The Day of the Triffids von John Wyndham

I found another bit of greenery to sketch outside today. This small tree looked like a triffid to me, but it’s actually some kind of Split Leaf Philodendron. I had to draw this quickly because it w…

Earle Bergey - Revolt of the Triffids, 1952.

The Day of the Triffids Fawcett Crest, 1970's edition 191 pages From inside: A Long, Green Lash Whipped Out... ...a man screamed as he fell. The others swept past him in a panic. I did not need more than a glimpse of that lash to know what was going on. The triffids! Somehow I had not thought they had gotten this far. Now I knew the reason for the terrible silence of the city, why the streets were so totally deserted...and the reason for the bodies we had seen along the way. We ran into the nearest ship and barricaded the door. At least for the moment we were out of the triffids' range. I climbed cautiously to the roof to prospect. Nothing moved outside. Then I saw two triffids motionless in the bushes. I knew there were more I couldn't see. There was only one way out. We had to try to make a run for the entrance between the buildings. As we talked we could hear a strange dry rustle along the wall outside. The triffids were showing interest. Their uncanny sensitiveness told them something was happening. "Bloody unnatural brutes," whispered one man. They were, too. They were waiting for us at the entrance... ------------------------------------------------------------------- Started: 2008-11-13 Finished: 2008-11-19 William Masen wakes up in the hospital to discover that everyone in the world has gone blind after observing a strange, green glow in the sky. He was spared because of temporary blindness caused the sting of a triffid, a large, mobile, carnivorous plant which is cultivated for its oil. William manages to find some other people who escaped the blindness, but their efforts to survive are complicated by the triffids which seem to be consciously trying to hunt down humans. I read Triffids for the first time about 20 years ago, and rereading it now it still holds up quite well. I can see how this book has probably formed the basis for a lot of later end-of-the world stories. Wyndham manages to pack a lot of story into under two hundred pages. The moral choices that the characters has to make were interesting, and not just a simple black or white, especially in the way that Coker could come to admit that his attempt to do what he saw was right was in fact a mistake. The only thing that seems a little off is that the story seems like it would be taking place in the 1970's or 1980's, but society has not changed at all, and the characters seem more like they are still in the 1950's, but I guess that trying to extrapolate and explain social changes in society on top of everything else would have been too much for the book. I do wonder what the purpose of the triffids really is in the story. The blinding itself is enough to bring down civilization, and to provide the cautionary message. The triffids don't really play a major role until late in the story. They do seem to provide a means to unify most of the remnants of humanity in the fight against a common enemy, and provide a reason to quickly rebuild civilization. --------- 2015-05-23: 1000 views

This is a great dystopian story and like all John Wyndham; so well written. This is my third favourite of John Wyndham novels. Its not that it does not make the grade, because it does. Its just that The Midwich Cuckoos and The Chrysalids were so fabulously out there. The Day of the Triffids is too, so my advise is to read all three. You'll not be disappointed in any of these sci/fi gems. The Day of the Triffids gives us a chilling dystopian world were Triffid plants are being cultivated for their oil and so on. The plants are dangerous because they can move and have a lethal sting. Only specialists can farm them. Then a meteor shower cripples the world population. Over night everyone who witnessed the comet display becomes blind by the following morning. Civilisation is at an end and nothing can function. Only a handful of people, who never saw the meteor display, can see. They are so few in number that they cannot do anything for the multi-millions of people who are blind. The cultivated triffids brake free from the confines in the agriculture industry, which no longer functions. As said, the plants can move and have a sting. They can also consume dead flesh. The blind population are a feast awaiting triffid attention. The world is turned upside down and the survivors with sight have their work cut out for them. Only the strong and ruthless can survive. The millions of blind are of little use. Now you get the picture?

The Triffids were an Australian alternative rock and pop band, formed in Perth in Western Australia in May 1978 with David McComb as singersongwriter, guitarist, bass guitarist and keyboardist. They achieved negligible success in Australia, but greater success in the UK and in Scandinavia in the 19