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/ |newspaper=[[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 journal |last1last=Moisseeff |first1first=Marika |author1author-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.

|isbn=978-1-78243-857-1 |page=252}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last1last=Damon | first1first=Cynthia |author1author-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>

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]] |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/>

| [[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>

| [[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=CTheory 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, Peter |author2first1=Mabey, RichardPeter |author1-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 |last=Pappalardo |first=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>

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. This makes them easier to catch and consume and, once an infected mouse has been eaten, the parasite will then infect the cat, its [[definitive host]], in 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/>