The Secret People by John Wyndham

[gilda_elise]

Comments

[ms_eclectic]

xavier samuel is a dreamboat

[ms_eclectic]

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5782040/

RE: xavier samuel is a dreamboat

[gilda_elise]

Once I found a recent photo of him, yeah, he's not bad. *g*

[lee_the_t]

You remind me of When Worlds Collide and After Worlds Collide. Written in the 30s, the storyline itself is great, but the style of writing! Oh, the sexism, the creepy sexism. The racism is minor but there (of the Gunga Din variety), the faux religious flag waving is puke-inducing. I put up with it because I love the story (and the movie). I mostly mock it. It was definitely a very different time.

[gilda_elise]

I have the books, though have never gotten around to reading them. And I did really like the movie, but haven't watched it in years. The sexism, unfortunately, was still really obvious even in the 50s. Case in point, the original War of the Worlds. It seemed all the heroine could do was scream.

[lee_the_t]

I know. And as in all 50s SF, the girl keeps asking the guy "What does it mean? Who are they? Why are they here?" And I want the guy to say "Why are you asking me? I was right here alongside you all the time! Why would I know any more than you do?"

[gilda_elise]

Lol, I would have loved to hear that. I would have been happy if they just didn't scream so much.

The only woman character who showed some spine was Helen Benson, played by Patricia Neal in the 1951 The Day the Earth Stood Still. She did scream once, but I can't say I totally blame her. Maybe because she's a bit older than the leading lady normally was, she could act more intelliently.

[honor_reid]

I have to say that cover certainly grabbed my attention.

I'm sorry this one wasn't it for you. Sometimes older books can surprise us and when end up really enjoying them and sometimes they do not translate well to modern times at all.

[gilda_elise]

It's something, isn't it? But it's nothing like they're described in the story, so someone got kind of carried away.

Wyndham seems to be erratic when it comes to that. His short stories in Jizzle were quite good. I'll see how things go with some of his other novels.

The Secret People

[pigshitpoet]

by today's standards, i would guess it could be based on a true story )
admiral byrd and inner earth, to the novice sounds like fiction
but is it?

or maybe an indiana jones treasure hunt

i know a lot of secret people.. that one can't really put a finger on
but they seem to exist, somewhere in the shadows of our world
we hear of them every day in the media

RE: The Secret People

[gilda_elise]

I can't see any reason why something like what is done in the book would ever be done in real life. What would be the reason to try to create another sea in the desert? A lake maybe, but this was all salt water. But, yes, there are underground caves all over the place, so that part of the story did, somewhat, make sense.

RE: The Secret People

[pigshitpoet]

i've heard stories that the sahara was once an ocean
and parts of the mediterranean either sunken or raised sea bed
anthropologists are finding ocean fossils buried in the deserts in the regions

i meant more the underground chambers and tunnels with subterranean races
that's what admiral byrd claimed he experienced
maybe he was hallucinating ))
; )

RE: The Secret People

[gilda_elise]

Yeah, the earth has done some major changing over the eons. I've been watching some of the documentaries on PBS, and it's amazing what they're finding out.

I'd never heard that about Byrd! Very strange. But I've read several books on polar expeditions, and, given the conditions they often found themselves in, I can well imagine some of them hallucinating.