Disaster stories (novels, films)

[Jim A. 0]

I just finished reading John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids (published in 1951).

Supposedly, apocalyptic disaster stories are John Wyndham's specialty (I can't say for sure; I've only read Triffids and The Midwich Cuckoos).

This one, qua disaster story, is excellent.

It is about what happens to the world when more than one disaster happens to it: a meteor display which is so bright in the night sky that it permanently blinds everyone who witnesses it, about 80% of the world's population; the proliferation of "triffids", biologically engineered plants that have learned to pull up their roots and walk, and have become carniverous; outbreaks of plague, due to the sudden lack of sighted medical staff who can administer vaccinations; and, eventually, a few sighted people around the world who have decided to form feudalistic communities by force, often using military methods. The heroes/heroines in the novel are rational, and have the selfish desire to live.

The value of this kind of disaster stories is that they present the extreme of disaster: an apocalypse of some kind. If they are like this book, they show how rationalilty and rational people would deal with the situation. As such, they are an excellent manual to add to one's household's "disaster preparedness kit".

While reading Triffids, I began to ask myself: in such a world as presented in this novel, what would be the greatest threat to the future of mankind and civilization? The triffids? The plagues? the feudalistic regimes that might spring up? I thought, "No." The answer I came up with was: the most dangerous threat to the future of Mankind in such a situation would be the idea that life is now not worth living, that the world is so bad and dangerous that not only to try to enjoy life would be futile but certainly to bring children into it would be wrong. If the people who experience the aftermath of such a multiple catastrophe decide to live and enjoy life, and, as a result, have children, people born a thousand years from now would be extremely grateful.

The downside of disaster fiction, whether in novels or on the screen, is that it is based on what I call a "disaster metaphysics", the view that you can't have success in life or in art unless you are starting with complete disaster and despair. Why must that be a starting point for a story--in fiction, or in fact--to be thrilling and exciting? Why can't it be thrilling to have all fundamental issues already solved, and for people to go on and find new adventures in life?

And--I have a theory that hidden in every hazard in nature is an opportunity, a potential benefit: an asteroid heading for Earth might contain a gold mine of minerals we could mine, tornadoes may one day be "lured" by some mechanism to some kind of turbine and the energy they produce "stored" somewhere for years, viruses might be biologically "coaxed" into aiding the human body instead of attacking it, etc.

The view that the Universe is against us is responsible for almost all the darkness in the body of Man's literature up till now. It will be wonderful to experience the kind of literature that will flourish when Man finally understands, if he ever does, that the Universe is not against him, but contains all the answers to his questions if he only opens his eyes and looks.

[Betsy Speicher 0]

The downside of disaster fiction, whether in novels or on the screen, is that it is based on what I call a "disaster metaphysics", the view that you can't have success in life or in art unless you are starting with complete disaster and despair. Why must that be a starting point for a story--in fiction, or in fact--to be thrilling and exciting?

For those unfortunate people who never established a good working relationship with the world, the world is a metaphysical threat. As a result, the metaphysics of disaster seems familiar and important to them and they respond to such stories with a big "Yes!" on a sense of life level. A story about finding a way out of this horrible anxiety appeals to the only hope that keeps them going.

[JJPierce 0]

I just finished reading John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids (published in 1951).

Supposedly, apocalyptic disaster stories are John Wyndham's specialty (I can't say for sure; I've only read Triffids and The Midwich Cuckoos).

This one, qua disaster story, is excellent.

Here's a link to the Wyndham entry at Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wyndham_(writer)

Wyndham's work has been sadly neglected since his death. I think DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS was just reissued in trade paperback, but I haven't seen new editions of any of his other sf lately.

He didn't write only disaster stories, as witness TROUBLE WITH LICHEN, THE OUTWARD URGE and THE CHRYSALIDS (aka RE-BIRTH). The Wikipedia bio has links to further info these and his other works. If any seem to appeal to you, you can doubtless scare up old editions at Amazon.com.

There's an accidental parallel between his short story "The Wheel" (collected in TALES OF GOOSEFLESH AND LAUGHTER) and Ayn Rand's "Anthem" because both are examples of the post-holocaust quest story. For those who don't already know, "Anthem" was inspired by Stephen Vincent Benet's "The Place of the Gods" (See Shoshana Milgram's piece in ESSAYS ON AYN RAND'S ANTHEM). Benet's story was part of a tradition that goes back to Richard Jeffries' AFTER LONDON (1885) and includes a number of other works like John Collier's TOMS-A-COLD (1930) and Edgar Pangborn's DAVY (1964), the common thread being the quest of someone born long after the fall of our civilization to rediscover that civilization and the meaning of civilization. THE CHRYSALIDS is a variation on the same theme.

[Bill Bucko 0]

John Wyndham was a MASTER STORYTELLER.

In spite of the disasters that strike the world in "Day of the Triffids," "Out of the Deeps," and "Rebirth," I find all three books stimulating and entertaining. So much so, that I've returned to them again and again, through the years. The survivors at the center of each story are always thoughtful, intelligent people -- and always, to a certain extent, outsiders. His books are NOT pervaded by a sense of doom or gloom. Rather, what I get from them is like that phrase from Thomas Paine: a chance to make the world anew.

I cannot recommend his later novels (1950s on) too highly! (He was a late bloomer, and much of his early work is mediocre.) The best of them are "Day of the Triffids," "Out of the Deeps," and "The Midwich Cuckoos." All three are intense, gripping, suspenseful, and highly imaginative. "Rebirth," "Trouble with Lichen," and "Chocky" are less good but still well worth reading.

[Bill Bucko 0]

And his best novels end VERY HOPEFULLY, with the dawn of man's triumph -- even against opponents more incredible and mysterious than any we are ever likely to face.

[PhilO 0]

I think that disaster scenarios provide a fertile ground for drama. What an author does with the situation makes all of the difference. Atlas Shrugged itself is set in a very bleak collapsing world (including millions of Americans dying when Project X is turned on.) But of course it is anything but hopeless.

The short-lived series Jeremiah is another, lesser, but still excellent example. The context is a world 15 or so years after the vast majority of those above puberty (biologically selective) are killed by a man-made virus, and how the children who survived deal with it. The good guys are led by Markus, who transforms the former NORAD Cheyenne Mountain complex into a secured place where he attempts (mostly successfully) to rebuild civilization, and acts as a magnet for the thinkers and otherwise decent people. There are sundry bad guys that are mostly power lusters, not interested in rebuilding but only interested in looting and maximizing their control over others. All in all, a very dramatic background onto which characters are developed and good/evil contrasted and compared.

[Kitty Hawk 0]

A movie of this type is Omega Man, starring Charlton Heston. A scence fiction novel in this genre is Niven and Pournelle's Lucifer's Hammer.

[Thoyd Loki 0]

The downside of disaster fiction, whether in novels or on the screen, is that it is based on what I call a "disaster metaphysics", the view that you can't have success in life or in art unless you are starting with complete disaster and despair. Why must that be a starting point for a story--in fiction, or in fact--to be thrilling and exciting?

For those unfortunate people who never established a good working relationship with the world, the world is a metaphysical threat. As a result, the metaphysics of disaster seems familiar and important to them and they respond to such stories with a big "Yes!" on a sense of life level. A story about finding a way out of this horrible anxiety appeals to the only hope that keeps them going.

Are you sure that is the only possible explanation psychologically - both for writer and reader? I do see at the outset that we have no clear definition of what "disaster" is, else AS could qualify as a disaster story, namely the disaster of evil premises.

Second, I do see it as an easy plot device, the variable being the author's motivation. Is it that metaphysical reality is a threat, or is it something that is conquerable by man? I can project myself witnessing a story that has a disaster plot-line that can be familiar and even important, and feel and think, "No!" , and want to see the characters triumph.

Certainly Apollo 13 qualifies as a disaster story. And even though I've only seen it through the guise of the ever naturalist Ron Howard, I love that story because it very concretely shows men conquering a disaster through the use of their reason. Of course that really happened, but I would love any fictional account of the same type of scenario.

[Thoyd Loki 0]

John Wyndham was a MASTER STORYTELLER.

Could you elaborate a bit? I am always looking for great fiction. Almost always disappointed. Does he do consistent and deep enough character development to achieve a sense of catharsis, or a feeling (whether of suspense, apprehension, tension) that makes it emotionally worth the time?

I guess I could assume that since you said he is a master storyteller that at least one of these has to be the case.

[JJPierce 0]

John Wyndham was a MASTER STORYTELLER.

In spite of the disasters that strike the world in "Day of the Triffids," "Out of the Deeps," and "Rebirth," I find all three books stimulating and entertaining. So much so, that I've returned to them again and again, through the years. The survivors at the center of each story are always thoughtful, intelligent people -- and always, to a certain extent, outsiders. His books are NOT pervaded by a sense of doom or gloom. Rather, what I get from them is like that phrase from Thomas Paine: a chance to make the world anew.

I cannot recommend his later novels (1950s on) too highly! (He was a late bloomer, and much of his early work is mediocre.) The best of them are "Day of the Triffids," "Out of the Deeps," and "The Midwich Cuckoos." All three are intense, gripping, suspenseful, and highly imaginative. "Rebirth," "Trouble with Lichen," and "Chocky" are less good but still well worth reading.

Well said!

Late bloomer indeed. If I hadn't known that "John Beynon Harris" and "John Wyndham" were one and the same, I'd never have gleaned it from the works published under those names.

And to address Jim A's original question, Wyndham's sf is by no means an expression of "disaster metaphysics:" that concept more properly attaches to the disaster novels of New Wave writers like J.G. Ballard and Thomas Disch.

[Jim A. 0]

To J.J. Pierce: I've never read "The Place of the Gods", but I've read Benet's "By the Waters of Babylon", and Anthem reminded me of it when I first read it. Are they the same story, but with different titles?

To Bill Bucko: I thought The Midwich Cuckoos was very well done, and I definitely like the 1960 film adaptation of it, the first Village of the Damned. I like both because they give me the sense that even the gravest, most terrible evils possible in the Universe are conquerable. (From the film: Dr. Willers: "Is there any limit to the power of these children?" Dr. Zellaby: "No more than there is a limit to the mind".)

The only other disaster novels I've read are: On the Beach, by Nevil Shute, Time of the Great Freeze, by Robert Silverberg and Monkey Planet (Planet of the Apes), by Pierre Boulle. I'm curious about Alas, Babylon, by Pat Frank, Daybreak, 2250 A.D. (Star Man's Son), by Andre Norton and Earth Abides, by George R. Stewart.

Has anyone read any of these?

[JJPierce 0]

To J.J. Pierce: I've never read "The Place of the Gods", but I've read Benet's "By the Waters of Babylon", and Anthem reminded me of it when I first read it. Are they the same story, but with different titles?

To Bill Bucko: I thought The Midwich Cuckoos was very well done, and I definitely like the 1960 film adaptation of it, the first Village of the Damned. I like both because they give me the sense that even the gravest, most terrible evils possible in the Universe are conquerable. (From the film: Dr. Willers: "Is there any limit to the power of these children?" Dr. Zellaby: "No more than there is a limit to the mind".)

The only other disaster novels I've read are: On the Beach, by Nevil Shute, Time of the Great Freeze, by Robert Silverberg and Monkey Planet (Planet of the Apes), by Pierre Boulle. I'm curious about Alas, Babylon, by Pat Frank, Daybreak, 2250 A.D. (Star Man's Son), by Andre Norton and Earth Abides, by George R. Stewart.

Has anyone read any of these?

"By the Waters of Bablyon" is indeed the same story as "The Place of the Gods;" it was simply retitled for inclusion in a book collection

I've read all of those other books. ALAS, BABYLON is still in print, and EARTH ABIDES was recently reissued. The first seemed to me more dated than the second, even though it came out later. Norton's novel is post-holocaust, in the same tradition as Wyndham's RE-BIRTH.

[Betsy Speicher 0]

For those unfortunate people who never established a good working relationship with the world, the world is a metaphysical threat. As a result, the metaphysics of disaster seems familiar and important to them and they respond to such stories with a big "Yes!" on a sense of life level. A story about finding a way out of this horrible anxiety appeals to the only hope that keeps them going.

Are you sure that is the only possible explanation psychologically - both for writer and reader?

No way did I intend to imply that. This only applies to SOME people. There are many other reasons, including much more positive ones, that may account for why a given person likes a particular story. The only way to really find out is to ask what the story means to him

[PhilO 0]

A movie of this type is Omega Man, starring Charlton Heston.

That's been re-made for release this year until the original story title of I Am Legend, with Will Smith instead of Heston. I look forward to seeing what they've done with it.

[PhilO 0]

I'm curious about Alas, Babylon, by Pat Frank, Daybreak, 2250 A.D. (Star Man's Son), by Andre Norton and Earth Abides, by George R. Stewart.

I read Alas, Babylon several times as a kid during my main SF reading years, it's a very good story though not terribly sophisticated, and the emphasis is on those trying to rebuild some local semblance of civilized life. A more sophisticated story is A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter Miller Jr.; there the setting is the far future, and rather Anthem-like, a world collapsed into a new dark ages, and a priesthood that focuses on trying to reconstruct the knowledge of the past from very fragmentary pieces left from a disastrous world war.

[PhilO 0]

Another movie that comes to mind (made from an earlier science fiction story whose author I forget at the moment) is The Postman, with Kevin Costner. Again, the theme is the good who wants to reconstruct civilization vs. the evil power lusters who need the anarchy to exist.

[JJPierce 0]

Another movie that comes to mind (made from an earlier science fiction story whose author I forget at the moment) is The Postman, with Kevin Costner. Again, the theme is the good who wants to reconstruct civilization vs. the evil power lusters who need the anarchy to exist.

It was based on David Brin's novel, which was a LOT better.

[PhilO 0]

It was based on David Brin's novel, which was a LOT better.

Brin, that's right. I did read the novel years ago and I agree about it being better from my recollection (including the cause of the disaster, which in the movie has some unspecified "environmental" cause.) But even at that I think it's a good movie.

[Bill Bucko 0]

... There are many other reasons, including much more positive ones, that may account for why a given person likes a particular story. The only way to really find out is to ask what the story means to him

At Purdue University around 1968, in Jim Davidson's apartment, we students of Objectivism were discussing the question of which Ayn Rand novel was our favorite. Jim* remarked that his favorite was "The Fountainhead" (even though "Atlas Shrugged" was better), because it dealt with precisely the psychological issues he was grappling with when he first read it.

I said that my favorite [at that time] was "We the Living." No one else agreed, though Jim's wife Dotty remarked that Kira did show a lot of courage when she was expelled from the university.

I shook my head. "That doesn't seem right ... That's not the way I remember it ... my favorite scene is where she's going down a stream on a raft, and berries get caught in her hair."

Dotty said, "I don't remember that."

I said, "It's in there."

* * *

(* Again, let me point out that electrical engineer and inventor Jim Davidson (1930-1979) (MS 1952 M.I.T.) is a great unsung hero. It was he who originated the idea of tape transcription for Objectivist lectures and courses, fought for the idea until it was adopted, and did most of the work for the first several years. Everyone who's ever taken a course or listened to a lecture on tape is indebted to him. The Ayn Rand Archives acquired his library of 200 reel-to-reel tapes (transcribed to CD by Ken MacKenzie) several years ago.

Jim wrote thousands of pages of notes on psychology and philosophy, but the only published writings of his that I'm aware of are:

"Recurrence in Numerical Analysis," Byte, vol. 6, no. 4, April 1981, pp. 20-30

and "Calculators as Recreation," 65 Notes, July/August 1977, Volume 4, Number 6, Page 25, viewable at http://www.hpcalc.org/hp48/docs/columns/davidson.html )

[A N Other 0]

For those unfortunate people who never established a good working relationship with the world, the world is a metaphysical threat. As a result, the metaphysics of disaster seems familiar and important to them and they respond to such stories with a big "Yes!" on a sense of life level. A story about finding a way out of this horrible anxiety appeals to the only hope that keeps them going.

Are you sure that is the only possible explanation psychologically - both for writer and reader?

No way did I intend to imply that. This only applies to SOME people. There are many other reasons, including much more positive ones, that may account for why a given person likes a particular story. The only way to really find out is to ask what the story means to him

A "sense of life response" makes sense. I read Rebirth in about the sixth grade and got and kept a copy for good. For many years I kept copies of the first and last pages in my planner. At some levels it is a story of ultimate fulfillment comming from without and I acn see how it could be constryed as collectivist in some ways. I don't know if Wyndham was political to any gret extent ala Wells, as an example. But it is a life affirming story that reaches that sense of life level.

[A N Other 0]

I re-read "Rebirth" by John Wyndham last night for the first time in many years. It is more interesting than I remembered. Unlike several other of his stories, it offers a fairly explicit discussion of the human condition near the end, with a very interesting take on the nature of society and human development. All big scale stuff, as Sci fi writers often produce. But at the same time it's a great story and a good read. I recommend it and would be pleased to see a discussion devoted to it.