DISASTER

   Cataclysm, natural or manmade, is one of the most popular themes in sf. Tales of future WAR and INVASION belong here, but for convenience are dealt with under those separate headings. Stories which emphasize the nature of the societies which spring up after a great disaster are dealt with under HOLOCAUST AND AFTER.Central to the disaster tradition are stories of vast biospheric changes which drastically affect human life. Tales of universal floods are at least as old as The Epic of Gilgamesh (c2000BC), and other motifs, such as plagues, fires and famines, have an obvious source in the Bible, particularly the Revelation of St John (also known as the Apocalypse, whence the adjective "apocalyptic", frequently applied to this form of sf). Disaster stories appeal because they represent everything we most fear and at the same time, perhaps, secretly desire: a depopulated world, escape from the constraints of a highly organized industrial society, the opportunity to prove one's ability as a survivor. Perhaps because they represent a punishment meted out for the hubris of technological Man, such stories have not been particularly popular in the US sf magazines. The ideology of disaster stories runs counter to the optimistic and expansionist attitudes associated with ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION and its long-time editor, John W. CAMPBELL Jr. In fact, most examples of the type are from the UK, and it has been suggested that this may be associated with the UK's decline as a world power throughout the 20th century.However, some of the earliest examples were written at the height of Empire. H.G. WELLS's "The Star" (1897) and M.P. SHIEL's The Purple Cloud (1901; rev 1929) are both tales of cataclysm. In the first a runaway star collides with the Earth, and in the second a mysterious gas kills all but two people, a new Adam and Eve. Arthur Conan DOYLE's The Poison Belt (1913) also features a gas, but in this case it turns out not to be fatal. After WWI the disaster theme became more common. J.J. CONNINGTON's Nordenholt's Million (1923) portrays the social chaos following an agricultural blight caused by a mutation in nitrogen-fixing bacteria. S. Fowler WRIGHT's Deluge (1928) and Dawn (1929) depict the destruction of civilization by earthquakes and floods, and subsequent attempts to build a new society. John COLLIER's Tom's A-Cold (1933; vt Full Circle US) and Alun LLEWELLYN's The Strange Invaders (1934) both deal effectively with survival in a post-holocaust world. R.C. SHERRIFF's The Hopkins Manuscript (1939; rev vt The Cataclysm) depicts the Moon's collision with Earth, and is a SATIRE on UK complacency in the face of impending war.After WWII there was a resurgence, to an even higher level, of the disaster theme. John WYNDHAM's The Day of the Triffids (1951) is an enjoyable tale of a world in which all but a few have been blinded and everyone is menaced by huge, poisonous plants. His The Kraken Wakes (1953; vt Out of the Deeps US) is also a successful blend of invasion and catastrophe themes: sea-dwelling aliens melt Earth's icecaps and cause the inundation of the civilized world. The success of Wyndham's novels inspired many emulators. The most distinguished was John CHRISTOPHER, whose The Death of Grass (1956; vt No Blade of Grass US) is a fine study of the breakdown of civilized values when a virus kills all crops. The same author's The World in Winter (1962; vt The Long Winter US) and A Wrinkle in the Skin (1965; vt The Ragged Edge US) are also above-average works: one concerns a new Ice Age and the other features earthquakes. Many other UK novelists have dealt in similar catastrophes; e.g., J.T. MCINTOSH in One in Three Hundred (1954), John BOLAND in White August (1955), Charles Eric MAINE in The Tide Went Out (1958; rev vt Thirst! 1977), Edmund COOPER in All Fools' Day (1966), D.F. JONES in Don't Pick the Flowers (1971; vt Denver is Missing US) and Kit PEDLER and Gerry DAVIS in Mutant 59: The Plastic Eaters * (1972). Keith ROBERTS's The Furies (1966), D.G. COMPTON's The Silent Multitude (1966) and Richard COWPER's The Twilight of Briareus (1974) combine disaster and invasion themes in the Wyndham manner. Fred and Geoffrey HOYLE's The Inferno (1973) deals with humanity's attempts to survive devastating cosmic radiation.There have been several more personal uses of the disaster theme by UK writers - studies in character and psychology rather than adventure stories. An early example was John BOWEN's After the Rain (1958). More impressive are J.G. BALLARD's examinations of human "collaborations" with natural disasters: The Drowned World (1962 US), The Burning World (1964 US; rev vt The Drought UK) and THE CRYSTAL WORLD (1966), which concern the psychological attractions of flooded, arid and crystalline landscapes. Brian W. ALDISS's Greybeard (1964) is a well written tale of universal sterility and the impending death of the human race. Several younger UK writers, influenced by Aldiss and Ballard, have produced variations on the cataclysmic theme: Charles PLATT in "The Disaster Story" (1966) and The City Dwellers (1970), M. John HARRISON in The Committed Men (1971) and Christopher PRIEST in Fugue for a Darkening Island (1972). John BRUNNER has made strong admonitory use of the form in his novel of ecological catastrophe, The Sheep Look Up (1972). Angela CARTER's HEROES AND VILLAINS (1969) is a powerful love story set in the aftermath of a disaster, and Doris LESSING's Memoirs of a Survivor (1974) is about a passive woman who observes society's collapse from her window.US disaster novels are fewer in number. Oddly enough, where UK writers reveal an obsession with the weather, US writers show a strong concern for disease. Disastrous epidemics feature in Jack LONDON's The Scarlet Plague (1915), George R. STEWART's EARTH ABIDES (1949), Richard MATHESON's I Am Legend (1954), Algis BUDRYS's Some Will Not Die (1961), Michael CRICHTON's The Andromeda Strain (1969), Chelsea Quinn YARBRO's Time of the Fourth Horseman (1976) and Stephen KING's THE STAND (cut from manuscript 1978; text largely restored and rev 1990). Of these, Stewart's EARTH ABIDES is the outstanding work, containing much sensitive description of landscape and of the moral problems of the survivors. Other notable disaster stories by US writers include The Second Deluge (1912) by Garrett P. SERVISS, Darkness and Dawn (1914) by George Allan ENGLAND, When Worlds Collide (1933) by Edwin BALMER and Philip WYLIE, Greener Than You Think (1947) by Ward MOORE, "The XI Effect" (1950) by Philip LATHAM, Cat's Cradle (1963) by Kurt VONNEGUT Jr, The Genocides (1965) by Thomas M. DISCH, "And Us, Too, I Guess" (1973) by George Alec EFFINGER, The Swarm (1974) by Arthur HERZOG and Lucifer's Hammer (1977) by Larry NIVEN and Jerry POURNELLE.Japanese sf seems to have a leaning towards disaster themes. Two notable examples are Kobo A BE's Dai-Yon Kampyoki (1959; trans as Inter Ice Age 4 1970 US) and Sakyo KOMATSU's Nippon Chinbotsu (1973; cut trans as Japan Sinks 1976). The latter was filmed in 1973 as NIPPON CHINBOTSU (vt The Submersion of Japan; vt Tidal Wave).Disaster is a popular motif in sf in the CINEMA and on TELEVISION. Examples are the US film EARTHQUAKE (1975) and the UK tv series SURVIVORS (1975-7). The disaster-movie boom in the US took place in the 1960s and 1970s, and featured disasters both domestic and sciencefictional; a producer associated with films of both kinds was Irwin ALLEN. Another form is the MONSTER MOVIE (which see).Curiously enough, although the 1980s were generally regarded as a pessimistic decade, the disaster theme in sf seemed largely played out, with only occasional books of any consequence. Among them were The Birth of the People's Republic of Antarctica (1983) by John Calvin BATCHELOR, which is an ironic account of civilization's collapse, James MORROW's THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS (1986), which puts survivors of a global holocaust on trial, Greg BEAR's The Forge of God (1987), which has Earth destroyed by alien machines, and David BRIN's Earth (1990), which has Earth in danger of being swallowed up by a small BLACK HOLE at its core.

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   See also: COSY CATASTROPHE; DYSTOPIAS; ECOLOGY; END OF THE WORLD; ENTROPY; MUTANTS; NUCLEAR POWER; OPTIMISM AND PESSIMISM.