Quick question.

[torrain_circles]

In "The Colour Out Of Space", there's a mutating effect on local plants and wildlife before they die; they're oddly deformed, and their tracks (and presumably their scent) frighten those who know what they *ought* to be like, even if it's never quite nailed down how they're different.

There's a similar effect in "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", where it's noted that Hyde's appearance practically screams deformity and yet no-one could put a finger on *how*, despite the fact that people loathe him on sight.[1]

Outside of Lovecraft, I can't at the moment think of similar situations in fiction--where being exposed to a unnatural substance (preferably indirectly, in a kind of background radiation sort of way)--causes a physical change that results in something indefinably unnatural.

Anyone?
---
[1] How very Promethean.

Comments

[sivi-volk.livejournal.com]

How about "The Midwich Cuckoos"?

[torrain.livejournal.com]

Weren't they a parasitical organism, rather than a natural organism weirdly warped?

I don't deny the creepy, but I feel it's lacking the mutated.

[sivi-volk.livejournal.com]

No, it's basically the plot from that comic you lent me. Mutated in the womb.

[torrain.livejournal.com]

... comic... that... Oh, Rising Stars. Yeah, I guess that is the plot, though I never thought to think of it in that way.

I can't find my copy of the book, but can I get back to you on that? Every review and summary of the book that I can lay hands on makes reference to *all* the women in the town of child-bearing age being pregnant; some even specifically mention that virgins are carrying children.