Parasites in fiction: Difference between revisions

[[Parasite]]s appear frequently in [[biology in fiction|biology-inspired fiction]] from ancient times onwards, with a flowering in the nineteenth century.<ref name=ESF>{{cite encyclopedia |titlechapter=Parasitism and Symbiosis |url=http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/parasitism_and_symbiosis |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction |date=10 January 2016}}</ref> These include intentionally disgusting<ref name="Guarino2017"/> alien monsters in [[science fiction]] films, often with analogues in nature. Authors and scriptwriters have, to some extent, exploited parasite biology: lifestyles including [[parasitoid]], [[behaviour-altering parasite]], [[brood parasite]], [[parasitic castrator]], and many forms of [[vampire]] are found in books and films.<ref name="Guarino2017">{{cite news |last1=Guarino |first1=Ben |title=Disgusting 'Alien' movie monster not as horrible as real things in nature |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/05/19/disgusting-alien-movie-monster-not-as-horrible-as-real-things-in-nature/ |worknewspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=19 May 2017}}</ref><ref name=Glassy2005>{{cite book |last=Glassy |first=Mark C. |title=The Biology of Science Fiction Cinema |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ubmJCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA186 |year=2005 |publisher=[[McFarland & Company|McFarland]] |isbn=978-1-4766-0822-8 |pages=186 ff}}</ref><ref name=Moisseeff2014>{{cite webjournal |last1last=Moisseeff |first1first=Marika |author-link=Marika Moisseeff |title=Aliens as an Invasive Reproductive Power in Science Fiction |url=https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00935705 |website=HAL Archives-Ouvertes |date=23 January 2014 |page=239 }}</ref><ref name=Williams1997>{{cite web |last1=Williams |first1=Robyn |last2=Field |first2=Scott |title=Behaviour, Evolutionary Games and .... Aliens |url=http://www.abc.net.au/science/kelvin/files/s223.htm |publisher=[[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]] |access-date=30 November 2017 |date=27 September 1997}}</ref> Some fictional parasites, like [[Count Dracula]] and ''[[Alien (film)|Alien]]''{{'}}s [[Alien (Alien franchise)|Xenomorph]]s, have become well known in their own right.

In [[evolutionary biology]], [[parasitism]] is a [[biological interactions|relationship]] between [[species]], where one organism, the parasite, lives on or in another organism, the [[Host (biology)|host]], causing it some harm, and is [[adaptation (biology)|adapted]] structurally to this way of life.<ref>{{cite book | last=Poulin | first=Robert | author-link=Robert Poulin (zoologist) | title=Evolutionary Ecology of Parasites | publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] | year=2007 | isbn=978-0-691-12085-0 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/evolutionaryecol0000poul/page/4 4–5] | url=https://archive.org/details/evolutionaryecol0000poul/page/4 }}</ref> The [[entomologist]] [[E. O. Wilson]] has characterised parasites as "predators that eat prey in units of less than one".<ref name=Wilson2014>{{cite book |last=Wilson |first=Edward O. |author-link=E. O. Wilson |title=The Meaning of Human Existence |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2yR0AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT112 |year=2014 |publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]] |isbn=978-0-87140-480-0 |page=112 |quote=Parasites, in a phrase, are predators that eat prey in units of less than one. Tolerable parasites are those that have evolved to ensure their own survival and reproduction but at the same time with minimum pain and cost to the host.}}</ref> According to the immunologist John Playfair, the term 'parasite' is distinctly derogatory in common usage, where a parasite is "a sponger, a lazy profiteer, a drain on society".<ref name=Playfair2007>{{cite book |last=Playfair |first=John |title=Living with Germs: In health and disease |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kSyDYxLPtDoC&pg=PT19 |year=2007 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-157934-9 |page=19}} Playfair is comparing the popular usage to a biologist's view of parasitism, which he calls (heading the same page) "an ancient and respectable view of life".</ref> The idea is however much older. In ancient Rome, the ''parasitus'' was an [[patronage in ancient Rome|accepted role in Roman society]], in which a person could live off the hospitality of others, in return for "flattery, simple services, and a willingness to endure humiliation".<ref>{{cite book |last=Matyszak |first=Philip |author-link=Philip Matyszak |title=24 Hours in Ancient Rome: A Day in the Life of the People Who Lived There |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gJY4DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT252 |year=2017 |publisher=[[Michael O'Mara Books]]
|isbn=978-1-78243-857-1 |page=252}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last1last=Damon | first1first=Cynthia |author-link=Cynthia Damon |chapter=5 | title=The Mask of the Parasite: A Pathology of Roman Patronage| |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mEJ-aA_XQQQC | publisher=[[University of Michigan Press]] | year=1997 | page=148 | isbn=978-0-472-10760-5 | quote=A satirist seeking to portray client misery naturally focuses on the relationship with the greatest dependency, that in which a client gets his food from his patron, and for this the prefabricated persona of the parasite proved itself extremely useful.}}</ref>

Parasitism featured repeatedly as a literary motif in the nineteenth century, though the mechanisms, biological or otherwise, are not always described in detail.<ref name=Jajszczok2017/> For example, the eponymous Beetle in ''[[The Beetle (novel)|The Beetle]]'' by [[Richard Marsh (author)|Richard Marsh]], 1897, is parasitic and symbolically castrates the human protagonist.<ref name=Jajszczok2017>{{cite book |last1=Jajszczok |first1=Justyna |title=The Parasite and Parasitism in Victorian Science and Literature |year=2017 |publisher=University of Silesia (dissertation) |url=http://sbc.org.pl/Content/273828/praca_doktorska_Justyna_Jajszczok.pdf |access-date=10 June 2018}}</ref> [[Bram Stoker]]'s 1897 ''[[Dracula]]'' starts out as an apparently human host, welcoming guests to his home, before revealing his parasitic [[vampire]] nature. [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]]'s Parasite, in his 1894 book ''[[The Parasite]]'', makes use of a form of mind control similar to the [[mesmerism]] of the [[Victorian era]]; it works on some hosts but not others.<ref name=Hutchison2015>{{cite book |last1=Hutchison |first1=Sharla |last2=Brown |first2=Rebecca A. |title=Monsters and Monstrosity from the Fin de Siècle to the Millennium: New Essays |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u7CzCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA12 |year=2015 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-2271-2 |pages=2–12}}</ref>

Parasites, represented as [[Extraterrestrials in fiction|extraterrestrial aliens]] or unnatural<ref name=Westfahl2005/> beings, are seen in [[science fiction]] as distasteful,<ref name=Westfahl2005/> in contrast to (mutualistic) symbiosis, and sometimes horrible.<ref name=Westfahl2005/> Practical uses can be made of them, but humans who do so may be destroyed by them.<ref name=Westfahl2005>{{cite book |last=Westfahl |first=Gary |author-link=Gary Westfahl |title=The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3JXnz9x9sO4C&pg=PA587 |year=2005 |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]] |isbn=978-0-313-32952-4 |pages=586–588}}</ref> For example, [[Mira Grant]]'s 2013 novel ''[[Parasite (Grant novel)|Parasite]]'' envisages a world where people's [[immune system]]s are maintained by [[genetic modification|genetically engineered]] [[tapeworm]]s.<ref name=Valentine2013>{{cite web |last1=Valentine |first1=Genevieve|author-link=Genevieve Valentine |title=Medical Magic Leads To Terror In 'Parasite' |url=https://www.npr.org/2013/10/30/239167270/medical-magic-leads-to-terror-in-parasite |publisher=[[National Public Radio]] |access-date=15 June 2018 |date=30 October 2013}}</ref> They form readily understood<ref name=Westfahl2005/> characters, since, as [[Gary Westfahl]] explains, parasites need to exploit their hosts to [[natural selection|survive and reproduce]].<ref name=Westfahl2005/>

The social anthropologist [[Marika Moisseeff]] argues that [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]] science fiction favours insects as [[villain]] characters because of their parasitism and their swarming behaviour. Such films, she continues, depict thea ceaseless war of culture and nature as "an unending combat between humanity and insect-likeinvolving extraterrestrial species thatsomewhat tendresembling toinsects, parasitizewith humanhumans beingsas in order totheir reproducehosts."<ref name=Moisseeff2014/>

|+ Examples of the range of accounts of fictional parasiteparasites and their biological counterparts

| [[David Cronenberg]] || ''[[Shivers (1975 film)|Shivers]]'' || [[Science fiction]] [[horror film|body horror film]] || 1975 || Genetically engineered || Useful in [[organ transplant]]s; [[sexually transmitted disease|sexually transmitted]] and [[aphrodisiac]] when modified by a deranged scientist || [[Genetic engineering]] and its ethical implications<ref name="Tate2012">{{cite web |last1=Tate |first1=Karl |title=Invasion of the Alien Space Parasites |url=https://www.livescience.com/20566-alien-parasites-prometheus-sci-fi.html |publisher=LiveScience |access-date=16 June 2018 |date=24 May 2012}}</ref>

| {{unbulleted list|[[Satoru Okada]]|[[Gunpei Yokoi]]|[[Hiroji Kiyotake]]|[[Yoshio Sakamoto]]}} || ''[[Metroid (series)|Metroid]]'' || [[Video game]] || 1986 || [[X Parasite]] || Deadly [[infection]]; confers useful energy and powers to vaccinated people || [[Pathogen]]s such as [[bacteria]], [[virus]]es; [[vaccine]]s<ref name=Loguidice2014>{{cite book |last1=Loguidice |first1=Bill |author2=Matt Barton |title=Vintage Game Consoles: An Inside Look at Apple, Atari, Commodore, Nintendo, and the Greatest Gaming Platforms of All Time |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wZnpAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA191 |year=2014 |publisher=[[CRC Press]] |isbn=978-1-135-00651-8 |page=191}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/wiiu-eshop/metroid_fusion_gba |title=SA-Xcellent |last=Hughes |first=Rob |date=3 April 2014 |website=IGN |access-date=June 13, 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140817013911/http://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/wiiu-eshop/metroid_fusion_gba |archive-date=August 17, 2014}}</ref>

| [[Hideaki Sena]] (pharmacologist) || ''[[Parasite Eve (novel)|Parasite Eve]]'' || [[Science fiction]] [[horror novel]] || 1995 || Mitochondria cut free from mutualism in human cells || Deadly parasitism || [[Mitochondria]], power-generating [[organelle]]s, formerly free-living [[prokaryotic]] organisms, became [[mutualism (biology)|mutualistic]] by [[symbiogenesis]] c. 2 billion years ago<ref name="Timmis2004">{{cite journal |title=Endosymbiotic gene transfer: organelle genomes forge eukaryotic chromosomes |journal=[[Nature Reviews Genetics]] |year=2004 |pages=123–135 |volume=5 |issue=2 |doi=10.1038/nrg1271 |first1=Jeremy N. |last1=Timmis |first2=Michael A. |last2=Ayliffe |first3=Chun Y. |last3=Huang |first4=William |last4=Martin |pmid=14735123|s2cid=2385111 }}</ref><ref name="Taanman1999">{{cite journal |last=Taanman |first=Jan-Willem |title=The mitochondrial genome: structure, transcription, translation and replication |journal=[[Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Bioenergetics]] |date=1999 |pages=103–123 |volume=1410 |issue=2 |doi=10.1016/S0005-2728(98)00161-3 |pmid=10076021|doi-access= }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Lynch |first1=Lisa |title=Tech Flesh 4: Mitochodrial Combustion at Club Parasite {{!}} An Interview With Hideaki Sena |url=http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=26 |publisher=CtheoryCTheory journal |access-date=16 June 2018 |page=tf011 |date=5 September 2001 |archive-date=16 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180616153853/http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=26 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

| [[Irvine Welsh]] || ''[[Filth (novel)|Filth]]'' || [[Novel]] || 1998 || Talking tapeworm || Sinister, comic;<ref name="Ford2013" /> "the most attractive character in the novel"; becomes the [[sociopathic]] policeman's ''[[alter ego]]'' and better self.<ref name=MarrenMabey2010 /> || [[Tapeworm]]s, [[intestinal parasite]]s<ref name=MarrenMabey2010>{{cite book |author1last1=Marren, |first1=Peter |author2author1-link=Peter Marren |last2=Mabey, |first2=Richard |author2-link=Richard Mabey |title=Bugs Britannica |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ah62bUZLDOwC |year=2010 |publisher=[[Chatto & Windus]] |isbn=978-0-7011-8180-2 |pages=34–36}}</ref>

Kyle Munkittrick, on the [[Discover (magazine)|''Discover'' magazine]] website, writes that the great majority of aliens, far from being as strange as possible, are [[humanoid]].<ref>{{cite web |last1last=Munkittrick |first1first=Kyle |title=The Only Sci-Fi Explanation of Hominid Aliens that Makes Scientific Sense |url=http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/sciencenotfiction/2011/07/12/the-only-sci-fi-explanation-of-hominid-aliens-that-makes-scientific-sense/ |publisher=[[Discover (magazine)|Discover Magazine]] |access-date=16 June 2018 |date=12 July 2011 |archive-date=16 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716033740/http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/sciencenotfiction/2011/07/12/the-only-sci-fi-explanation-of-hominid-aliens-that-makes-scientific-sense/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> Ben Guarino, in ''[[The Washington Post]]'', observes that despite all the "cinematic aliens' gravid grotesquerie",<ref name="Guarino2017"/> earthly parasites have more horrible<ref name="Guarino2017"/> ways of life. Guarino cites parasitic wasps that lay their eggs inside living caterpillars, inspiring [[A. E. Van Vogt]]'s 1939 story "[[Discord in Scarlet]]", Robert Heinlein's 1951 novel ''[[The Puppet Masters]]'', and Ridley Scott's 1979 film ''Alien''.<ref name="Guarino2017"/> The eponymous Alien has a "dramatic"<ref name="Guarino2017"/> life-cycle. Giant eggs hatch into face-huggers that grasp the host's mouth, forcing him to swallow an embryo. It rapidly grows in his intestines, soon afterwards erupting from his chest and growing into a gigantic predatory animal resembling an insect. Guarino cites the parasitologist Michael J. Smout as saying that the "massive changes"<ref name="Guarino2017"/> are feasible, giving the example of [[flatworm]]s that transform from an egg to a tadpole-like form to an infective worm.<ref name="Guarino2017"/> The biologist Claude dePamphilis agrees, too, that parasites can acquire [[gene]]s from their hosts, giving as example a [[broomrape]] plant that had taken up genes from its host on 52 occasions, having thoroughly overcome the host plant's defences. They suggest further themes for future science fiction films, including [[emerald jewel wasp]]s that turn [[cockroach]]es into [[behavior-altering parasite|subservient puppets]], able to crawl but unable to act independently; or the [[barnacle]]-like crustaceans that [[parasitic castrator|castrate their crab hosts]], or grow into their brains, altering their behaviour to care for the young barnacles.<ref name="Guarino2017" /> All the same, a 2013 poll of scientists and engineers by ''[[Popular Mechanics]]'' magazine revealed that the parasite-based science fiction films ''[[The War of the Worlds (1953 film)|The War of the Worlds]]'' ([[Byron Haskin]], 1953) and ''Alien'' were among their top ten favourites.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1last=Pappalardo |first1first=Joe |title=The 10 Best Sci-Fi Movies—As Chosen By Scientists |url=https://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/movies/g1386/the-10-best-sci-fi-movies-as-chosen-by-scientists/ |magazine=[[Popular Mechanics]] |access-date=16 June 2018 |date=31 December 2013}}</ref>

In ancient times, myths of blood-drinking demons were widespread, including [[Lilith]] who feasted on the blood of babies.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hurwitz |first=Siegmund |author-link=Siegmund Hurwitz|editor=Gela Jacobson (trans.) |year=1992 |orig-year=1980 |title=Lilith, the First Eve: Historical and Psychological Aspects of the Dark Feminine |publisher=Daimon Verlag |isbn=978-3-85630-522-2}}</ref>

Fictional [[vampire]]s—[[haematophagic]] parasites—began in the modern era with [[Count Dracula]], the [[title character]] of [[Bram Stoker]]'s 1897 [[gothic horror]] novel ''[[Dracula]]'', and have since appeared in many books and films ranging from horror to science fiction. Along with the shift in genres went a diversification of life-forms and life-cycles, including blood-drinking plants like the "strange orchid" in ''[[The Thing from Another World]]'' (1951), aliens like [[H. G. Wells]]'s Martians in ''[[The War of the Worlds]]'', "cyber-vamps" like "[[The Stainless Steel Leech]]" and "[[Marid and the Trail of Blood]]", and psychic bloodsuckers, as in [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s ''[[The Parasite]]'' and [[Robert Wiene]]'s 1920 film ''[[The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari]]''.<ref name=Hutchison2015 /><ref>{{cite book |last=Meehan |first=Paul |title=The Vampire in Science Fiction Film and Literature |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S5kWBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA209 |year=2014 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-1654-4 |pages=209–}}</ref>

[[File:Paisley Abbey "Xenomorph" Gargoyle (10317339143) (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.1|A 1990s [[gargoyle]] at [[Paisley Abbey]] resembling a [[Alien (creature in Alien franchise)|Xenomorph]]<ref>{{cite web |last1=Budanovic |first1=Nikola |title=An explanation emerges for how the 12th century Paisley Abbey in Scotland could feature a gargoyle out of the film "Alien" |url=https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/03/10/alien-gargoyle/ |publisher=The Vintage News |access-date=17 June 2018 |date=10 March 2018}}</ref> [[parasitoid]] from ''[[Alien (film)|Alien]]''<ref>{{cite web |title='Alien' gargoyle on ancient Paisley Abbey |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-23810979 |publisher=[[British Broadcasting Corporation]] |access-date=17 June 2018 |date=23 August 2013}}</ref>]]

Mind-controlling parasites feature in twentieth century science fiction. In [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s 1951 ''[[The Puppet Masters]]'', slug-like parasites from outer space arrive on Earth, fasten to people's backs and seize control of their nervous systems, [[Human possession in science fiction|making their hosts the eponymous puppets]].<ref name=ESF /> In ''[[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan]]'', the Ceti eel tunnels into the ear of its human host until it reaches the brain. This is a [[behaviour-altering parasite]] analogous to ''[[Toxoplasma gondii]]'', which causes infected mice to become unafraid of cats;. thatThis makes them easyeasier to catch, and consume and, once an infected mouse has been eaten, the parasite will then infectsinfect the cat, its [[definitive host]], wherein which it can reproduce sexually.<ref name="Pappas2012" /> The [[Goa'uld]] in ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' enters through the host's neck and coils around the host's spine, assuming control.<ref name="Pappas2012" /><ref name=Terry2015>{{cite book |last1=Elrod |first1=P. N. |author1-link=P. N. Elrod|last2=Conrad |first2=Roxanne |author2-link=Rachel Caine |last3=Terry |first3=Fran |titlechapter=Help! The aliens have landed and taken over my brain |worktitle=Stepping Through The Stargate: Science, Archaeology And The Military In Stargate Sg1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AXwvBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA59 |year=2015 |publisher=BenBella Books |isbn=978-1-941631-51-5 |pages=59–72}}</ref> The Slug/Squid alien in ''[[The Hidden (1987 film)|The Hidden]]'' similarly enters via the host's mouth before taking over its body.<ref name=Terry2015/>

[[Brood parasitism]] is not a common theme in fiction. An early example was [[John Wyndham]]'s 1957 novel ''[[The Midwich Cuckoos]]'', which sees the women of an English village give birth to and then bring up a group of alien children. The aliens are telepathic, and intend to take over the world. In nature, brood parasitism occurs in birds such as the [[European cuckoo]], which lay their eggs in the nests of their hosts. The young cuckoos hatch quickly and eject the host's eggs or chicks; the host parents then feed the young cuckoos as if they were their own offspring, until they fledge. As a plot device, this allows aliens and humans to interact closely.<ref name=Westfahl2005 /><ref name=Adams>{{cite news| url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/4109282/Cuckoo-chicks-dupe-foster-parents-from-the-moment-they-hatch.html| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090213190416/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/4109282/Cuckoo-chicks-dupe-foster-parents-from-the-moment-they-hatch.html| url-status=dead| archive-date=February 13, 2009<!--or use https://www.telegraph.co.uk/archive/2009-1-4.html and search down the list of articles, sometimes the Telegraph engine works oddly even with correct links--> | work=The Daily Telegraph | title=Cuckoo chicks dupe foster parents from the moment they hatch | first=Stephen | last=Adams | date=4 January 2009 | access-date=17 June 2018}}</ref><ref name="Fromme2018">{{cite magazine |last1=Fromme |first1=Alison |title=This Baby Bird Is a Mother's Nightmare |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/01/explore-bird-cuckoo-brood-parasitism/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180111055315/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/01/explore-bird-cuckoo-brood-parasitism/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 11, 2018 |magazine=[[National Geographic]] |access-date=17 June 2018 |date=January 2018}}</ref> A somewhat similar approach is taken in [[Octavia E. Butler]]'s 1987–1989 ''[[Lilith's Brood]]'', but the offspring born to the human mother there is an alien-human hybrid rather than simply an alien.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Beshero-Bondar |first1=Elisha |title=Science Fiction and Lilith's Brood |url=https://www.slideshare.net/ebbondar/octavia-butler-sf-liliths-brood |publisher=Slideshare.net |access-date=26 July 2018 |date=2 November 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=Holden, Rebecca J. |title=The High Costs of Cyborg Survival: Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis Trilogy |journal=[[Foundation – The International Review of Science Fiction]] |volume=72 |issue=Spring 1998 |date=1998 |pages=49–57}}</ref>

[[Parasitic castration]] is found in nature in greatly reduced parasites that feed on the gonads of their [[crab]] hosts, making use of the energy that would have gone into reproduction. It is seen in fiction in [[Philip Fracassi]]'s 2017 horror novella ''Sacculina'', named for [[Sacculina|a genus of barnacle-like crustaceans]] with this lifestyle.<ref name=lafferty>{{cite journal|last=Lafferty|first=Kevin D.|author2=Armand M. Kuris|title=Parasitic castration: the evolution and ecology of body snatchers |journal=[[Trends in Parasitology]] |year=2009 |volume=25 |issue=12 |pages=564–572 |doi=10.1016/j.pt.2009.09.003 |pmid=19800291}}</ref><ref name=poulin>{{cite book |last=Poulin |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Poulin (zoologist) |title=Evolutionary Ecology of Parasites |year=2007 |publisher=Springer |edition=2nd |isbn=978-0-691-12084-3 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/evolutionaryecol0000poul/page/106 106, 111–114] |url=https://archive.org/details/evolutionaryecol0000poul/page/106 }}</ref> It tells the tale of a chartered fishing boat, far from home, that is overrun by parasites from the deep. The horror publishing house Gehenna and Hinnom state that "such a vile and frightening name fits perfectly as the title of this novella."<ref>{{cite web |title=Sacculina by Philip Fracassi: A Gehenna Post Review |date=28 September 2017 |url=https://gehennaandhinnom.wordpress.com/2017/09/27/sacculina-by-philip-fracassi-a-gehenna-post-review/ |publisher=Gehenna and Hinnom Publishers |access-date=16 June 2018}}</ref>

The genetically engineered tapeworm in Mira Grant's novel ''Parasite'', and the talking tapeworm in Irvine Welsh's novel ''Filth'', are fictional versions of conventional intestinal parasites.<ref name=Valentine2013 /><ref name=MarrenMabey2010 /> [[Cestoda|Tapeworms]] have complex life-cycles, often involving two or more hosts of different species, and are transmitted as the eggs are passed in [[feces|faeces]] and eaten by another host, only for the host to be eaten, passing the parasite on to the predator.<ref name="CDC">{{cite web |title=Parasites – Taeniasis |url=https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/taeniasis/biology.html |publisher=[[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]] |access-date=17 June 2018 |date=10 January 2013}}</ref> The unattractive lifecycle allows the novelists to exploit their readers' emotional reactions to the parasites. The parasite in Welsh's novel has been described as a "kind of sinister but strangely comic element".<ref name="Ford2013">{{cite news |last1=Ford |first1=Matt |title=Irvine Welsh: The 'unfilmable' Filth finally makes it to the big screen |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/irvine-welsh-the-unfilmable-filth-finally-makes-it-to-the-big-screen-8807321.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220525/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/irvine-welsh-the-unfilmable-filth-finally-makes-it-to-the-big-screen-8807321.html |archive-date=2022-05-25 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |access-date=17 June 2018 |work=[[The Independent]] |date=11 September 2013}}</ref>

[[Category:Fictional parasitesparasite and parasitoidscharacters| ]]