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A review by beaconatnight
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
4.0
'The Day of the Triffids' introduces a post-apocalyptic setting without much of an apocalypse coming beforehand. It is rather the result of different factors coming together. In the beginning there is some unpredicted spectacle in the sky. While certainly beautiful, like an event you should regret missing, a few days later the witnesses have to realize that its sight turned them blind. As most people around the globe saw it, this leaves a world of the blind.
Prior to this event, biological research domesticated a plant whose oil is quite valuable and which is resistant enough to be cultivated pretty much anywhere. These plants are the eponymous triffids. Not long and people start growing the plant pretty much anywhere, including private gardens and backyards. The people soon realize that it's a strange plant indeed, when it starts moving and the individuals also seem to communicate via some sort of drumming. More worrying, though, is the fact that this plant is armed with poisonous sting, something it uses in most effective ways. Finally, these things seem to be able to hear and learn! Nasty buggers, this.
This probably wouldn't have been much of a problem if people hadn't lost their sight. But now this really becomes a bit of a problem. The pandemic that soon infested the bigger cities certainly adds to the misery. Actually, it seems like the world order broke down pretty much immediately. Luckily, there are a few people that for various reasons hadn't seen what was going on in the sky, so they are still able to see. Among them is our protagonist and narrator Bill Masen.
Ironically, a confrontation with the triffids left Bill temporarily blind, so that he couldn't see when the event in the sky occurred. A couple of days later he wakes up in a hospital, and while he has regained his sight he walks around the London-area having a hard time finding anyone else who is able to see. It will be clear soon that what is left of humankind (at least in England) are small groups splattered here and there.
I think the overall theme of the story is how a situation like that would throw as back into more primitive forms of living, and that there is a good chance that it would be self-inflicted. Honestly, I thought the many mono- and dialogues on how to rebuild society after a catastrophe like this were quite exciting. How in some way the knowledge is still there, but there are not enough people there who are actually able to apply it, since they are not able to see, they don't have the means to apply it, or (for most people) who don't even have it in their heads. In fact, knowing that nature will reclaim even more of what is left of civilization, primitivization (the reversal of modernization) will continue to advance before we find our feet again.
There was also a strong motif of moral relativism. There were people in the story championing the idea that the principles that so far guided our lives are no longer applicable in the new situation, making it necessary to find a new moral footing. Interestingly, the book seems to make a case that in a setting like this only religious radicals seem to be able to uphold an ideal of absolute principles. These ideas are particularly interesting in the ethical decisions our hero finds himself confronted with: there seems to be little chance of survival if the people who are still able to see are taking care of all the blind; in some way it seems to be imperative to increase mankind's chances by... well, by looking after yourself. For many people (who were educated in the old world) this obviously won't be easy: it seems to take a strong character to leave other people to die, and confronted with this Bill isn't able to do what might be "the right thing to do".
The book reads a bit old-fashioned at times (comparable maybe to 'The War of the Worlds'), and I didn't think the conflict of mankind against the triffids, or of men against men, was particularly exciting. But there are so many strong themes that to me this really is among the true classics of the genre.
Rating: 3.5/5
Prior to this event, biological research domesticated a plant whose oil is quite valuable and which is resistant enough to be cultivated pretty much anywhere. These plants are the eponymous triffids. Not long and people start growing the plant pretty much anywhere, including private gardens and backyards. The people soon realize that it's a strange plant indeed, when it starts moving and the individuals also seem to communicate via some sort of drumming. More worrying, though, is the fact that this plant is armed with poisonous sting, something it uses in most effective ways. Finally, these things seem to be able to hear and learn! Nasty buggers, this.
This probably wouldn't have been much of a problem if people hadn't lost their sight. But now this really becomes a bit of a problem. The pandemic that soon infested the bigger cities certainly adds to the misery. Actually, it seems like the world order broke down pretty much immediately. Luckily, there are a few people that for various reasons hadn't seen what was going on in the sky, so they are still able to see. Among them is our protagonist and narrator Bill Masen.
Ironically, a confrontation with the triffids left Bill temporarily blind, so that he couldn't see when the event in the sky occurred. A couple of days later he wakes up in a hospital, and while he has regained his sight he walks around the London-area having a hard time finding anyone else who is able to see. It will be clear soon that what is left of humankind (at least in England) are small groups splattered here and there.
I think the overall theme of the story is how a situation like that would throw as back into more primitive forms of living, and that there is a good chance that it would be self-inflicted. Honestly, I thought the many mono- and dialogues on how to rebuild society after a catastrophe like this were quite exciting. How in some way the knowledge is still there, but there are not enough people there who are actually able to apply it, since they are not able to see, they don't have the means to apply it, or (for most people) who don't even have it in their heads. In fact, knowing that nature will reclaim even more of what is left of civilization, primitivization (the reversal of modernization) will continue to advance before we find our feet again.
There was also a strong motif of moral relativism. There were people in the story championing the idea that the principles that so far guided our lives are no longer applicable in the new situation, making it necessary to find a new moral footing. Interestingly, the book seems to make a case that in a setting like this only religious radicals seem to be able to uphold an ideal of absolute principles. These ideas are particularly interesting in the ethical decisions our hero finds himself confronted with: there seems to be little chance of survival if the people who are still able to see are taking care of all the blind; in some way it seems to be imperative to increase mankind's chances by... well, by looking after yourself. For many people (who were educated in the old world) this obviously won't be easy: it seems to take a strong character to leave other people to die, and confronted with this Bill isn't able to do what might be "the right thing to do".
The book reads a bit old-fashioned at times (comparable maybe to 'The War of the Worlds'), and I didn't think the conflict of mankind against the triffids, or of men against men, was particularly exciting. But there are so many strong themes that to me this really is among the true classics of the genre.
Rating: 3.5/5