Media convergence?

[ultranos]

I "discovered" whiskey sours last night. I don't even remember how much I drank, even though it was spread out, and I was fully-functional except for utter exhaustion by 4AM. Although it was fun to play like I was blasted out of my mind and just talk in stream-of-consciousness. (It's the weekend for this annual giant party on campus, lasting from Friday at 5PM until Sunday.)

Anyway, a friend dragged me along shopping. As we were waiting for the shuttle back to campus, the following occurred:

"Did you ever read the Animorphs books?"
"Yes."
"So, I was surfing the 'net yesterday and those came up. And I started thinking about it. Parasitical aliens that crawl inside your head. And control your body. While you're entirely aware but can't do anything. Does this sound familiar?"
"..."
"What is with me and parasitical aliens?!"
"It's a common theme. You know, the Hork-Bajir are kind of like the Unas."
"Oh god..."
"Would the Andalites be the Asgard?"
"This is fitting too well..."
"Which came first, Stargate or Animorphs?"
"Um, well, the movie came out in 1994ish, and I was reading the Animorph books in 4th or 5th grade."
"So the movie might have come out first, but the series definitely came out after the books."
"Yeah, the series started in 1997."
"Do think KA Applegate watched Stargate?"

Comments

[auguris]

While parasitic aliens taking over people is a SF trope (which I certainly don't use in my fiction *cough*) the rest of it is a little too coincidental. Considering that the bulk of the later Animorphs novels were ghostwritten, it's entirely plausible that Applegate spent a little too much time watching Stargate. :D

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

Possibly. :) Do you happen to know when she stopped actually writing the books and when they started being ghostwritten?

(Also, you know, I never actually finished reading the series. I think I stopped around Book #30ish or so. I can't actually tell you, because I have no idea where my copies of the books are. Possibly somewhere in my parents' basement, to be excavated by future generations.)

[auguris]

It was sometime around #30 or so that she starting hiring ghostwriters, actually. Also when I stopped reading. I picked up the last couple of novels to find out how it ended. My books... I think are in the garage, somewhere? Possibly my parents donated them when they donated their 1200+ SF books I never got a change to read.

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

Well, Scholastic was putting out about a book a month. That's a pretty hard workload.

hm.

[rodlox.livejournal.com]

interesting point. but Heinlein pwns them both.

even if you read nothing more of The Puppet Masters than the first page, that's okay.

"Were they truly intelligent? (...) When they controlled animals, they were more than animals (...) But one thing I do know, is that if they were not intelligent, and we ever encounter anything which is, I know who will lose. You. Me. The so-called human race."

personally, I think the Peace* were the prior masters of the Goa'uld.

* = name derived from a scene in the movie Robert Heinlein's The Puppet Masters.

Re: hm.

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

Oh, I was pretty sure that there was someone who could pwn both of 'em. :)

It is to my great shame that I admit to actually never having read anything by Heinlein. I should probably fix this.

Re: hm.

[rodlox.livejournal.com]

I've only read bits and pieces of 'Puppet Masters'...and none of his other books. (the book and movie of 'Puppet Masters' are very different, though)

a different author is Patricia Anthony, whose Brother Termite made sure I would never look at Thor and the Asgard/Azgard the same way ever again.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Gotta love sci-fi. *grins*