Episode 406 – Mimic

Post Comment 2 comments on “Episode 406 – Mimic”

• Aaron G on

  June 18, 2018 at 4:45 PM

  This was a great story.
• David Malcolm Sommer on

  February 27, 2019 at 1:14 AM

  While the writing in “Mimic” may not be everyone’s cup of tea (Mr. Johnson, I’m gibbering in your direction), surely we can all agree that Donald Wollheim’s attempted literary vengeance on J.R.R. Tolkien deserves its own Hollywood movie.

  How fascinating that nice-guy Wollheim, in his zeal to “defend the honor of paperbacks,” did to Tolkien the same thing that the villainous Hugo Gernsback had earlier done to him: publish stories without paying the author. The widespread benefits of this caper, such as the birth of the fantasy genre and Tolkien’s boost in popularity (and eventual receipt of his rightful earnings), constitute a redemptive arc not only for Wollheim but also for Tolkien, who must have realized at some point that paperbacks do bring home the pipe-weed.

  I view “Mimic” as sort of a naturalistic take on Wilbur Whately’s death scene from “The Dunwich Horror”: A monstrous imposter is discovered by means of its violent death, with the implausibility of the disguise adding a comedic note to the proceedings (recall that Wilbur’s backwards-bending knees and giant clown shoes had passed without apparent notice). As in Lovecraft’s tale, the monster’s death is a triggering event for the release of more monsters.

  The evolutionary explanation given by Wollheim’s narrator — that these creatures who masquerade as humans are not alien to our world, but are natural to it, and have been living beside us all along — is a deliciously creepy idea.