was very likeable, and novel (though not a novel).
I'm quite glad it was as fragmentary as it was; multiple perspectives, which I do not see commonly in short stories.
I also usually don't like commentaries on the soul, but this mostly had talk about what wasn't the soul (besides it sounded nice🥀).
I certainly did not expect the prose to be so wonderful.
I argue, taking evidence from Watts, that prions can be aesthetic.
I'm quite glad it was as fragmentary as it was; multiple perspectives, which I do not see commonly in short stories.
I also usually don't like commentaries on the soul, but this mostly had talk about what wasn't the soul (besides it sounded nice🥀).
I certainly did not expect the prose to be so wonderful.
I argue, taking evidence from Watts, that prions can be aesthetic.
January 2, 2021
Originally published in "Clarkesworld Magazine" (http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts...), "The Things" tells the story of John Carpenter's "The Thing" from the perspective of the alien entity. Who was infected when, what they saw at the time of their metamorphosis, and the hidden truth of what really was happening when a pilgrim from beyond the stars is attacked is for you to find here.
Remember, we attacked it first...
Remember, we attacked it first...
January 22, 2022
What kind of world rejects communion?
What can I say? Peter Watts is amazing. His deep & twisted recap of the Thing's psychology is mesmerising:
* I don't think this one will make any sense if you haven't seen the movie (and it seems to be based on movie not John Campbell's novella).
* The Thing views itself as the one fighting entropy. This was unexpected.
* My favorite (& still unsettling) quote:
* It calls a consciousness — a searchlight. Cool.
* A centralization is a vulnerability.
October 30, 2022
Done with oral exams. Finally, I can read something that isn’t a piece of medieval lit or secondary scholarship about medieval lit. This is as good a place to start as any.
July 4, 2022
I was actually really sympathetic to the Thing right up until the last line of the story. I mean, in retrospect the whole thing is actually colonial apologia, so I shouldn’t have sympathized in the first place. But the author did such a great job of portraying a genuinely alien voice. I was sucked in–entranced, almost.
A lot of The Thing relies on the visceral horror of its human protagonists when confronted with something so alien, so (to their eyes) obscene. Seeing that reflected from the aliens’ point of view was a really interesting direction to go. The shock value of the last line reframes the entire narrative, and makes me notice obvious things I had missed. Overall the structure of this is just pretty fantastic.
This story deliberately retcons major aspects of the creature’s biology, by the way, and it buys wholly into the idea that Childs was assimilated by the end of the movie. So if either of those things matter to you, know that going in. Also, CW: for sexual assault language as allegory for the physical violation represented by assimilation.
—
Check out my compilation review of Who Goes There? and its adaptations on my blog, 24,000 Miles to the Moon! https://24000milestothemoon.com/2022/...
A lot of The Thing relies on the visceral horror of its human protagonists when confronted with something so alien, so (to their eyes) obscene. Seeing that reflected from the aliens’ point of view was a really interesting direction to go. The shock value of the last line reframes the entire narrative, and makes me notice obvious things I had missed. Overall the structure of this is just pretty fantastic.
This story deliberately retcons major aspects of the creature’s biology, by the way, and it buys wholly into the idea that Childs was assimilated by the end of the movie. So if either of those things matter to you, know that going in. Also, CW: for sexual assault language as allegory for the physical violation represented by assimilation.
—
Check out my compilation review of Who Goes There? and its adaptations on my blog, 24,000 Miles to the Moon! https://24000milestothemoon.com/2022/...
September 8, 2020
I haven't read "Who goes there?", but I've watched John Carpenter's The Thing a few times and the old "The Thing from Another World" film. This is the point of view of "The Thing" from that story and films.
It's hard to make an original story from the point of view of a non-Earth life form, because there are too many going around; it is a really old concept; and the hardest part is to put "alien" thoughts in human language/experience which really sound alien. This story fails in all those accounts. But the worst mistake is its length. After a few pages we get stuck in the same language and the story doesn't move on. It gets really dull.
Finally, there is an error in the logic of the story: If all beings in the universe, besides the ones on Earth, are shapeshifters and each cell is a thinking organism than can adapt according to the circumstances, how do they know in what to adapt to? Think about it, there is no evolution involved, then how do they know how to form an eye, or an ear? Or what skin is? It makes no sense!
It's hard to make an original story from the point of view of a non-Earth life form, because there are too many going around; it is a really old concept; and the hardest part is to put "alien" thoughts in human language/experience which really sound alien. This story fails in all those accounts. But the worst mistake is its length. After a few pages we get stuck in the same language and the story doesn't move on. It gets really dull.
Finally, there is an error in the logic of the story: If all beings in the universe, besides the ones on Earth, are shapeshifters and each cell is a thinking organism than can adapt according to the circumstances, how do they know in what to adapt to? Think about it, there is no evolution involved, then how do they know how to form an eye, or an ear? Or what skin is? It makes no sense!
May 15, 2025
This riff off John Carpenter's The Thing is one of the archetypal alternate-viewpoint genre short stories, and it's just as fantastic as the source. My favorite version is this recent podcast episode, with illuminating commentary in the outro.
(No, I didn't read this Italian translation, but it's the only entry left on Goodreads that hasn't been subsumed into its Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 40 debut, which I haven't read in its entirety. Why can't we have individual short story entries, Goodreads?)
(No, I didn't read this Italian translation, but it's the only entry left on Goodreads that hasn't been subsumed into its Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 40 debut, which I haven't read in its entirety. Why can't we have individual short story entries, Goodreads?)
August 16, 2020
Very interesting. You don’t really need to re-watch the movie to enjoy this, but having at least some recollections of the movie are crucial. I don’t think I watched it any time in the last 15 years, but at least I have some memory of the alien, of the people scrambling to get it[spoiler] , and of the last two people freezing to death outside the burned out camp [/spoiler]. And I looked up on IMDB that Macready was in fact Kurt Russell, and probably the main character of the movie (after the alien).
The story completely reframes the story of the movie, and completely changes what is actually happening - we are just getting a glimpse of the surface in the movie, there is a lot more going on! It’s not a action story like the movie, it’s deep science fiction.
The story completely reframes the story of the movie, and completely changes what is actually happening - we are just getting a glimpse of the surface in the movie, there is a lot more going on! It’s not a action story like the movie, it’s deep science fiction.
December 2, 2020
"What matters is that these are all that is left of me. The world has burned everything else. (…)
The world is busy destroying my means of escape. Then it will come back for me. (…)
I will go into the storm, and never come back. (…)
So much wisdom I had. So much experience. Now I cannot remember all the things I knew. I can only remember that I once knew them. (…)
And in all that time, a million years perhaps, there'd been no rescue. I never found myself. I wonder what that means. I wonder if I even exist any more, anywhere but here. (…)
Perhaps the next time I awaken, this will be a different world. It will be aeons before I see another sunrise. (…)"
The world is busy destroying my means of escape. Then it will come back for me. (…)
I will go into the storm, and never come back. (…)
So much wisdom I had. So much experience. Now I cannot remember all the things I knew. I can only remember that I once knew them. (…)
And in all that time, a million years perhaps, there'd been no rescue. I never found myself. I wonder what that means. I wonder if I even exist any more, anywhere but here. (…)
Perhaps the next time I awaken, this will be a different world. It will be aeons before I see another sunrise. (…)"
May 12, 2022
I saw John Carpenter's The Thing recently and honestly didn't think it lived up to the hype. You might say the movie was not my thing..
But this was much better. So many great ideas so quickly and effectively introduced.
Shape changing is so normal for this 'thing', the bipeds without this ability are the weird creatures. That the very being of this 'thing' extends to every cell, whereas these weird bipeds only have their being contained in their head. Weird. They don't even comingle but remain singular.
Communion after communion. Incorporation of souls. The most holy of honors.
But this was much better. So many great ideas so quickly and effectively introduced.
Shape changing is so normal for this 'thing', the bipeds without this ability are the weird creatures. That the very being of this 'thing' extends to every cell, whereas these weird bipeds only have their being contained in their head. Weird. They don't even comingle but remain singular.
Communion after communion. Incorporation of souls. The most holy of honors.
August 7, 2014
Chilling look at The Thing (1982) from the point of view of the Thing itself. Cold, logical, and very creepy. Might be difficult to follow if you haven't seen the movie. Definitely worth it for fans. "And when I assimilated them in turn—when my biomass changed and flowed into shapes unfamiliar to local eyes—I took that communion in solitude, having learned that the world does not like what it doesn't know."
February 8, 2014
Brilliant re-telling of the classic sci-fi story, "The Thing" (or "The Thing from Another World"), from the perspective of the alien entity(!) Familiarity with the original story or movies is a prerequisite for appreciating this story, though. Fulfilling Watts' approach effectively is a tall order, but he nails it. Must read for sci-fi fans.
July 11, 2019
Chilling Hugo nominated short story told from the perspective of the shapeshifing, hive minded alien/s in John Campbell's sci-fi classic Who Goes There?. Text and audio available free online at http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts...
November 1, 2023
The poor creature from The Thing. I really enjoyed this take. There’s a chapter in the novelization of ‘Alien’ written from the alien’s perspective and its interesting how sympathetic author’s are able to make these movie monsters once we’re able to see things from their perspective. Aren’t we all monsters to varying degrees after all?
January 12, 2014
A wonderful alternate point of view to the classic Carpenter's movie "The thing"
April 22, 2020
ciencia ficción de la buena.
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December 19, 2020Very interesting read, except for the last line. Edginess for edginess' sake kind of ruins the engaging worldbuilding Watts has done here.
October 7, 2022
I was 100% down until the last scene 🙃 how tf did this man put sexual violence into a POV from an asexually-reproducing being
December 28, 2022
"- even trapped in these maladapted skins, this world doesn’t want to change."
"They try, though. How they try. Every thing here is walking dead and yet it all fights so hard to keep going just a little longer. Each skin fights as desperately as I might, if one was all I could ever have."
"I was so blind, so quick to blame. But the violence I’ve suffered at the hands of these things reflects no great evil. They’re simply so used to pain, so blinded by disability, that they literally can’t conceive of any other existence. When every nerve is whipped raw, you lash out at even the lightest touch."
After all the time spent trying to assimilate into humans, the thing couldn't understand human lives. I don't know if I would pity it or us.
"They try, though. How they try. Every thing here is walking dead and yet it all fights so hard to keep going just a little longer. Each skin fights as desperately as I might, if one was all I could ever have."
"I was so blind, so quick to blame. But the violence I’ve suffered at the hands of these things reflects no great evil. They’re simply so used to pain, so blinded by disability, that they literally can’t conceive of any other existence. When every nerve is whipped raw, you lash out at even the lightest touch."
After all the time spent trying to assimilate into humans, the thing couldn't understand human lives. I don't know if I would pity it or us.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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