review of
Keith Laumer's The Invaders
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - July 14, 2013

This is the 9th, &, maybe, the last for awhile, Laumer bk that I've read (all in a mnth) & reviewed. In my last Laumer review, of Galactic Odyssey ( http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7673049-galactic-odyssey ) I ruminate somewhat haphazardly on the excessive use of fantasy to distract one's self from dealing w/ 'real life'. I've found myself resorting to such escapism b/c my recent attempts to interface w/ 'real life' have been largely pretty unrewarding. Nonetheless, the struggle goes on, eh?

As a part of my project of reading a slew of Laumer bks & exploring them, I've actually stooped so low as to read a bk "First in a thrilling new series based on the smash ABC-TV hit" as the front cover proclaims: viz: The Invaders. When I bought it, it was cheap, I was still hesitant: did I really want to be so thorough in my exploration of Laumer that I'd read this drek?!

This bk was published in 1967. I stopped watching TV sometime around 1969 or 1970. SO, this wd've still been when i was watching it. Stopping watching TV was one of the best things I ever did. When I was in my early teens, when this bk was published, I'd spend Friday nites watching things like "Get Smart" & snacking. Now that I have almost no friends & very little social life what do i do almost EVERY nite? Watch movies & drink alcohol. It's not what I do all day, it's my R&R - usually after a long time of working on projects & going out & about in the world. Still, it's a little too much like what i was doing when I was 13. & reading The Invaders makes me feel like I've come full-circle to nowhere.

I don't remember The Invaders as a TV show. Maybe it wasn't available where i lived. Dunno. But I DO remember The Avengers & The Prisoner: 2 programs that I thoroughly enjoyed & still, admittedly, have a fondness for. & Laumer wrote novels based on The Avengers too. May I never go so far down the entertainment rabbit-hole as to read them.

Last nite I watched Lara Croft Tomb Raider &, yes, the heterosexual male in me pd rapt attn to Angelina Jolie's full breasts & athletic body. But, shit. it's just like any other porn, it's just an image in the end, an inaccessible image, & a real woman's body, albeit not as 'perfect' as Jolie's, in the hand is worth 20,000 Jolie's (or whomever's) on the vid shelf. SO, witnessing the movie was a waste of time - &, in my own defense, I only resorted to it late at nite when I found I cdn't sleep. At 1st I was even a little interested: there was a central alignment of the planets: GEE, I can't help but wonder, was that plot element inspired by the Krononautic Organism, wch i was a member of (& wch was conceived of & founded by Richard (Ellsberry)), wch threw a widely publicized Party For People From The Future during an alignment of the planets on march 9th, 1982?

ANYWAY, The Invaders was more of the same, except, obviously, an earlier version of it than Tomb Raider: you've got yr 'impossible' hero battling great odds, blah, blah.. & w/ Laumer's personal military history in mind (see my review of Nine by Laumer here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6346319-nine-by-laumer ) it might not be a surprise that weapons play a heavy role. I'm tempted to end this review right here but, shit!, I haven't even gotten around to referencing my notes yet & it seems like a waste to not do so so here goes:

The hero has a typically macho male background - one that I've never personally found to be very conducive to intelligence (altho there are always exceptions):

""That's right—and came close to killing a man in the process. Maybe I'm out of my mind. Maybe the thing is nothing but a new model egg-beater. But I don't think so, Al. I'm scared. Scared all the way through."

""You—David Vincent—the toughest line-backer that ever wore a Phi Beta Kappa key? Scared? the lad that won more decorations in Viet Nam than—"

""This isn't Viet Nam, Al, It's worse. Much worse."" - p 30

Yep, the character's a jock, a frat-boy, a military guy, a Viet Nam vet no less. He's military, he's smart, he's tough, & he's figuring out that earth is being invaded by aliens from outer space who've gone hitherto unnoticed. & there's nary a drop of introspection about Viet Nam, etc, etc.. In other words, the character hardly inspires my confidence in him given his rather nasty correlatives in 'real life'. Of course, this was 1967 - resistance to the Viet Nam War was going strong in the US but it still wasn't as criticized as it is in retrospect today. & the lack of introspection continues;

"For seven days and seven nights, hardly pausing for food, kept in a state of artifical alertness by special nerve-drugs supplied by the physicist, pausing only for brief catnaps, necessary to prevent breakdown" - pp 33-34

Yep, speed. Was Hitler a speed addict? Was Alice Sheldon ("James Tiptree, Jr") a speed addict b/c of her military-supplied use of the drugs during WWII? Is the use of speed a big problem? Yes. But, of course, we can't blame the drug abuse problem entirely on the military - even if they're more responsible for the heroin problem than any other organization (see Alfred W. McCoy's The Politics of Heroin). It was Chicago-based researcher Sherman Skolnick who confronted the Yippies & asked them where their cocaine came from - the implication being that it came from the CIA. Alas, that's not entirely unlikely.

Well.. let's just say that Laumer 'wrote this for the money' & that the money bought some reinforcement of popular propagandistic clichés. The Invaders inhabit an environment like this; "a featureless, grey corridor, stretched away. The air here was hot, stifling, bearing an acrid odor of sulphur." (p 42) In other words, aliens are hellish, even in SF religion rears its myths.

Ah.. Those were the days when bank accts were hypothetically less under surveillance, less likely to be frozen, when there wasn't some sort of sufficiently central control over it all: "Thank God for the healthy balance in his bank account. It would keep him for a while—a year, perhaps if he were careful. he couldn't risk returning to his home." (p 57) He's on the lam from the space invaders, he can't go home but he can fearlessly go to the bank. Don't think anyone wd write that anymore!

& he pokes fun at the 'news'paper's trivializing of "SAUCER CULTISTS" but, ultimately, makes fun of the 'cultists' even more. So, who does he select from the 'cultist' crowd to team up w/? A guy who appears reasonable & 'normal' who then takes him home to a booby-trapped house into his private operating rm. It's all to evoke the feeling of paranoia, of one-man-against-the-world. His few close allies get killed. he even pokes fun at Wilhelm Reich's Orgone theories: ""But you came to hear Alphonse—to hear about the positively incredible vibrations he picked up last night on his orgone tube oscillator..."" (p 62) But i seriously doubt that Laumer ever wrote anything as intelligent as Reich's bks & I don't really find it so funny that Reich's bks were burned in 1950s Amerikkka & that he died in prison b/c his ideas were too unusual for the mainstream. Apparently Laumer did.

"David shook his head, glancing at the wild-eyed bearded, floppy-hatted, unhappy people, misfits all, each intent, it seemed, on gaining some miniscule measure of support for a favorite theory". (p 65) Yes, Laumer, the ex-military man, sees fit to make fun of "misfits" but doesn't seem to question the ethics of the US invading Viet Nam to suppress the internal politics there. In the end, Laumer is very mainstream & doesn't question the status quo that's supported him so well. &, indeed, that's the world i grew up in.

Laumer's hero, like the propaganda image of other militaristic figures, is improbably super-sensitive: "There was an archway ahead. He halted, studying it, saw a small disc set in one side, emitting an almost invisible glow. Tentatively he passed a hand in front of it. Above, there was a snick of a release mechanism, and with a rush and hiss of metal on oiled rollers, a glittering blade of polished steel slammed down against the massive oak threshold with a blow that shook the floor. David stared at it with incredulous eyes. A guillotine! One more step and the infernal machine would have halved him like a melon." (p 81) More likely, if he'd survived such a situation it wd've been b/c the situation wdn't've have existed or b/c of dumb luck.

Later, as the hero tries to enlist the aid of the military, he's left waiting:

""Just between the two of us,' David said, "Is there any point in my waiting?"

""Just between the two of us—no," the man answered. "Look, fella—we get half a dozen nut cases a week, you know? The colonel hasn't got time—"" - p 112

"[H]alf a dozen nut cases a week"?! I'd like to hang around that waiting rm, it sounds like the crossroads of the world. In other words, it doesn't seem very plausible. But, what the fuck am I saying/ It's fiction, it doesn't have to be - but, still, it rubs me the wrong way.. & it gets even more unlikely when David teams up w/ a sergeant who helps him steal a military vehicle after a rather superficial encounter. At least it involves booze - that makes the stupidity a little more likely.

All in all, reading this has probably pushed me over the edge away from reading any more Laumer for the moment. Maybe I'll read less, watch movies less, & get out into the 'real world' more. Better stop before I think that reading The Invaders & witnessing Lara Croft Tomb Raider are a good idea. It's about time. ( )