History Literature / ThePuppetMasters

* VigilanteMan: ''Expected'' once it's discovered the slugs don't need to ride between a host's shoulder blades; a clothed body part becomes akin to a hand grenade with the pin pulled. It started when a secretly-possessed cop attacked an armed freeman - bystanders sided with the cop, freeman pulled a gun and died shooting, said shooting revealed the cop wore a slug in his pants, bystanders lynched the cop. It began a public institution after a hoaxed air-raid - where possessed used the shelters to perform mass possessions, moving through the dark slapping slugs between shoulders. All the air wardens were above ground at the time, and they pretty much went ballistic afterwards. One particularly vigilant vigilante noticed a woman who never moved her hand from her purse even to make change, so he shot off her hand at the wrist. Then opened the purse and shot the slug in it.

* {{Zeerust}}: The book features air cars, same-day plastic surgery, and phones that are implanted in an agent's skull. And yet, when Sam wants to research old newspaper articles, he heads down to the local library and gets some microfiche spools to peruse.

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* {{Zeerust}}: the book features aircars, same-day plastic surgery, and phones that are embedded in an agent's skull. And yet, when Sam wants to research old newspaper articles, he heads down to the local library and gets some microfiche spools to peruse.

* {{Zeerust}}: Several examples. One that stands out is when Sam goes to the library to do research on UFO sightings. He does this by scanning through spools of microfilm. In 2007.
** Actually, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microform microform]] remains one of the most prominent methods of information storage and retrieval available to researchers of any kind, given the truly ''massive'' amount of paper-printed historical materials that have never been put into digital form in any way. In turn, on any website that shows such things, someone somewhere eventually had to go out and scan it from such archives.
*** RealityIsUnrealistic: On top of the above, there are still libraries in the US that have microfilm archives, particularly those in larger cities and most college libraries. Microfilm remains a popular medium for long-term archiving because it is a stable technology with a very long shelf life.

* VigilanteMan: ''Expected'' once it's discovered the slugs don't need to ride between a host's shoulder blades; a clothed body part becomes akin to a hand grenade with the pin pulled. It started when a secretly-possessed cop attacked an armed freeman - bystanders sided with the cop, freeman pulled a gun and died shooting, said shooting revealed the cop wore a slug in his pants, bystanders lynched the cop. It began a public institution after a hoaxed air-raid - where possessed used the shelters to perform mass possessions, moving through the dark slapping slugs between shoulders. All the air wardens were above ground at the time, and they pretty much went ballistic afterwards.
One particularly vigilant vigilante noticed a woman who never moved her hand from her purse even to make change, so he shot off her hand at the wrist. Then opened the purse and shot the slug in it.

-->...a stark naked, armed man on the street was as likely to be wearing a warden's armband as the "VIG" brassard. Either way, you could count on him shooting at any unexplained excrescence on a human body-[[MurderIsTheBestSolution shoot and investigate afterward]].
** Works, too. One particularly vigilant vigilante noticed a woman who never moved her hand from her purse even to make change, so he shot off her hand at the wrist. Then opened the purse and shot the slug in it.

** The novel was published in 1951 and set in 2007. Although the heroine is just as tough and capable as the male lead (sometimes more so), the moment gender roles or romantic relationships come up she turns, hilariously, into June Cleaver.
*** Aaand then switches back if threatened or dismissed.
** People complained about having to walk around bare to the waist (or in bikini tops for women) far more in the book than they probably would have in real life 2007.
*** Though this is explicitly mentioned to be the case in America. The narrator does mention cases where the opposite is true, like in Iceland, where a man who won't strip naked and get in the hot tub with his friends would be instantly regarded with suspicion.

* IfYouWontIWill: Sam is asked to allow one of the title monsters to take control of him, so as to interrogate it. He refuses, and discovers that his LoveInterest Mary has volunteered to do it and will be going in his place. He reverses himself and agrees to take part.
** He actually gets really pissed off about this; though he was aware since their first meeting that Mary was a FemmeFatale, he was [[LoveAtFirstSight smitten from the get-go]] anyway. Thus, Mary using her wiles on him - a fellow agent - was an unforgivable betrayal, especially as he was completely aware of all of this yet unable to resist. This accusation turns her into a nervous wreck. Realizing he's effectively lost ''two'' agents to the experiment leads the Old Man to tell all; he had decided that since everyone else they've ever pulled a slug off of has died within days, Sam was the only viable candidate - ''he'' was the one who set up the above manipulation and Mary was an honest volunteer.

** Though it can also be interpreted as a result of her horrific childhood possessed by a slug - she is armed all the time because she's ''very'' defensive of herself, and around Sam she feels safe. But when people start ''treating'' her like a piece of fluff she's five seconds away from ''taking their heads off.''

* EmbarrassingFirstName: Sam goes through several false identities. Only late in the novel does he go right up to his father and asks, "Dad, why did you name me Elihu?"

* ThePlague: How the aliens are ultimately defeated; a otherwise fatal Venusian disease known as "nine-day fever" (as in it takes seven to ten days to kill a human stone dead) only takes ''five'' days to kill a slug. Thus, the invasion is repulsed by releasing possessed animals into Zone Red, waiting for the slugs to die, then parachuting millions of men into the area to administer the cure.

* ArtisticLicenceHistory: "The Congress of the United States has not been in such a shambles since JeffersonDavis announced his momentous decision [for Southern secession from the Union]." Only, at the time the movement for secession was picking up steam, JeffersonDavis wasn't any kind of leader for it. Someone else would have made the first big announcement for secession. Davis's announcement would have been more like, "Well, we all know that Mississippi is seceding from the Union, so I'm resigning from my position as Mississippi's senator in the US Congress."

* HelloNurse: A metal neckline and a white sash across her breasts is everything which the nurse taking care of the main character wears up from her waistline.

* SpaceElves: They are the race which the aliens apparently exploit on their home planet. Supposedly, they were the original inhabitants of [[UsefulNotes/TheMoonsOfSaturn Titan]].

*** RealityIsUnrealistic: On top of the above, there are still libraries in the US which have microfilm archives, particularly those in larger cities and most college libraries. Microfilm remains a popular medium for long-term archiving because it is a stable technology with a very long shelf life.

* EasilyThwartedAlienInvasion: The solution is reached by logical reasoning rather than detailed research or military strategy, and turns out to be relatively simple.

*** RealityIsUnrealistic: On top of the above, there are still libraries in the US which have microfilm archives, particularly those in larger cities and most college libraries.

* YearInsideHourOutside: As a drug induced state.

* BizarreAlienReproduction: Their reproductive processes are activated by the closeness of potential victims.

* DystopiaIsHard: It's repeatedly stated that the slugs, despite their utopian claims, make horrible masters; they over-exert their hosts, starve them, and are ignorant of basic hygiene. When Sam is freed, he spends the first week in ultra-tech intensive care due to over-exhaustion, malnutrition(he has fucking ''scurvy'') infestation with scabies ''and'' lice, and it's implied doctors had to perform extensive surgery on his feet because he ran out the door in undersized shoes and the slug never changed them. Also see DirtyCommunists, a Heinlein staple.

* HappinessInSlavery: The aliens claim that they will give their hosts a kind of mental peace when they are controlled by the aliens, making them happier than humans in a state of freedom. This is actually to a fair description of the protagonist Sam's state of mind during the time he is controlled. However, once Sam is freed he not only refuses to consider infestation would be good for him or anyone else, but his hated of the slugs reaches ''genocidal'' proportions; he participates in Schedule Mercy(parachuting into occupied territory to cure the hosts of "nine-day fever" once their slugs are dead) simply to have the pleasure of watching the slugs ''die, '''die, DIE.''' '' This gets him caught and nearly possessed again.

* ThePlague: How the aliens are ultimately defeated; a otherwise fatal Venusian disease known as "Nine-day fever"(as in it takes seven to ten days to kill a human stone dead) only takes ''five'' days to kill a slug. Thus, the invasion is repulsed by releasing possessed animals into Zone Red, waiting for the slugs to die, then parachuting millions of men into the area to administer the cure.

* {{Eagleland}}: Mixed Flavor. On one hand, the US is implied to be the most technologically and socially advanced nation on Earth. On the other, [[DemocracyIsBad elected officials]] are so stupid that they almost lose the war before it starts; a near-miss is enough for the President to join the cause, but the rest of Congress only joins in ''after'' Sam, Mary and the Old Man interrupt a session with guns and strip everyone naked to reveal that several dozen Congressmen have slugs on their backs. One such was in the process of ''impeaching the President.''

-->'''The Old Man''': ''Listen, son -- most women are damn fools and children. But they've got more range than we've got. The brave ones are braver, the good ones are better and the vile ones are viler, for that matter.''

** Though it can also be interpreted as a result of her horrific childhood [[spoiler:possessed by a slug]] - she is armed all the time because she's ''very'' defensive of herself, and around Sam she feels safe. But when people start ''treating'' her like a piece of fluff she's five seconds away from ''taking their heads off.''

** Mary's birth name, Allucquere, is intriguing, but she still finds it embarrassing, as it's [[spoiler:indicative of her being raised in a benign yet ostracized cult. More specifically, it's a reminder of how she's the LastOfHerKind, as the slugs killed the rest of their colony on Venus.]]

* HappinessInSlavery: The aliens claim that they will give their hosts a kind of mental peace when they are controlled by the aliens, making them happier than humans in a state of freedom. This is actually to a fair description of the protagonist Sam's state of mind during the time he is controlled. However, once Sam is freed he not only refuses to consider infestation would be good for him or anyone else, but his hated of the slugs reaches ''genocidal'' proportions; [[spoiler:he participates in Schedule Mercy(parachuting into occupied territory to cure the hosts of "nine-day fever" once their slugs are dead) simply to have the pleasure of watching the slugs ''die, '''die, DIE.''' '' This gets him caught and nearly possessed again]].

* PositiveDiscrimination: Mary is the single most effective individual in the book; the bravest, the most lethal, the keenest mind, the first to detect the slugs, and she even [[spoiler:provides the ultimate means of defeating the invasion.]] In summary;

* ThePlague: [[spoiler:How the aliens are ultimately defeated; a otherwise fatal Venusian disease known as "Nine-day fever"(as in it takes seven to ten days to kill a human stone dead) only takes ''five'' days to kill a slug. Thus, the invasion is repulsed by releasing possessed animals into Zone Red, waiting for the slugs to die, then parachuting millions of men into the area to administer the cure.]]