The Evolution of The Thing
Recently, the prequel to The Thing has appeared in theaters confirming
the fascination which has grown up around this story. In this paper, I will outline
the evolution of this story from print to films in order to show the cultural shifts
that have taken place from the original appearance of the story in 1938. From
the emergence of the Great Depression through the War on Terrorism, this
archetypal story has built on the hopes and fears of the American public for
nearly seventy-five years. Building on H. P. Lovecraft’s famous statement that
the greatest fear of all is the fear of the unknown, the story of the Thing has
successfully captured the essence of both twentieth and twenty-first century
primal fears. Each work presents an alien villain that threatens civilization and
an American hero to combat it. In each case, the mood of the times, the
President at the time, and the nature of the threat give symbolic meaning to the
story.
The original appearance of the evolving story of the Thing was in the
magazine Astounding in 1938. The author, John W. Campbell, Jr., has become
an icon from the Golden Age of Science Fiction, although his career was based
more on editing than on original writing. The story “Who Goes There” is the
core for all of the following film versions. The basic plot of the story is an
encounter with an alien creature that can shift its appearance as a survival
technique. A group of heroic Antarctic explorers encounter and conquer the
creature, defeating an alien invasion.
For the historical background of the time of the writing, America was
still suffering from the effects of the Great Depression. Never had an economic
catastrophe created such far reaching effects on America and on the world as a
whole. The 1920’s had been a time of unprecedented growth, leading to heavy
financial speculation and inevitably to the banking crisis. The Hoover
administration, practicing a laissez-faire economic policy of economic self
correction, did little to abate the crisis. Ordinary people saw their property and
wells being gobbled up by powerful forces that they little understood and had no
power to withstand. Newly elected President Franklin D. Roosevelt launched a
policy of activism to combat what he saw as America’s greatest enemy—fear.
His most famous quotation in fact is, “The only thing we have to fear is fear
itself.” He launched one innovative program after another—the WPA program,
Rural Electrification, the SEC, the Social Security Act, the Wagner Act—to
combat the invisible enemy, the Depression. Although the activist period slowed
in 1937-1938, Americans had taken hope from his optimistic, enthusiastic
counterattack on the Depression (Remini 223-228).
Thematically, Campbell’s story endorses the “can-do” values of
America in a time of growing optimism when under the leadership of Franklin
D. Roosevelt it was working its way out of the Great Depression. The story is
relatively simple with strong emphasis on the science aspect of science