In revisiting my 2019 review of 1988’s They Live, I looked into the short story that served as the source material for John Carpenter‘s iconic film:  Ray Nelson’s “Eight O’Clock in the Morning.”  The story is only six pages long, but it’s an excellent example of early 1960s science fiction.

The short story follows the last day of George Nada, a man who, after attending a hypnotist’s show, “awoke all the way.”  Nada can see the world for how it really is, including hideous, yellow-eyed lizard people, called “Fascinators.”  These “Fascinators,” Nada intuits almost immediately, are aliens who secretly rule the world, sending subliminal messages to regular Earthlings, who are blissfully unaware of the programming to which they’ve been subjected.

For fans of the film They Live—as I most certainly am—it’s easy to see how Carpenter adapted this short story for the big screen.  The aliens in the short story and the film both serve as something of a metaphor for the “alien,” exploitative elites who run society and the blind, dull masses.  The regular people are unwitting victims of massive cultural and media programming, constantly imbibing alien propaganda as the alien overlords feast upon humanity.  Taking the metaphor to its conclusion, then, real world elites are an “alien” faction that sustains itself on the immiseration of the people, for whom they feel no connection or sense of noblesse oblige.

In some ways, the quick punchiness of the short story seems more effective at making this point than Carpenter’s film, although both are excellent examples of art revealing something about the world.  Carpenter’s film is more focused on the brain-deadening influence of constant consumerism and materialism, while Nelson’s short story focuses even more on subliminal messaging through the media.  Obviously, both venture into the other’s territories—obviously, They Live is full of subliminal messages—but the satire of commercial advertising, and a certain ironic tone, is more prevalent in They Live.  “Eight O’Clock in the Morning” is a bit less satirical and ironic, and comes across as a bit more earnest, although I could be mistaking dryness for earnestness.

There are several excellent YouTube readings of the short story, but I liked this one in particular.  The narrator is Jerry Scullion:

Happy Listening—and Happy Friday!

—TPP