The internet is abuzz today with news of a remake of The Fly. It’s pleasing to see both film versions getting a nod, not just the 1982 Cronenberg but the original from 1958 as well. People seem generally excited by the prospect of another body-horror flick, given what modern effects can pull off. If that’s […]
(The beginning of a four-part essay on “The Fly”: its social context, the story itself, and its legacy. This may one day become part of something bigger.) The two decades that span World War II’s opening salvos to the planting of a human boot on the moon are considered by some the Golden Age of […]
(The second of four parts. Previous part.) George Langelaan’s life story might seem the stuff of fiction. Born in 1908, he served as a spy during World War II and received plastic surgery in order to protect his identity during an operation in France. After parachuting into occupied territory, he was captured by the enemy, […]
(The third of a four-part essay. Previous part.) Ominous fears seem right at home during the Second Red Scare, when the term “McCarthyism” was coined. With the launch of Sputnik the same year “The Fly” was published, it would be easy to read the story as a Cold War allegory, like other stories prophesying the […]