Chaos Reading discussion

Discussion Starts 20 December - Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

From Wikipedia:
Influences
Wyndham frequently acknowledged the influence of H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds on The Day of the Triffids.
In regards to the triffids' creation, some editions of the novel make brief mention of the theories of the Soviet agronomist and would-be biologist Trofim Lysenko, eventually thoroughly debunked. "In the days when information was still exchanged [Russia] had reported some successes. Later, however, a cleavage of methods and views had caused biology there, under a man called Lysenko, to take a different course" (Chapter 2). Lysenkoism at the time of the novel's creation was still being defended by some prominent international Stalinists.



Themes
The novel contains many themes which are common in Wyndham's work: a depiction of the Soviet Union as an opaque, inscrutable menace is presented in Chapter 2, a central problem made worse by human greed and bickering, and a firm determination on the part of the author to not explicitly detail the origin of the threat faced by the protagonists. Other themes include the dissection of human nature from a range of standpoints, and male and female gender roles.
Wyndham's narrative also focuses on the pragmatic issues of self-sufficiency facing survivors of such a catastrophe. Simply living off of scavenged canned food from London shops is not a viable survival strategy on a scale of years. The enclaves that survivors set up in the countryside to attempt to rebuild civilization cannot simply use scavenged ploughs forever, but eventually need to develop the capacity to build their own.

Zombies!According to director Danny Boyle, it was the opening hospital sequence of The Day of the Triffids that inspired Alex Garland to write the screenplay for 28 Days Later.

Guess what? I just found my paperback copy of this among my hundred or so unpacked boxes! Squeeeee!

It's this Penguin Edition, which I have had for many years on my shelf. I remember having several copies that I had accumulated from secondhand book sales, and then getting rid of all but one. It turns out it was the one with the stylised Triffid on the cover - my favourite! I have been steadfastly refusing to buy the Kindle Edition because I wanted to read the old school Penguin copy, but when I picked it up tonight, I found the paper is really thin, and it's in quite a fragile state after all these years. Well, it WAS printed in 1954 after all. It even has a little sticker on the front informing me that the
"Price In Australia is 4/-". I don't even know what that stands for. Yep. It's too precious to read.

I've been wanting to read this for a while (I haven't read any Wyndham but have like 4 of his books on my TBR), but I don't know if I'll be able to get to it this month. We'll see!

Yeah, I'm not sure if I'll get there either. I'm going to give it a bash though. I skimmed a couple of pages the other night, and I'm worried the writing style is a little heavier going than I had hoped. But this is a good opportunity to read some Wyndham, as you say.

By the way - how AWESOME are all those book covers?

Hi Ruby
4/- means it it was 4 shillings ie 40 cents. I did this book in high school and still have my copy from then (circa 1968) by which time it was 70 cents. (will have to add it to my GR as it has a different cover too)
The first sci-fi I ever read and a terrific one to start with.

It is really good. I'm about 20% in, and I think it'll fly by a lot more quickly than I had thought at first.

Has anyone finished this yet? It's the 20th today, so discussion is open if people want to chat as they go!

I'm about a third of the way in, and liking it. I don't love the character's voice (a tad pretentious), but it's a good post-apocalyptic story so far.

I remember loving the tv series as a kid, and finding the triffids (particularly the sounds they made) terrifying! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HLGkg...

Okay, I'm just over halfway through, and something's bothering me. If you're less than halfway through, maybe don't read on, because this is a little bit of a spoiler..

There's Michael Beadley's group: forms a small group, takes in blind women to breed, barricades themselves into a set of buildings inside a perimeter, gathers supplies, refuses to help others.
Then there's Coker's group: splits people into a series of small groups, barricades themselves into small buildings, sets up a neighbourhood perimeter, gathers supplies, refuses to help others.

In what way are these groups so different? Why do the characters seem to think that these are such contrasting philosophies? It doesn't make sense to me. They seem to be doing almost the identical thing. The only real difference is that Coker's cliques contain more blind people than sighted. The sighted are enslaved instead of the blind.

Serious spoiler alert.
I think Wyndham's intention was to show various responses ie short term vs long term planning. As Coker says "Who is to judge who were the more brutal? - those who saw immediate responsibility and stayed, or those who saw a further responsibility and cleared out."
Later he has the religious group, the fascist feudal group etc etc

Susan wrote: "Serious spoiler alert.
I think Wyndham's intention was to show various responses ie short term vs long term planning. As Coker says "Who is to judge who were the more brutal? - those who saw immed..."

Yeah, I'm getting the sense that it's where Wyndham was going with it. I just don't see the two groups as being very different.

So I finished the book the other day, and quite liked it. It wasn't what I expected. I had expected it to focus on the triffids themselves, since that's about all I can recall from the 80s TV series, but it really is more of a general post-apocalyptic survival/rebuilding story. While it would have seemed fresher when it was published, I've now read so many PA books, (including the wonderful, Blindness) it takes something really special in that vein to grab me these days.

The comets, triffids and blindness didn't tie in together all that smoothly I thought. Perhaps that's mainly because the causal links weren't spelled out, but it did seem a bit like too many competing elements to the plot.

Also, while Wyndham was trying to challenge conventional social mores through the various new societies of rebuilders, his lead characters still make the assumption that since they're together, they'll marry. They do this all the way through the book, without it being questioned. I think at one point Josella actually refers to herself as being a "farmers wife".

One part I did really like was this quote: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/15548...

What did others think?

My review's up now too if you're interested: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...