Dystopia
Thinking conceptually
Activity 1: John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids 1951
John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Benyon Harris was born in 1903. The son of a barrister, Wyndham
tried several careers in advertising, commercial art and farming, before settling on writing in the
late 1930s. He served in the Royal Signal Corps in the Second World War: like Orwell, his
experiences in the war profoundly affected his writing. Wyndham saw action on the 1944 D Day
Allied landings in Normandy: the carnage led directly to his creation of a series of worlds wrecked
by alien or technological forces. In The Chrysalids (1955), these are the apocalyptic havoc wrought
by nuclear weapons; a fear that would also influence Terry Nation and David Whitaker (see Doctor
Who, below). In The Day of the Triffids, the world’s population is blinded by a series of comets
which burn out the optic nerve. The novel’s hero, Bill Masen, speculates that the comet wasn't a
comet at all, but a super weapon in orbit that is set off deliberately, or by accident. As whoever
detonated it is presumably dead and certainly cannot be contacted, Bill is unable to state the
definitive truth: nor can Wyndham, limited by his first person narrator.
As with Wells’s novels, Wyndham’s novels were immediately classified as science fiction upon
publication. Like Wells, Wyndham disliked the term (was this because science fiction was
considered childish?). He preferred to call his novel's “logical fantasies”, thus exemplifying science
fiction’s extrapolation of known facts to create an imaginary future world. Wyndham's is one in
which the sighted do not always help the blind, and in one community, actively enslaves them. The
novel concerns the attempt to start civilisation again. Similarly, The Children of Men has the
dystopian theme of restarting and adjusting civilisation after a cataclysm.
The triffids of the novel’s title are a walking, carnivorous plant, farmed by human beings for the
superb quality of their oil. Wyndham here strikes an ecological theme: triffids have poisonous
stings that can blind and kill, but greedy human beings farm them anyway to make a profit. When
their farmers are blinded, the triffids break free and feed on the unfortunate human beings as a
Venus fly trap feeds on flies.
Wyndham wisely keeps the fantastical triffids in the background of the novel, concentrating instead
on the breakdown of civilisation now that almost everyone is blind. P.D. James employs a similar
catastrophe to end civilisation in The Children of Men, but plumps for infertility rather than
blindness. The American film of The Day of the Triffids (1962) brings the triffids to the foreground
and turns up the horror elements of the novel. The BBC television serial (1981) kept the triffids in
the background because they could only afford three of them.
Bill Masen is a triffid farmer and biologist. Stung by a triffid before the action of the novel begins, he
is in hospital, blindfolded in an attempt to save his sight. He thus avoids the burning light of the
comet. When he removes his bandages, he finds he is one of the few people who can see.
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In this extract from chapter one, Bill encounters a blind pub landlord and Wyndham strikes the
prevailing tone of understated horror that made his novels such a success.
[extract p. 21 – 24, Penguin edition reprinted 1974 ISBN 0140009930; from “But one thing I was
perfectly certain about…” To the end of chapter one.]
Read and annotate the extract carefully, then answer the questions which follow. Quote
from the extract to support your ideas.
Activity 1: Questions
1.
The pub is called “The Alamein Arms” after the British army's victory over Rommel’s German
army in 1942: the first decisive Allied victory of the Second World War, separated by only
nine years from the first publication of the novel. General (later Viscount) Montgomery
commanded British forces after D-Day and was a British hero in the 1950s (and the Monty
Python team used his name for the first word of their show’s title.
Why does Wyndham use this name for his pub? In what ways is it ironic? What is the
significance of Viscount Montgomery’s likeness on the pub sign being a poor
(“reputed”) likeness?
2.
Wyndham has been criticised for his conservative portrayals of social class in his novels.
How does he portray the social class of a) Bill and b) the landlord in this extract? Look at the
speech style and narrative voice.
3.
Wyndham varies the pessimistic tone in his novels with humour. Where is the humour in the
passage? How effective is it, and what is its function for the reader?
4.
A further theme of the novel is masculinity. How is this theme demonstrated in the passage?
5.
Look at the structure of the extract: Wyndham navigates between ordinary incident, humour
and understated horror. Describe how the passage is structured towards the landlord’s
intention to kill himself.
6.
Wyndham’s prose has been described as “understated”, to enhance the horror further. In this
sense, he writes like Orwell. Do you agree that his prose in the passage is “understated”?
Find examples and consider their effectiveness.
7.
This incident comes at the end of the first chapter. How does Wyndham encourage the
reader to read on? Would you yourself want to carry on reading?
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