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} }) </script> </div> </form> </fieldset> <article class="entryArticle content STeditorial"> <header class="entryHeader icon-theme"> <h1 class="entryTitle">Disaster </h1> </header><p class='tagLine'>Entry updated 26 September 2022. Tagged: Theme.</p><div class="browsingBtns"> <span> <input class="button PNI previous" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/next.php?id=p&entry=disaster'" value="Prev" /> </span> <span> <input class="button PNI next" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/next.php?&entry=disaster'" value="Next" /> </span> <span> <input class="button PNI incoming" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/incoming.php?entry=disaster'" value="About This Entry" title="What links to the entry; contributor initials explained; how to cite; other information" /> </span> </div> <p>Cataclysm, natural or manmade, is one of the most popular themes in sf. Tales of <a href="/entry/future_war">Future War</a> and <a href="/entry/invasion">Invasion</a> theoretically belong here, but for convenience are dealt with under those separate headings; see also <a href="/entry/climate_change">Climate Change</a>, <a href="/entry/end_of_the_world">End of the World</a>, <a href="/entry/holocaust">Holocaust</a>, <a href="/entry/world_war_one">World War One</a>, <a href="/entry/world_war_two">World War Two</a> and <a href="/entry/world_war_three">World War Three</a>. Stories which emphasize the nature of the societies which spring up after a great disaster are dealt with under <a href="/entry/post-holocaust">Post-Holocaust</a> and – when the disaster is long past – <a href="/entry/ruined_earth">Ruined Earth</a>.</p> <p>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 <i>The Epic of Gilgamesh</i> (<i>circa</i> 2000 BCE), 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 ran counter to the optimistic and expansionist attitudes associated with <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding Science-Fiction</a> and its long-time editor, John W <a href="/entry/campbell_john_w_jr">Campbell</a> 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 twentieth century.</p> <p>However, some of the earliest examples were written at the height of Empire. H G <a href="/entry/wells_h_g">Wells</a>'s "The Star" (December 1897 <i>The Graphic</i>) and M P <a href="/entry/shiel_m_p">Shiel</a>'s <i>The Purple Cloud</i> (<b>1901</b>; rev <b>1929</b>) 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 <a href="/entry/doyle_arthur_conan">Doyle</a>'s <i>The Poison Belt</i> (<b>1913</b>) also features a gas-like effect (described as a contamination of the luminiferous ether rather than of the actual atmosphere), but in this case it turns out not to be fatal. After World War One the disaster theme became more common. J J <a href="/entry/connington_j_j">Connington</a>'s <i>Nordenholt's Million</i> (<b>1923</b>) portrays the social chaos following an agricultural blight caused by a mutation in nitrogen-fixing bacteria. S Fowler <a href="/entry/wright_s_fowler">Wright</a>'s <i>Deluge</i> (<b>1928</b>) and <i>Dawn</i> (<b>1929</b>) depict the destruction of civilization by earthquakes and floods, and subsequent attempts to build a new society. John <a href="/entry/collier_john">Collier</a>'s <i>Tom's A-Cold</i> (<b>1933</b>; vt <i>Full Circle</i>) and Alun <a href="/entry/llewellyn_alun">Llewellyn</a>'s <i>The Strange Invaders</i> (<b>1934</b>) both deal effectively with survival in a <a href="/entry/post-holocaust">Post-Holocaust</a> world. R C <a href="/entry/sherriff_r_c">Sherriff</a>'s <i>The Hopkins Manuscript</i> (<b>1939</b>; rev vt <i>The Cataclysm</i>) depicts the Moon's collision with Earth, and is a <a href="/entry/satire">Satire</a> on UK complacency in the face of impending war.</p> <p>After <a href="/entry/world_war_two">World War Two</a> there was a resurgence, to an even higher level, of the disaster theme. John <a href="/entry/wyndham_john">Wyndham</a>'s <i>The Day of the Triffids</i> (6 January-3 February 1951 <a href="/entry/colliers_weekly">Collier's Weekly</a>; as "Revolt of the Triffids"; <b>1951</b>; rev <b>1951</b>; orig version vt <i>Revolt of the Triffids</i> <b>1952</b>) is an enjoyable tale of a world in which all but a few have been blinded and everyone is menaced by huge, poisonous plants, the titular <a href="/entry/triffid">Triffids</a>. His <i>The Kraken Wakes</i> (<b>1953</b>; cut vt <i>Out of the Deeps</i>) 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 <a href="/entry/christopher_john">Christopher</a>, whose <i>The Death of Grass</i> (<b>1956</b>; vt <i>No Blade of Grass</i>) is a fine study of the breakdown of civilized values when a virus kills all crops. The same author's <i>The World in Winter</i> (<b>1962</b>; vt <i>The Long Winter</i>) and <i>A Wrinkle in the Skin</i> (<b>1965</b>; vt <i>The Ragged Edge</i>) 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 <a href="/entry/mcintosh_j_t">McIntosh</a> in <i>One in Three Hundred</i> (February 1953 <a href="/entry/fsf">F&SF</a>; exp <b>1954</b>), John <a href="/entry/boland_john">Boland</a> in <i>White August</i> (<b>1955</b>), Charles Eric <a href="/entry/maine_charles_eric">Maine</a> in <i>The Tide Went Out</i> (<b>1958</b>; rev vt <i>Thirst!</i> <b>1977</b>), Edmund <a href="/entry/cooper_edmund">Cooper</a> in <i>All Fools' Day</i> (<b>1966</b>), D F <a href="/entry/jones_d_f">Jones</a> in <i>Don't Pick the Flowers</i> (<b>1971</b>; vt <i>Denver Is Missing</i>) and Kit <a href="/entry/pedler_kit">Pedler</a> and Gerry <a href="/entry/davis_gerry">Davis</a> in <i>Mutant 59: The Plastic-Eater</i> (<b>1972</b>). Keith <a href="/entry/roberts_keith">Roberts</a>'s <i>The Furies</i> (<b>1966</b>), D G <a href="/entry/compton_d_g">Compton</a>'s <i>The Silent Multitude</i> (<b>1966</b>) and Richard <a href="/entry/cowper_richard">Cowper</a>'s <i>The Twilight of Briareus</i> (<b>1974</b>) combine disaster and invasion themes in the Wyndham manner. Fred and Geoffrey <a href="/entry/hoyle_fred">Hoyle</a>'s <i>The Inferno</i> (<b>1973</b>) deals with humanity's attempts to survive devastating cosmic radiation.</p> <p>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 <a href="/entry/bowen_john">Bowen</a>'s <i>After the Rain</i> (<b>1958</b>). More impressive are J G <a href="/entry/ballard_j_g">Ballard</a>'s examinations of human "collaborations" with natural disasters: <i>The Drowned World</i> (January 1962 <a href="/entry/science_fiction_adventures">Science Fiction Adventures</a>; exp <b>1962</b>), <i>The Burning World</i> (<b>1964</b>; rev vt <i>The Drought</i>) and <i>The Crystal World</i> (<b>1966</b>), which concern the psychological attractions of flooded, arid and crystalline landscapes. Brian W <a href="/entry/aldiss_brian_w">Aldiss</a>'s <i>Greybeard</i> (<b>1964</b>) 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 <a href="/entry/platt_charles">Platt</a> in "The Disaster Story" (March 1966 <a href="/entry/new_worlds">New Worlds</a>) and <i>The City Dwellers</i> (<b>1970</b>), M John <a href="/entry/harrison_m_john">Harrison</a> in <i>The Committed Men</i> (<b>1971</b>) and Christopher <a href="/entry/priest_christopher">Priest</a> in <i>Fugue for a Darkening Island</i> (<b>1972</b>). John <a href="/entry/brunner_john">Brunner</a> made strong admonitory use of the form in his novel of ecological catastrophe, <i>The Sheep Look Up</i> (<b>1972</b>). Angela <a href="/entry/carter_angela">Carter</a>'s <i>Heroes and Villains</i> (<b>1969</b>) is a powerful love story set in the aftermath of a disaster, and Doris <a href="/entry/lessing_doris">Lessing</a>'s <i>Memoirs of a Survivor</i> (<b>1974</b>) is about a passive woman who observes society's collapse from her window.</p> <p>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 <a href="/entry/pandemic">Pandemics</a> feature in Jack <a href="/entry/london_jack">London</a>'s <i>The Scarlet Plague</i> (<b>1915</b>), George R <a href="/entry/stewart_george_r">Stewart</a>'s <i>Earth Abides</i> (<b>1949</b>), Richard <a href="/entry/matheson_richard">Matheson</a>'s <i>I Am Legend</i> (<b>1954</b>), Algis <a href="/entry/budrys_algis">Budrys</a>'s <i>Some Will Not Die</i> (<b>1961</b>), Michael <a href="/entry/crichton_michael">Crichton</a>'s <i>The Andromeda Strain</i> (<b>1969</b>), Chelsea Quinn <a href="/entry/yarbro_chelsea_quinn">Yarbro</a>'s <i>Time of the Fourth Horseman</i> (<b>1976</b>), Stephen <a href="/entry/king_stephen">King</a>'s <i>The Stand</i> (cut from manuscript <b>1978</b>; text largely restored and rev <b>1990</b>), Frank <a href="/entry/herbert_frank">Herbert</a>'s <i>The White Plague</i> (<b>1982</b>), Greg <a href="/entry/bear_greg">Bear</a>'s <i>Blood Music</i> (June 1983 <a href="/entry/analog">Analog</a>; exp <b>1985</b>) – though here the biological immolation of the USA is ultimately argued as a blessing in disguise – and on into the new century with such works as Alex <a href="/entry/adams_alex">Adams</a>'s <i>White Horse</i> (<b>2012</b>). Of these, Stewart's <i>Earth Abides</i> perhaps the outstanding work, containing much sensitive description of landscape and of the moral problems of the survivors. A notable short-story treatment of the theme, with a man-made plague as in several of the above-cited novels, is James <a href="/entry/tiptree_james_jr">Tiptree</a> Jr's "The Last Flight of Doctor Ain" (March 1969 <a href="/entry/galaxy">Galaxy</a>; rev in <i>SF: Authors' Choice 4</i>, anth <b>1974</b>, ed Harry <a href="/entry/harrison_harry">Harrison</a>).</p> <p>Other notable disaster stories by US writers include <i>The Second Deluge</i> (<b>1912</b>) by Garrett P <a href="/entry/serviss_garrett_p">Serviss</a>, <i>Darkness and Dawn</i> (<b>1914</b>) by George Allan <a href="/entry/england_george_allan">England</a>, <i>When Worlds Collide</i> (September 1932-February 1933 <a href="/entry/blue_book_magazine_the">Blue Book</a>; <b>1933</b>) by Edwin <a href="/entry/balmer_edwin">Balmer</a> and Philip <a href="/entry/wylie_philip">Wylie</a>, <i>Greener Than You Think</i> (<b>1947</b>) by Ward <a href="/entry/moore_ward">Moore</a>, "The Xi Effect" (January 1950 <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding</a>) by Philip <a href="/entry/latham_philip">Latham</a>, <i>Cat's Cradle</i> (<b>1963</b>) by Kurt <a href="/entry/vonnegut_kurt_jr">Vonnegut</a> Jr, <i>The Genocides</i> (<b>1965</b>) by Thomas M <a href="/entry/disch_thomas_m">Disch</a>, "And Us, Too, I Guess" (in <i>Chains of the Sea</i>, anth <b>1973</b>, ed Robert <a href="/entry/silverberg_robert">Silverberg</a>) by George Alec <a href="/entry/effinger_george_alec">Effinger</a>, <i>The Swarm</i> (<b>1974</b>) by Arthur <a href="/entry/herzog_arthur">Herzog</a> and <i>Lucifer's Hammer</i> (<b>1977</b>) by Larry <a href="/entry/niven_larry">Niven</a> and Jerry <a href="/entry/pournelle_jerry">Pournelle</a>.</p> <p>Japanese sf seems to have a leaning towards disaster themes. Two notable examples are Kōbō <a href="/entry/abe_kobo">Abe</a>'s <i>Dai-Yon Kampyoki</i> (<b>1959</b>; trans as <i>Inter Ice Age 4</i> <b>1970</b>) and Sakyo <a href="/entry/komatsu_sakyo">Komatsu</a>'s <i>Nippon Chinbotsu</i> (<b>1973</b>; cut trans as <i>Japan Sinks</i> <b>1976</b>). The latter was filmed in 1973 as <a href="/entry/nippon_chinbotsu">Nippon Chinbotsu</a> (vt <i>The Submersion of Japan</i>; vt <i>Tidal Wave</i>).</p> <p>Disaster is a popular motif in sf in the <a href="/entry/cinema">Cinema</a> and on <a href="/entry/television">Television</a>. Examples are the US film <a href="/entry/earthquake">Earthquake</a> (<i>1975</i>) directed by Mark Robson and the UK television series <a href="/entry/survivors">Survivors</a> (<i>1975-1977</i>). The original disaster-movie boom in the US took place in the 1960s and 1970s, and featured disasters both domestic and science-fictional; a producer associated with films of both kinds was Irwin <a href="/entry/allen_irwin">Allen</a>, whose productions include <i>The Swarm</i> (<i>1978</i>), whose eponymous menace consists of killer bees. Post-1960 examples range from Earth falling into the <a href="/entry/sun">Sun</a> in <i>The</i> <a href="/entry/day_the_earth_caught_fire_the">Day the Earth Caught Fire</a> (<i>1961</i>) directed by Val Guest to the <a href="/entry/asteroids">Asteroid</a> impact of the television miniseries <a href="/entry/asteroid_tv">Asteroid</a> (<i>1997</i>) and the only partially prevented <a href="/entry/comets">Comet</a> strike of <a href="/entry/deep_impact">Deep Impact</a> (<i>1998</i>) directed by Mimi Leder. Occasional disaster-themed films continue to appear in the twenty-first century, such as the almost comical overstatement of rapid <a href="/entry/climate_change">Climate Change</a> in <i>The</i> <a href="/entry/day_after_tomorrow_the">Day After Tomorrow</a> (<i>2004</i>) directed by Roland <a href="/entry/emmerich_roland">Emmerich</a>, the more personal/psychological handling of a coming planetary collision in <a href="/entry/melancholia">Melancholia</a> (<i>2011</i>) directed by Lars von Trier, and the harrowing depiction of escalating global <a href="/entry/pandemic">Pandemic</a> in <a href="/entry/contagion">Contagion</a> (<i>2011</i>) directed by Steven Soderbergh. Another durable cinema incarnation is the <a href="/entry/monster_movies">Monster Movie</a> (which see).</p> <p>Curiously enough, although the 1980s were generally regarded as a pessimistic decade, the disaster theme in sf seemed temporarily played out, with only occasional books of any consequence. Among them were <i>The Birth of the People's Republic of Antarctica</i> (<b>1983</b>) by John Calvin <a href="/entry/batchelor_john_calvin">Batchelor</a>, which is an ironic account of civilization's collapse; James <a href="/entry/morrow_james">Morrow</a>'s <i>This Is the Way the World Ends</i> (<b>1986</b>), which puts survivors of a <a href="/entry/world_war_three">World War Three</a> <a href="/entry/holocaust">Holocaust</a> on trial; Greg <a href="/entry/bear_greg">Bear</a>'s <i>The Forge of God</i> (<b>1987</b>), which has Earth destroyed by <a href="/entry/aliens">Alien</a> machines, and David <a href="/entry/brin_david">Brin</a>'s <i>Earth</i> (<b>1990</b>), which sees Earth in danger of being swallowed up by a small <a href="/entry/black_holes">Black Hole</a> at its core.</p> <p>Similarly exotic and far-fetched disaster scenarios from British authors appear in Stephen <a href="/entry/baxter_stephen">Baxter</a>'s <i>Moonseed</i> (<b>1998</b>), where the Earth's crust is devoured by alien <a href="/entry/nanotechnology">Nanotechnology</a>, releasing internal magma in increasingly cataclysmic volcanic eruptions as a preliminary to the total dissolution of the planet (see also <a href="/entry/grey_goo">Grey Goo</a>); Paul J <a href="/entry/mcauley_paul_j">McAuley</a>'s <i>The Secret of Life</i> (<b>2001</b>), with adapted microbes from <a href="/entry/mars">Mars</a> forming a vast Pacific bloom or slick whose growth threatens global meltdown of <a href="/entry/ecology">Ecology</a>; Adam <a href="/entry/roberts_adam">Roberts</a>'s <i>On</i> (<i>2001</i>), turning <a href="/entry/gravity">Gravity</a> sideways to make most of Earth's surface a vertiginous, precarious cliff, and <i>The Snow</i> (<b>2004</b>), in which a snowfall of unexplained and unfeasible vastness buries the world three miles deep; and Stephen <a href="/entry/baxter_stephen">Baxter</a>'s similarly impossible <i>Flood</i> (<b>2008</b>), drowning Earth first with rain and then in ever-rising waters from imagined subcrustal reservoirs.</p> <p>In the USA, Matthew <a href="/entry/mather_matthew">Mather</a>'s <i>Nomad</i> (<b>2015</b>) has the <a href="/entry/solar_system">Solar System</a> threatened by an approaching pair of mutually orbiting <a href="/entry/black_holes">Black Holes</a>; the same author's <i>Aeon Rising</i> (<b>2022</b>) features a supernova flash that rapidly overheats Earth's southern hemisphere.</p> <p>But the default mode of disaster for the twenty-first century, spreading even into works by <a href="/entry/mainstream_writers_of_sf">Mainstream Writers of SF</a> and such films as <i>The</i> <a href="/entry/day_after_tomorrow_the">Day After Tomorrow</a> (<i>2004</i>), is human-caused or human-exacerbated <a href="/entry/climate_change">Climate Change</a> (which see). [DP/PN/DRL]</p> <p><b>see also:</b> <a href="/entry/command_and_conquer">Command & Conquer</a>; <a href="/entry/cosy_catastrophe">Cosy Catastrophe</a>; <a href="/entry/dystopias">Dystopias</a>; <a href="/entry/end_of_time">End of Time</a>; <a href="/entry/entropy">Entropy</a>; <a href="/entry/mutants">Mutants</a>; <a href="/entry/nuclear_energy">Nuclear Energy</a>; <a href="/entry/optimism_and_pessimism">Optimism and Pessimism</a>.</p> <p><b>previous versions of this entry</b></p> <ul><li><a href='https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/disaster' target='_blank'>Internet Archive</a></li></ul><br /><br /></article></div> <div class="sideBarsWrapper"> <div class="sideBarsColsWrapper clearfix"> <div class="column sideBar12 clearfix"> <div class="columnForm"><aside id="blogFeed" class="widget"> <div class="content STeditorial clearfix"> <h2>Recently visited entries<span style="background:url(/images/thingSFE2.png) !important"></span></h2><ul style='width: 50%; float: left;'> </ul> <p align=center style="float:right; 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