From the Bookshelf of Apocalypse Whenever…

The Day of the Triffids

John Wyndham

Start date: May 1, 2011

Finish date: May 31, 2011

Discussion: AW BOOK CLUB (spoilers)

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AW BOOK CLUB (spoilers)

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What Members Thought

May 23, 2011 Gertie rated it liked it

(3.5 stars, really, since I generally prefer newer books.)

I enjoyed this book - although I made the mistake of finding and reading a free online version of it, which was riddled with errors (most of which appeared to be due to poor OCR scanning). If you are interested in this story, get if from the library if available, or purchase it.

We read this book as a selection for the Apocalypse Whenever Goodreads group. Overall the reaction was positive; despite being a 60+ year old book, it was written ...more

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Aug 05, 2008 🥀 Rose 🥀 rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, dystopian-speculative-fiction

A sci-fi classic that I watched as a child growing up and was interested in reading.

It's about the end of the world as we know it. A bright green light is shining in the sky one evening and everyone runs to see it's beauty. Little did anyone realize, it would be the last thing they would ever see. The next morning the world literally wakes up blinded. Our main character, Bill Marsen, was in the hospital with his eyes behind bandages so he was not affected. As he seeks out this new world for sur ...more

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Jul 03, 2009 Zach rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, post-apocalyptic

You know, the triffids don't really play much of a role for most of this book-it really should have been called BLINDNESS (sorry, saramago).

That said, aside from the absolutely atrocious approach to gender (yeah, yeah, 1951, I know), this was an enjoyable little book, with an oddly optimistic atmosphere for a novel of the apocalypse. ...more

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Jul 06, 2011 Schnaucl rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, july, library, post-apocalyptic, read_2011

It's interesting to see how many of the post-apocalyptic tropes remain basically the same after 60 years. The cities are thought to be death traps because there won't be enough food and eventually the bodies will pose serious health risks. There are concerns that people have become so specialized that almost no one knows how to produce food or clothing. There's concern that a military weapon might get out of control and cause unintended problems. Although Edmund Morris says Wyndham's take on wom It's interesting to see how many of the post-apocalyptic tropes remain basically the same after 60 years. The cities are thought to be death traps because there won't be enough food and eventually the bodies will pose serious health risks. There are concerns that people have become so specialized that almost no one knows how to produce food or clothing. There's concern that a military weapon might get out of control and cause unintended problems. Although Edmund Morris says Wyndham's take on women is dated I didn't really feel that way. Yes, the women are wearing dresses rather than pants, but the idea that in a post-apocalyptic society men will do the hard labor and women will be baby factories and take care of the domestic tasks is still pretty prevalent in today's fiction. Even in Battlestar Galactica women are forbidden from having abortions (although there's no expectation that women have to have children and women were certainly doing the same work as the men). There was certainly some paternalism, particularly when it came to sighted women being better off with a blind man than alone but I wouldn't be surprised (appalled, but not surprised) to see a similar sentiment in contemporary fiction.

I was a little uncomfortable at how the blind were portrayed as nearly helpless but a newly blind person would probably react that way. There is one blind person who was blind before the meteor shower who appeared to be confident and capable. But there's no indication as to how or whether he will survive.

One of the things that I liked about this book was that it was more cerebral than typical post-apocalyptic fiction. It wasn't just the literary quotes (which reminded me of classical literature) but the discussion of how social mores must change in order to assure survival and what it takes to have a thinking class.

The part about the thinking class has really stayed with me, though it's not the first time I've heard the idea expressed. Is that why there's been such a strong anti-intellectual movement in America over the last decade +? Is it because the thinking class is "sponging off the working class?" Of course, the political leaders of that movement aren't producing goods and services either.

The Triffids are an interesting concept but they never felt like they were as much of a threat as the mass blindness. They're tall enough that they should be relatively easy to spot. They're dangerous on an individual level, but for a sighted person they can be dealt with. They're like zombies in that their primary danger comes from large groups. But unlike zombies not every sting is fatal. It may be that part of the reason they felt less dangerous was because the story starts with Bill being stung by a triffid but surviving. Early on he discloses that he's been stung multiple times and survived. ...more

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Jul 23, 2011 Erin rated it really liked it

Shelves: post-apocalypse-dystopia

Been meaning to read this post-apocalyptic classic for years, and found it for 99 cents on Kindle for iPhone.

Hard to believe that this was originally published in 1951 because it holds up extremely well. A tad more hopeful than the typical post-apocalypse books I love. And I NEVER would have guessed that triffids are what they are, or came from where they did. Liked it a LOT.

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Jan 12, 2014 Rick Muir rated it liked it

At one point, I had to go back 10 pages to see if I might have missed something important that led to a new direction - a pointless direction. I gave it 3 stars because it was written in 1951 and was a precursor to better apocalyptic novels such as "Earth Abides". ...more

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