The Man Who Fell to Earth
by Walter Tevis· 2023
Thomas Jerome Newton is more human than most. That is, if you even consider him one at all. Despite his striking resemblance to humans, he is not of this planet. You may reason that based on his intellectual acuity, for his ideas transcend even those of any learned man who walks the Earth. But if he's not of this planet, then why is he here?
Like Icarus plummeting from the sky, Newton's rocket crash landed in the inconspicuous town of Haneyville, Kentucky, where he found himself alone with no food, no money, and no way back home. And home — the planet Anthea — is a long, long way from Kentucky. But this interplanetary excursion was all a part of the plan, one that he and his people set in motion many years before.
In only two months' time he would secure hundreds of patents, providing him the impetus for taking the technology world by storm. In five years' time his company W. E. Corp would become ubiquitous, thanks to his innovation and his corporate attorney's enterprising know-how. Financial solidity had found him, and he had found the missing piece that would cement his plan.
But with great success comes great suspicion. For what man from this planet could invent, license, and innovate on such a grand scale in record-breaking time without being noticed? Though, more to the point…who else but Thomas Jerome Newton? The extra-terrestrial with more at stake on behalf of humanity than anyone would ever know.
Drawing heavily from the Cold War era of the late 1950s, Walter Tevis's The Man Who Fell to Earth is a parable about the inevitability of our demise and our own hubris in ignoring the warning signs, even those traveling light years to reach us. The novel also illustrates that sometimes the best qualities humanity has to offer can only be found in the most alien among us. Empathy can seamlessly transfer from one species to another even in a hedonistic world. And as the unbeknownst Virgil to our Dante, Newton will be our guide through this debauched, despondent, and derelict purview, leaving us to wonder who comes off the worse for wear: humanity or Newton himself.
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