Review of The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) by Veronique K — 23 Sep 2008

"the incredible shrinking man" distinguisghes itself from the rest pieces in the sci-fi genre by its poetic stroke of existentialism, analouous to kafka's "mtamorphosis", a tale about the alienated solitude as well as the discrimination toward the other. BUT kafka's culprit is the unacceptance of social norm; shrinking man's fault-blamer is the exposed chemical mist which might be an rumination toward the atomic period in the cold war. human suffers his own deformity and departs farther from society due to his metamorphosis.

A man sails on sea joyfully with his wife while a peculiar mist pervades toward him then he starts to shrink drastically to the point of helpless despair depsite his spouse still keeps her loyality to him. to overcome such bizarre feeling of misfit, he seeks solace from a female midget in the circus as if he's no longer alone. but tragically his shrinking progress deepens so much that he withdraws from her group as well. eventually he ends up in a doll house with his being menaced by his former pet which by now is a giant monster preying on him as potential food. then he tumbles into his own basement, trapped there to duel the ghastly spider for a piece of cheese to live on his existence. during the process of glorious fight, he learns the meaning of universe, conquering his own fear to integrate into this blissful annihilation of the whole cosmos without remorse.

The masterful touch is the microcosmos of basement as the modern pilgrime of robinson cruso that adds up a sense of existentialistic absurdity. and it transcends its limit of sci-fi genre to a revered sublimination of human dignity: the honorable death shall be to bleed and sweat for your existence then embrace enuii of life easefully since everyone inevitably would vanish into a particle within the earth, so why bother to feel so angst-ridden? that's the genuine meaning of zen, the fatalistic acceptance of oblivion.