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Post by dem bones on Jan 21, 2009 10:51:57 GMT
Thomas M. Disch - The Prisoner (First Books: www.ibooks.net, 2003) Cover design by Dean Motter back cover Blurb: "WELCOME TO THE VILLAGE, NUMBER 6."
He's a top-level agent, highly skilled and ultra-secret. But he wants out, and they won't let him quit. He quits anyway. Then suddenly comes the dawn when he wakes up in captivity, in a pleasant, old-style seaside town - one packed solid with electronic surveillance hardware.
This is The Village. And he is The Prisoner.
If he was good enough, sharp enough to be a top-flight cloak-and-dagger man, is he good enough to escape the men who've chained his life to the wall?
"Closely based on the extraordinary TV series, far and away the finest thing the medium has done in this genre; while Disch himself is one of the best SF writers." - Observer Haven't started this yet so this isn't even a non- non-review, but i'm sure there have to be at least a handful of Prisoner fans on here, Thomas Disch ones too, come to that. Perhaps they'd like to share their thoughts? Found a copy of this in the charity shop last week, got home, switched on the box and the first item i caught was the announcement that "Patrick McGoohan has died". But should we believe them?
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Post by carolinec on Jan 21, 2009 16:51:45 GMT
I'm a Disch fan, but not a "Prisoner" fan - so I can't comment on the book. I tried a few episodes of the TV series, but could never get into it - found it really boring. But if you haven't been to the place they filmed it (is it called Port Merrion?), I'd recommend you go - it's an amazing place - really "out of this world"! ;D
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Post by dem bones on Dec 9, 2017 10:23:01 GMT
I put The Prisoner in the player. Its been a a few years I last watched this from the begining through to the end. I had forgotten how good and timeless this is. Maybe this time I will manage to read Thomas Disch's novel after this. Don't bother with the novel, it's a real comedown after the TV series. And DEFINITELY avoid the 2009 remake (awful). Just watch the series again instead - you'll find more little details that eluded you on the first 3 or 4 viewings. Have made at least four false starts on Disch's novel, just couldn't get into it at all. Fans of the series can't really go wrong with this beauty. Robert Fairclough - The Prisoner: The Official Companion to the Classic TV Series (Carlton Books, 2002) Blurb WE ALL TALK. IT'S JUST A QUESTION OF TIME
It's 35 years since Patrick McGoohan's thriller series The Prisoner, a strange blend of espionage, psychodrama and fantasy, first entranced the British public. every week, viewers watched as the eponymous prisoner, Number 6, imprisoned in a hi-tech Shangri-La-style village, was subjected to bizarre interrogation techniques and sinister scientific experiments. In turn, the Prisoner would try to escape his captors and although always frustrated in his bids for freedom, he would sometimes be the moral victor by turning the tables on his anonymous persecutors.
Tracing the programme's evolution from sixties' curiosity to worldwide cult, the book examines the volatile social and political background which shaped its development. The 1960s were a time when the Cold War was at its height, manned space-flight had the moon within reach, James Bond – 007 – ruled in the cinema and The Beatles sang about peace and love. At the same time, there was an undercurrent of concern that in this bright, new, technological decade, people were becoming increasingly alienated from their political leaders; instead of being enhanced by modern scientific advances, individual freedom was becoming more limited and controlled. All these cultural tensions were reflected in The Prisoner.
With an episode-by-episode analysis, a wealth of previously unpublished photographs, production designs, props and memorabilia, production details, cast biographies and interviews with the cast and crew, The Prisoner. The Official Companion to the Classic TV Series is the ultimate guide to what is now viewed as one of the seminal television series of its time.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Dec 9, 2017 11:05:10 GMT
Have made at least four false starts on Disch's novel, just couldn't get into it at all. I have read all of it. But I regret it.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Dec 9, 2017 13:58:24 GMT
Have made at least four false starts on Disch's novel, just couldn't get into it at all. I have read all of it. But I regret it. I have read The Prisoner by Thomas Disch. I remember nothing about that other than he names the Prisoner as John Drake (Patrick McGoohan's character from Danger Man). I also think there's a scene that describes how taking a shower causes a part of the Prisoner to shrivel! Maybe these happen in one of the other two novelizations, all three of which I sold to Richard Dalby.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 9, 2017 14:36:25 GMT
Have this (unread), but, by the commentary in The Official Companion ..., the third book, Hank Stine's A Day In The Life, is the interesting one (title blatantly lifted from a Brix-era The Fall classic which, I believe, was covered two decades before they wrote it by some Liverpool beat combo or other). Seems Mr. Stine spiced things up with multiple counter-culture references - Number Six is outed as a fan of Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow, the Beatles star as the Village Band, etc. Can't be any more of a challenge than the Disch effort, I'd have thought. David McDaniel - The Prisoner: Who Is Number Two? (NEL, 1982; originally Ace, 1969) Blurb He was free - within the village. Free to busy himself or to do nothing. Free to socialise or to keep himself to himself. Free to ask questions and listen to the gently plausible answers. Free even to try to escape. But not to leave. The Guardians saw to that. Intercepted him and shepherded him back, carefully but firmly, to be reprimanded more in sorrow than anger. Left him to try again and fail again. Why? Why this tolerance of his endless attempts to get away? Was he, unwittingly, doing just what they wanted? Continuously testing out the defences, showing up the weak spots. Were all his probings and schemings simply improving the security of their system? Would giving up be the only true rebellion he could muster?
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Dec 9, 2017 15:19:42 GMT
You cannot help but get the feeling Disch thought he was too good to be doing a THE PRISONER novelization. But then perhaps he should not have taken the job.
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Post by andydecker on Dec 9, 2017 21:38:23 GMT
Just when I wanted to ask about the other three novels.
I bought the books years ago as a lot in a very nice condition and put them on the shelf. Always thought the writers wildly diffferent. Disch, a cerebral, serious sf-writer, Stine, an unknown, and McDaniel, who I gathered wrote a lot of UNCLE novelisations.
I wonder if british writers wouldn't have been better suited for these novels. They often bring a unique voice into the game which american writers miss.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Dec 11, 2017 2:24:15 GMT
Given that I've already credited Iron Maiden for introducing me to Alister MacLean, I'll also mention that "The Prisoner" from The Number of The Beast was my entry point to the television program. Probably not too much overlap with the Disch version.
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Post by ropardoe on Dec 11, 2017 10:26:09 GMT
You cannot help but get the feeling Disch thought he was too good to be doing a THE PRISONER novelization. But then perhaps he should not have taken the job. Is anyone familiar with Tom Disch's story "Descending"? It does for escalators what Laski's "The Tower" does for staircases. Terrifying.
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Post by ropardoe on Dec 11, 2017 10:45:30 GMT
You cannot help but get the feeling Disch thought he was too good to be doing a THE PRISONER novelization. But then perhaps he should not have taken the job. Is anyone familiar with Tom Disch's story "Descending"? It does for escalators what Laski's "The Tower" does for staircases. Terrifying. And what Christopher Fowler's "Left Hand Drive" does for multi-storey carparks. To be honest, I don't think any of us are safe unless we stay on one level. I wonder if anyone's written a story about a haunted stairlift?
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Dec 11, 2017 12:05:46 GMT
Is anyone familiar with Tom Disch's story "Descending"? It does for escalators what Laski's "The Tower" does for staircases. Terrifying. "Descending" is a good one (so is Laski's "The Tower"), but for me the ultimate Disch story will always the "The Roaches." Not as terrifying, but enormously entertaining.
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Post by Shrink Proof on Dec 11, 2017 14:30:26 GMT
Is anyone familiar with Tom Disch's story "Descending"? It does for escalators what Laski's "The Tower" does for staircases. Terrifying. Indeed. Horrific on so many levels. Ah, my coat, how kind....
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