Talk:To Serve Man (The Twilight Zone)
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I don't understand why bullets are used to identify the speaker in the blockquotes, but I've seen this in other Twilight Zone articles, so I won't change it... yet. Looks like it might require a large-scale edit. Theshibboleth 11:08, 16 August 2005 (UTC)
I suppose it's dumb to nitpick about a 40-year-old show, but did it strike anyone else as odd that the aliens left behind a book outlining their plan, and (if the deleted scene counts) a translation guide? And isn't it furthermore odd that in their language, 'serve' has a dual meaning, just like it does here? (or at least that when the title was translated, it wasn't obvious at first)
- Hah, I guess you're right. I never thought of it like that.
- Damon Knight, who wrote the original script, claims that serve is used for both meanings in a number of english langauges and so it's not completely bizarre that it might do so in Kanamit. He also gives an explanation in the Twilight Zone Guide which makes more sense as to how they translated the cookbook.
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[edit] Dual meaning
"In addition, there is the question of why ”serve” should have the same dual meaning — ”aid” and ”cook” — in the Kanamits' language as it does in English."
I don't think it has to. If serve is one of the words in the "intergalactic Rosetta Stone", then it could mean simply cook and not aid, but the people reading wouldn't recognise that. They would translate the Kanamit word to serve without it needing to have a double meaning in Kanamit if that was the translation offered. --Switch 09:56, 5 November 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Identification of actor in the photo
I just watched this episode on tv (but didn't have the vcr running). I think that the actor shown in the photo on this page is not Richard Kiel. The Kanamit played by Richard Kiel wore a white robe. It seems IMDB doesn't credit the other actor.
[edit] Famous line?
What exactly is the famous line? There are several references to it in the article, but it is never quoted.
- Perhaps it's too much of a spoiler, although the trivia references really give it away. The famous line is "The booklet, sir – To Serve Man? It's... it's... it’s a cookbook!" Should it be added? Travisl 00:36, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Borrowed from C S Lewis
This story is not original, it's lifted from one of C S Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia series - from memory I think The Silver Chair. In one well known episode in that book, a group of human children are doted upon by a group of friendly giants until one of the children stumbles on a book in the giants' kitchen called "To Serve Man" or something very similar, which turns out to be a cookbook.
I really think the article should acknowledge the likely inspiration for this episode. Gatoclass 12:31, 24 January 2007 (UTC)
