House of Stairs (William Sleator novel)

House of Stairs
House of Stairs by William Sleator (1975 paperback edition)
Author(s)	William Sleator
Original title	House of Stairs
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Young adult, Science fiction novel
Publisher	E.P. Dutton (1974), Puffin (1991), Firebird/Penguin (2004)
Publication date	1974
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN	0-140-34580-9
OCLC Number	22179595

House of Stairs (1974) is a science fiction novel by William Sleator.

Set in a dystopian America in the near future, the story tells of the experiences of five 16-year-olds who were living in orphanages who wake up to find themselves in a strange building that has no walls, no ceiling, and no floor: nothing but endless flights of stairs leading in every direction, seemingly infinitely, so that it is impossible to get one's bearings or have perspective. On one landing is a basin of running water that serves as a toilet, sink and drinking fountain; on another, a machine with lights that intermittently produces food. The five, thrown together in these bizarre circumstances must learn to deal with the others' disparate personalities, the lack of privacy and comfort, their clear helplessness, and a machine that only feeds them under gradually more exacting situations.

Certain episodes in the book suggest a scarcity economy, as the back-story of the characters differs based on apparently socioeconomic criteria. One of the characters validates that the food supply is "...real meat...I have had it";^{[citation needed]} another has had access to various goods apparently unavailable to others. Themes include suspicion of authority and social breakdown under stress, similar to William Golding's Lord of the Flies.

The story is told largely from the point of view of Peter, a boy who has been labeled as slightly slow. He tends to follow authority. The others are Lola, a rebellious juvenile delinquent who doesn't trust anyone; Blossom, an overweight, spoiled girl who grew up in pampered wealth but who has recently been orphaned; Oliver, a generous, self confident, and arrogant athlete who has always been successful and popular; and Abigail, a pretty girl who is shy and kind but is easily misguided, and worries about what others think of her. Peter is in awe of Oliver, who resembles a close friend he once had, but he bonds with Lola, who takes a protective stance toward him from the beginning.

They gradually come to suspect that the machine — or those behind it — has a sinister agenda. The food consists of pellets of delicious meat, a rare delicacy normally reserved for a privileged few. Although at first the machine produced pellets relatively freely, soon it becomes clear that it will only produce food after the five perform a ritualized series of movements that they call a "dance". The movements required to obtain food become more and more elaborate, until it stops producing any food. However, after Blossom and Oliver do something cruel to some of the others, food again is produced. The teens realize that in order to be rewarded with food, they must first commit an aggressive or cruel act (followed by the dance). They begin becoming increasingly sadistic as a result, until Lola decides to reject the machine's manipulations. She decides she would rather starve than become the sadistic aggressor dictated by the machine. Peter agrees with her and the two of them go off on their own. Oliver, Abigail, and Blossom seek them out and attack, while Peter and Lola passively resist. At this point, they are all removed from the building and treated for malnutrition and exhaustion. At this point they learn that they were part of a government experiment to produce super-spies trained to be utterly ruthless, to be able to survive on minimal food and water, and to be adaptable to the harshest, most alienating conditions. Blossom, Oliver, and Abigail have proven their worth and move on to further training, while Peter and Lola, seen as unrepentantly abnormal, are released.

Film adaptation

Former Sneak Preview Entertainment executive Scott G. Hyman (500 Days of Summer) has launched a Vancouver-based production shingle, Zest Productions, to make movies in Canada. The first project is a screen adaptation of the 1974 young adult science-fiction novel House of Stairs, by the late American writer William Sleator, whose rights Hyman optioned. Montreal-based genre writer Doug Taylor has been hired to adapt the story about five orphaned teens in a dystopian near future suffering psychological exploitation in a seemingly endless Escher-like space of stairs. Taylor co-wrote the $25 million sci-fi thriller Splice, which starred Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley, with director Vincenzo Natali. The VFX-heavy House of Stairs project is to be shot in Montreal to take advantage of local tax breaks for live action/CGI hybrids, with packaging to take place in the second half of 2012. Martin Villeneuve, director of the much anticipated sci-fi film Mars et Avril, will direct House of Stairs for Hyman and fellow producers Michael Glassman (Phat Girlz) and Michael Solomon of Montreal-based Band With Pictures.

See also

• Cube (film), a motion picture with a similar milieu
• House of stairs, a lithograph print by M. C. Escher, which provided the novel's title and setting

External links

• William Sleator's page maintained by his brother Daniel Sleator
• William Sleator at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database