Monday, February 1, 2016

Make Room for Soylent Green!

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WARNING...
The following may contain SPOILERS of a literary and cinematic nature.
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2016:  My sister finds a startling paperback novel on the library discard table.  The actual title is "Make Room!  Make Room!" by Harry Harrison, but it is probably better known as Soylent Green.

1999:  One wealthy man, of approximately 35 million people in the resource-strapped city of New York, is murdered.  One police detective, in the startling overpopulated world, is assigned to find out why the man was killed and who did it.

2016:  Knowing what we know about the film, my sister and I hungrily devour the pages.  Whether it is from our intense desire to see if what we know holds true in the novel or if it is from the book being old and well-read, each page literally falls out with every turn.

1999:  The months drag on as the police detective continues to investigate the murder, with one lead, but little luck.  Meanwhile Soylent burgers, Soylent steaks, and some green weedcrackers are devoured without question.

2016:  Drawing nearer to the end of the novel, my sister and I are on the edge of our respective seats.  We anxiously await for the significant moment when a certain secret is revealed, unleashing a horrible truth upon this literary world.

1999:  As the new century draws near, the police detective closes the case of the murdered wealthy man that nobody cares about anymore.  The world doesn't end, the population continues to rise, the Earth's resources continue to dwindle, and the green weedcrackers are seaweed.  Happy New Century!

2016:  Closing the book of now completely loose pages, my sister and I are stunned by this turn of events.  The wealthy man's murder was the result of a burglary gone wrong, not some cover-up concerning the weedcrackers, which are never once called Soylent Green.  "Make Room!  Make Room!" entertained and captivated us, but it was disappointing in the respect that...GREEN WEEDCRACKERS AREN'T PEOPLE! 

That being said, we wonder if the screenwriter of the film was perhaps inspired by this one early excerpt from the novel that teased us with the tantalizing possibility...
 
 
Freak Out,
JLH
P.S.  Please click That ain’t no storm cloud! to purchase and read a sci-fi/horror Amazon e-book about a town with a dwindling population!

4 comments:

  1. Hummm, I wonder!! Could it be from that excerpt? Very Possibly!! However, I'm bummed that the crackers AREN'T People, as I have been in awe over since the movie first came out. I still like, and remember the movie ... I think I stick with that answer. It better appeals more to my mind!!

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    1. There is a bleak undercurrent running through the novel, so I'm sure eventually it would happen!

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  2. Funny, I remember reading this, and feeling that the climax was rather anticlimactic, compared to the film version. Ahh, well. Nice post, John!

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    1. Thank you, Barry...as for the climax, my sister and I found it a bit disappointing that nobody was eating people! Still, we found it to be a good novel, just a different creature from the film.

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