How to feel optimistic in the face of crisis? Ask the kids fighting slug-like aliens | Alexander Hurst
The Animorphs books taught my generation about digging deep in the face of an existential threat. We need that spirit now more than ever Recently
The Animorphs books taught my generation about digging deep in the face of an existential threat. We need that spirit now more than ever Recently I found myself thinking about slug-like aliens that crawl through peopleās ears and into their brains, with the ultimate purpose of global domination. It would explain a lot about what has gone so wrong with the world, wouldnāt it?
And it was why I immediately flashed back to the childrenās fantasy series Animorphs when Donald Trumpās health secretary and conspiracy theorist, Robert F Kennedy Jr, admitted to having had a worm in his brain. While visiting my parents in Cleveland, Ohio recently, I realised that a few books from the childrenās fantasy series were still sitting on the shelves in my old bedroom.
No fewer than 54 Animorphs titles were published between 1996 and 2001, and a total of 35m copies have been sold. āI may have just landed a job thanks to Animorphs,ā my childhood friend Clifton texted me with excitement in the mid-2010s, when we were fresh out of college. āIt was an interview for a vegan food cart and the last question they asked me was what Animorph I would morph into.
I said an orangutan.ā Alexander Hurst writes for Guardian Europe from Paris. His memoir Generation Desperation is out now Continue reading...
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