I'm now reading a curious little book, a novel called The House on the Strand, by Daphne du Maurier. You may recognize the name because her work was twice filmed by Alfred Hitchcock, with Rebecca and The Birds. Strand depicts a businessman* who goes back in time and gets involved in political intrigue in Cornwall.
One thing worth mentioning is that the protagonist doesn't step foot inside a time machine. He takes a drug which an old school chum of his has developed. This book was written in the late sixties, and the idea of a time travel drug seems kind of native to the time. Philip K. Dick used it at least once, in Now Wait for Last Year.
The book isn't crazy psychedelic fantasy or Phildickian paranoia, though. du Maurier incorporates the premise into her own style, which is more staid.
* In a previous edit I stated that the protagonist was a scientist. In the course of the novel it becomes apparent that he isn't, although his friend is.
2 comments:
My mother enjoyed Daphne du Maurier so I probably read Rebecca at her house when I was young. I remember the movie better. Goodness knows having Manderley burn down and the murderer going officially unpunished was odd enough for the time and there's no doubt du Maurier's opinions of people were on the bleak side.
The time traveling drug user in The House on the Strand sounds like something of a change from her former style - but since I've never read much of her work i can't honestly comment. You're likely right she chose to use an idea that was current at the time - with a different spin, of course. Du Maurier was any kind of follower but I doubt she would have viewed PKD as fashionable, or serious, for that matter.
The other DuMaurier novel that Hitchcock made as a movie in 1939 was Jamaica Inn - the story of an orphaned young Irish woman who goes to live with her aunt and uncle at the Inn. Set in the early 1800's the uncle turns out to be a wrecker on the Cornwall coast who has bullied his formerly happy wife to a miserable existence. Starring Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara the movie was the last Hitchcock made in England before moving to Hollywood - at least that's what I remember reading after we watched it.
note: Scientists generally use their experimental drugs
on other people - as we've seen recently.
It's been a long time since I've seen Rebecca but it is an atmospheric and somewhat unnerving movie. Laurence of Olivier could be a cold fish as an actor and Hitchcock used that to his advantage. Having read this book to its finish now I can confirm that du Maurier had a bleak view of human nature.
Whether du Maurier had even much of an idea who Dick was I don't know. Science fiction in the 60s was getting loopier and trippier. I suspect for her that would have meant "even sillier than before" and she wouldn't necessarily be wrong, although that's not a bad thing easier. Yet even so she seems to have stumbled on an idea that a younger sci-fi writer (doubly not her) would have used and made it her own.
I've never seen Jamaica Inn, although I knew Hitchcock directed it. Unusual in that he didn't for the most part do period films. Probably worth a watch one of these nights. Charles Laughton was great, especially in Witness for the Prosecution
Yeah, scientists have no trouble--ethical or otherwise--finding guinea pigs for their experimental drugs. The scientist in this one does eventually put himself at risk as well, which could count as a redeeming feature.
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