"Eight O'Clock in the Morning" by Ray Nelson

[Don]

This is the story behind the movie They Live. It originally appears in the May 1966 edition of _New Worlds of SF_. It
also appears in The SF Site: Science Fiction Classics: The Stories that Morphed Into Movies

It's a fast paced story that reaches the end at break neck speed. Yet most of the plot points appear in the movie. For some reason, this seems noteworthy. Perhaps it's the exception to too much bait-and-switch over the years with other Hollywood treatments.

George Nada suddenly awakes to an Earth peppered with fugly aliens who use mass hypnosis to pass themselves off as human. They actually look reptilian, of course....

 

[BAYLOR]

Did Ray Faraday Nelson ever write anythings else ? This is only story ive ever seen by him .

 

[Don]

Yes, he apparently wrote dozens of stories:

Summary Bibliography: Ray Nelson

www.isfdb.org

 

[BAYLOR]

Yes, he apparently wrote dozens of stories:

Summary Bibliography: Ray Nelson

www.isfdb.org

Wow he wrote quite alot.

 

[Guttersnipe]

Some people say Stephen King ripped it off with his story "The Ten O'Clock People." However, the creatures in that story weren't explained as aliens, and may have just been monsters.

 

[Danny McG]

Some people say Stephen King ripped it off with his story "The Ten O'Clock People." However, the creatures in that story weren't explained as aliens, and may have just been monsters.

The first time I watched They Live I got a faint Stephen King Vibe, and also Dean Koontz (Twilight Eyes), I've never realised why until now reading this thread

 

[Danny McG]

Anyways, all these seem based on "they're hiding amongst us in plain sight using illusion/hypnosis"
Like the wolf faced aliens in "A plague of demons" by Keith Laumer (1965)

 

[Guttersnipe]

Anyways, all these seem based on "they're hiding amongst us in plain sight using illusion/hypnosis"
Like the wolf faced aliens in "A plague of demons" by Keith Laumer (1965)

Also, "The Yellow Pill" by Rog Phillips (1958).

 

[Andronikos]

Aren't most 1950s-1970s stories of this type based off of or inspired by the post-World War II Red Scare belief that Communism would take over western civilization? Then the later works were based off the Red Scare era prototypes?

I got this vibe from a lot of classic sci-fi TV as well.

 

[hitmouse]

Aren't most 1950s-1970s stories of this type based off of or inspired by the post-World War II Red Scare belief that Communism would take over western civilization? Then the later works were based off the Red Scare era prototypes?

I got this vibe from a lot of classic sci-fi TV as well.

Certainly regarded as a trope behind a proportion of the alien invasion stories especially looking at Hollywood B movies of the 50s, but I think one should be cautious about taking the argument too far. A lot of the good writers had a bit more to them than simply channelling McCarthyite paranoia, and many were quite subversive in their approach. Also, consider the fact New Worlds was a British magazine which, by the mid-1960s, was developing a distinctly anti-establishment style.

 

[BigBadBob141]

Very good short story.