Tentando rastrear uma história contundente de SF em pequena cidade nos anos 50

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Eu sou francês, embora agora moro na Califórnia. Tal como acontece com muitas outras coisas naqueles dias, não houve rival sério para 1940-1970 American SF.

Estou tentando encontrar a referência de uma pequena história que eu havia lido quando adolescente e que causou uma strong impressão em mim. A história se passa em uma pequena cidade americana - provavelmente no meio-oeste - nos anos 50. Depois de fazer algum reconhecimento, uma equipe avançada de invasão alienígena, composta apenas por poucos operários, pousa discretamente perto da pequena cidade e permanece escondida. Eles estão aqui para conquistar a terra. Mas a única coisa que eles fazem é cortar a rede elétrica da cidade, perto do pôr do sol. Pouco a pouco, as pessoas de cor, carregadas de medo e desconfiança mútua começam a surtar, e antes que você perceba, toda a cidade está em caos e quase uma guerra civil. No final, o líder alienígena diz triunfalmente ao seu vice: "veja, eu lhes disse tudo o que tínhamos que fazer. Esta é uma raça muito temerosa e irracional".

Agora a parábola é óbvia, particularmente no contexto da nascente Guerra Fria e do Red Scare (a propósito, os invasores poderiam ter sido russos, mas eu acredito que eles eram alienígenas). E pode-se ver algumas reminiscências do contexto atual, por isso voltou à minha mente ...

Alguém sabe de que história eu estou falando?

Muito obrigado pela sua ajuda, merci beaucoup :) Vinz

    
por Solinv 03.02.2017 / 16:40

1 resposta

Isso soa como Os monstros são lançados na Maple Street , um clássico episódio de Twilight Zone .

Maple Street is full of playing children and adults talking and doing chores when a shadow passes over, accompanied by a roar and a flash of light. Several adults are slightly alarmed by this, but they carry on with their activities. Shortly afterwards, the residents discover that their power has been cut, affecting stoves, lawn mowers, and phones. They gather in the street to discuss the situation. Pete Van Horn volunteers to walk over to Floral Street, the next street over, to see if it is affected as well. His neighbor, Steve Brand decides to go into town, but Tommy, a local boy, urges him not to leave the street. Tommy has read a story of an alien invasion causing similar controversy, and says that the monsters do not want anyone to leave the street. Furthermore, in the story, the aliens are living as a family that appears to be human. The power outage is meant to isolate the neighborhood.

At first, Tommy's theory is laughed off, until another resident, Les Goodman, tries unsuccessfully to start his car. He gets out and begins to walk back to the other residents when the car starts on its own. The bizarre behavior of his car makes the neighbors suspect that Les may be an alien, as suggested by Tommy's story. One woman brings up his late nights spent standing in the garden looking up at the sky. Les claims to be an insomniac. Steve, acting as the voice of reason, tries to defuse the situation and prevent it from becoming a witch-hunt. Charlie Farnsworth pressures Steve about his hobby building a secret ham radio. Steve argues that the whole idea of anyone on the street being an alien is madness.

Darkness descends and a shadowy figure is seen walking toward them. Charlie panics, grabs a shotgun, and shoots the figure, thinking it to be an alien. When the crowd reaches the fallen figure, they realize it is Pete van Horn, returning from his scouting mission on Floral Street, instantly killed from the bullet. As Charlie struggles to defend his hasty action, the neighbors voice suspicions that Pete had discovered evidence that Charlie is an alien, and Charlie shot Pete to prevent him from fingering him. The lights in Charlie's house come on, further fueling their suspicion, and even Steve is too angered by Pete's death to defend Charlie. Charlie makes a run for his house while the other residents chase him, hurling stones, one hitting Charlie in the forehead, creating a bleeding gash. Terrified, Charlie attempts to deflect suspicion onto Tommy. Several neighbors agree, as Tommy was the only one who knew about the aliens' plans.

Lights begin flashing on and off in houses throughout the neighborhood; lawn mower and car engines start and stop for no apparent reason. The mob becomes hysterical, hurling accusations, smashing windows and taking up weapons as the situation devolves into an all-out riot.

The scene cuts to a nearby hilltop, where it is revealed the shadow that flew overhead is, indeed, an alien spaceship. Its crew are watching the riot on Maple Street while using a device to manipulate the neighborhood's power. They comment on how simply fiddling with people's electricity consistently leads them to descend into paranoia and panic. They also discuss their intention to use this strategy to conquer Earth one neighborhood at a time.

Parece que havia uma versão do livro e o conto adaptado do programa apareceu em várias coleções .

O episódio também está disponível no Vimeo .

    
03.02.2017 / 16:45