The Seven Basic Plots - Christopher Booker [25]
Science fiction
Just when Ian Fleming was publishing his first Bond novels, some of his British contemporaries were producing particularly striking examples of that type of story which in the past century has revived the imagery of archetypal monsters more grotesquely inhuman than anything seen in storytelling since the Dark Ages and the myths of ancient Greece. Since H. G. Wells had written his account of the invasion of Earth by leathery-skinned, tentacled Martians in The War of the Worlds at the end of the nineteenth century, science fiction writers had not come up with many repeat versions on this theme, apart from the celebrated episode in 1938 when the young Orson Welles first sprang to fame by broadcasting an Americanised adaptation of Wells's novel on radio, so vividly presented as a 'live news event' that it provoked a wave of panic among listeners who thought it was actually happening. In the early 1950s, however, as the world awaited the imminent arrival of the space age, two genres of science fiction story swept conspicuously into fashion: the first, following Wells, centred on deadly invasions of the earth by monsters from outer space; the other featuring some worldthreatening catastrophe unleashed by mankind's own growing technological ability to interfere with nature.
A well-known example of this second genre was John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids (1951), which began with a combination of two human experiments going disastrously wrong. A spectacular light show in the heavens turns out to be the unleashing of a secret weapon which renders the vast majority of the human race blind. This suspiciously coincides with the breaking loose of large numbers of triffids, genetically-engineered carnivorous plants which have a malevolent intelligence, the ability to move about and a deadly whiplash sting with which they can catch human beings as their prey.
The story begins in London, centred on a handful of survivors, including the hero and heroine, who have for various reasons retained their sight. They eventually manage to escape the city, where most of the population are helplessly falling victim to roaming bands of triffids. The `frustration stage' begins when hero and heroine are separated, and much of the action is taken up with his quest to track her down, as he picks his hazardous way across the triffid-infested countryside of southern England. They are finally reunited in Sussex, where a determined band of survivors have holed up in a fortified farmhouse behind an electrified fence. The `final ordeal' begins when an ever-growing mass of triffids lays siege to the farm, finally finding a way to break through the fence. But in the nick of time the survivors make their `miraculous escape, to join others in the Isle of Wight. This has been established as a triffid-free sanctuary, from where humanity's counterattack is to be launched to liberate the mainland from the monsters who have taken it over.
In his next book The Kraken Wakes (1953), Wyndham switched to the other genre, where the deadly threat to human survival is posed by a monstrous invasion from outer space. As in The Day of the Triffids, the story's power comes from the way the normality of everyday life is suddenly disturbed by the appearance of mysterious phenomena, the sinister nature of which is not initially clear. The action then unfolds through the familiar stages:
1. Anticipation Stage: Curiosity is aroused by reports from various parts of the world of `mysterious fireballs' seen at sea.
2. Dream Stage: Rather more serious incidents take place, such as the unexplained sinkings of various large ships, and the discoloration of ocean currents, indicating some vast submarine activity in `the Deeps'. But the real nature of the menace is not yet clearly in view, and it still seems too remote and mysterious to justify real alarm.
3. Frustration