What I’m Reading – The Hanging Stranger

*Major Spoilers*

I recently read The Hanging Stranger by Philip K. Dick. It is a sci-fi short story written in 1953. The story is about a man named Ed Loyce. One day while driving to his store, Ed notices something hanging from a lamppost. He gets closer and realizes it’s a dead body! Shocked, Ed tells his friends about it, but none seem to care. He quickly realizes something is very wrong, and he can’t trust anyone.

The story is short, only about 30 pages, so it gets to the point quickly. The action starts early and doesn’t let up until the end. The author did an excellent job of inspiring a feeling of paranoia. The story really reminded me of the movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which came out three years after this short story.

We find out the town was taken over by insect-like creatures from space. They took over people’s minds and have shapeshifting abilities, so they shapeshift into human form. The story doesn’t detail what is done with the human bodies. Ed managed to avoid the mind control because he was in his basement all morning.

The story also describes how the creatures have tried multiple times to take over Earth and have been unsuccessful. Ed mentions that a religious picture he saw as a kid showed Beelzebub represented as a fly.

It turns out the space bugs were using the mysterious dead body as a trap to find out who was not under their control.

The story doesn’t really have a happy ending. Ed Loyce becomes the next dead body hanging from a lamppost one town over. Another citizen of that town who managed to avoid getting mind-controlled notices Ed’s body, and goes looking for help…..