1 00:00:00,360 --> 00:00:08,340 Dear colleagues, this talk is to introduce or perhaps reintroduce the author, John Wyndham. 2 00:00:08,340 --> 00:00:13,590 He's known chiefly for his works of fantasy or science fiction. 3 00:00:13,590 --> 00:00:23,340 He's been in my mind since the beginning of the pandemic because she has a gift for introducing his stories by describing a setting of pleasant, 4 00:00:23,340 --> 00:00:35,130 ordinary scenes of daily life. The terrifying thing manifests itself gradually, and people are slow to realise what's happening. 5 00:00:35,130 --> 00:00:43,730 I can think of no other writer who's able to create this kind of calm prelude to disaster. 6 00:00:43,730 --> 00:00:50,620 I'm going to talk about the crackdown weeks, probably one of his best known. 7 00:00:50,620 --> 00:00:57,640 In the spring of 2020, as the pandemic took hold, people talked of the Black Death, 8 00:00:57,640 --> 00:01:02,770 and I was thinking that the young people of the Cameron were lucky. 9 00:01:02,770 --> 00:01:08,410 The exile lasted only 10 days had it gone on for 18 months. 10 00:01:08,410 --> 00:01:14,150 Just think what a huge volume of stories that would have been. 11 00:01:14,150 --> 00:01:21,770 But I felt as no doubt many did that are smiling English countryside was somehow poisoned with menace. 12 00:01:21,770 --> 00:01:32,060 Remember what a beautiful spring we had on another topic that urgently concerns the world today? 13 00:01:32,060 --> 00:01:34,430 At the end of the crack and weeks, 14 00:01:34,430 --> 00:01:44,030 the story is frighteningly like predictions of what'll happen as climate change takes hold and the waters rise all over the world. 15 00:01:44,030 --> 00:01:47,780 One thing that will happen, as we know, is panic buying. 16 00:01:47,780 --> 00:01:59,930 It does in the book the may for all I know, be a conspiracy theory out there that we should be blaming the Kraken and not mankind's own stupidity. 17 00:01:59,930 --> 00:02:09,080 You first heard it here. The scene at the beginning of the section, called Phase three, is chilling. 18 00:02:09,080 --> 00:02:17,360 The narrator and his wife try to win through to Cornwall in a tiny boat, but they fail. 19 00:02:17,360 --> 00:02:29,150 This short and understated account, given without prior explanation, is later extended into the final part of the story. 20 00:02:29,150 --> 00:02:37,490 Conspiracy theories also feature in this book dished up by our couple, our couple's friend, Tunie. 21 00:02:37,490 --> 00:02:42,860 She embodies all conceivable tabloid rubbish in her talk. 22 00:02:42,860 --> 00:02:50,030 However, my talk is not about what Wyndham thinks of our modern civilisation. 23 00:02:50,030 --> 00:02:56,420 I'm focussing on the book Is fantasy not a science fiction? 24 00:02:56,420 --> 00:03:06,770 Let me begin with the legend, though, I'll not attempt to trace every mention of the Kraken in English, let alone world culture. 25 00:03:06,770 --> 00:03:13,820 As far as I can discover, the monster called Kraken was thought to be malicious and aggressive. 26 00:03:13,820 --> 00:03:23,570 It attacked ships at sea in the form of an enormous squid big enough to wrap its arms around the vessel and drag it into the deep. 27 00:03:23,570 --> 00:03:31,640 It belonged to northern folklore and goes back to the 13th century or earlier, 28 00:03:31,640 --> 00:03:39,350 given the prediction of water levels rising as the result of polar ice melting that I mentioned earlier. 29 00:03:39,350 --> 00:03:51,590 I can't resist adding the names of two sea monsters found in late 13th century version of the old Icelandic saga half Kufa, 30 00:03:51,590 --> 00:03:57,740 perhaps to be identified with the Kraken means sea fog. 31 00:03:57,740 --> 00:04:01,910 And this is how the phenomenon manifests itself in the book, 32 00:04:01,910 --> 00:04:12,620 the mysterious deep sea menace succeeds in multiplying and then melting icebergs, resulting in great blankets of fog. 33 00:04:12,620 --> 00:04:23,090 The other one, Ling Becker, may be identified with the giant whale on one cannot help remembering Tolkien's faster talk alone, 34 00:04:23,090 --> 00:04:32,150 which is hostile, as well as Brendan, the navigator friendly Whale Island. 35 00:04:32,150 --> 00:04:37,070 It's interesting to note that Tennyson's crackdown is dormant. 36 00:04:37,070 --> 00:04:46,670 It will arise only if warmed by the latter fire and come to the surface, only to roar and die. 37 00:04:46,670 --> 00:04:51,530 There's no suggestion that it will attack mankind. 38 00:04:51,530 --> 00:04:57,740 There are any number of sea monsters in literature, and I'm sure they've all been thoroughly studied. 39 00:04:57,740 --> 00:05:04,580 But before I go on, I'll just mention Kipling's sea monster in his story. 40 00:05:04,580 --> 00:05:16,790 A matter of fact here the creature is thrown up by a volcanic eruption and dies under the sorrowing gaze of its mate on the ship. 41 00:05:16,790 --> 00:05:22,340 The narrator and his journalist colleagues watch incredulously. 42 00:05:22,340 --> 00:05:27,620 The story is so fantastic it cannot be sent to the newspapers. 43 00:05:27,620 --> 00:05:37,160 It can be published only if it's recast as fiction, which is what Kipling as narrator does with it. 44 00:05:37,160 --> 00:05:45,110 The other thing Kipling does is to make us feel overwhelmingly sad at the sight of its terrible death. 45 00:05:45,110 --> 00:05:56,270 His story in many inventions has been admired as a precursor of English science fiction. 46 00:05:56,270 --> 00:06:01,880 We're not supposed to feel sorry for the Kraken in Clash of the Titans. 47 00:06:01,880 --> 00:06:10,820 However, you may be familiar with Natalie Haynes, in which she stands up for the classics. 48 00:06:10,820 --> 00:06:23,000 Her programme is much to be recommended. Clash of the Titans is a film she favours introducing her talk on Medusa with enthusiastic reference to it, 49 00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:29,200 in spite of the way it unblinkingly rewrites Greek mythology. 50 00:06:29,200 --> 00:06:34,600 For a start, there was never a titan called Kraken. 51 00:06:34,600 --> 00:06:42,880 Nobody has suggested that Ocean is one of the 12 titans, according to his yacht, was called Kraken. 52 00:06:42,880 --> 00:06:48,340 In the film, Kraken is said to be the last of the Titans. 53 00:06:48,340 --> 00:06:58,180 My point is that Jupiter orders the Kraken to be released says to punish the heroine's mother for blasphemy against the gods. 54 00:06:58,180 --> 00:07:08,800 But here, luckily, Perseus is at hand with the head of the Medusa to turn the monster to stone. 55 00:07:08,800 --> 00:07:18,460 Are the gods with the Greek or Roman releasing the Kraken in Wyndham's novel to punish the presumption of mankind? 56 00:07:18,460 --> 00:07:30,700 Judging by the author's ferocious satire on world politics, Jupiter, propoganda, Mercury and military establishments Mars. 57 00:07:30,700 --> 00:07:39,340 The answer may be yes. It's interesting that not only Mars but also Jupiter are mentioned or invoked by the characters, 58 00:07:39,340 --> 00:07:49,320 and perhaps significantly, Diana, just before the narrator's wife, Phyllis herself, is attacked. 59 00:07:49,320 --> 00:08:01,140 Dr Bowker, whom Phyllis calls her favourite ologist, is almost the only sympathetic scientist or authority figure come to that. 60 00:08:01,140 --> 00:08:10,800 He suggests at one point that the planet Neptune or God of the sea is the most likely source of the invasion. 61 00:08:10,800 --> 00:08:17,610 The name Kraken is never used of the creature or creatures. 62 00:08:17,610 --> 00:08:23,280 The opening scene of the novel introduces us to the narrator and his wife, 63 00:08:23,280 --> 00:08:31,000 an affectionate couple who tease each other and instantly endear themselves to the reader. 64 00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:40,450 At the beginning of phase one, Phyllis says Mars is looking pretty angry tonight, isn't he? 65 00:08:40,450 --> 00:08:49,540 But even before this ominous moment, Phyllis and Nic are looking back and discussing how they're going to write the book. 66 00:08:49,540 --> 00:08:59,230 Phyllis cites an imaginary author whose lines from the Pink Nursery book she'd use as her epigraph. 67 00:08:59,230 --> 00:09:08,370 But mother, please tell me, what can those things be that crawl up still fully out of the sea? 68 00:09:08,370 --> 00:09:19,010 This nursery law sounds just about as suitable for small children as Edward Gore is ugly or struggle, Peter. 69 00:09:19,010 --> 00:09:26,930 Given the terrible things that are going to crawl up out of the sea in the novel, I'm definitely with Phyllis on this one. 70 00:09:26,930 --> 00:09:37,940 But Nick wins the argument. Tennyson's poem, not the nursery book, prefaces phase one as the story begins. 71 00:09:37,940 --> 00:09:46,070 Phyllis is definitely the brains of the outfit, and her vision and visions must be Wyndham's own. 72 00:09:46,070 --> 00:09:50,210 Both husband and wife are highly intelligent and cultured, 73 00:09:50,210 --> 00:09:59,030 so it's not surprising that any number of literary references are scattered through the book, mostly in their conversation. 74 00:09:59,030 --> 00:10:04,100 Nick is much teased because of his name, which is Watson. 75 00:10:04,100 --> 00:10:13,070 We are indirectly reminded that Conan Doyle wrote fantasy novels, including a story about Mary Celeste, 76 00:10:13,070 --> 00:10:21,900 which is several times mentioned amongst other aquatic mysteries such as the Loch Ness Monster. 77 00:10:21,900 --> 00:10:28,260 Given the situation, it's to be expected that these references to figures such as King Canute, 78 00:10:28,260 --> 00:10:36,650 Cassandra and T.S. Eliot, the world ends not with a bang, but a whimper. 79 00:10:36,650 --> 00:10:47,330 Ex Africa, semper e-liquid, Novi is from Pliny the elder, probably based on a Greek saying Jules Verne is here, 80 00:10:47,330 --> 00:10:53,480 and so are Somerset Maugham on life in the tropics and the fictional Hornblower, 81 00:10:53,480 --> 00:11:06,230 as well as Coleridge is sacred river and Kipling's recessional religion gets the briefest look in as somebody is likened to Elijah. 82 00:11:06,230 --> 00:11:14,480 The invaders are pronounced to be devils, and the Kraken is identified with Leviathan. 83 00:11:14,480 --> 00:11:21,200 But Wyndham seems to have his work cut out, describing the antics of the establishment all over the world, 84 00:11:21,200 --> 00:11:32,030 and his sideswipe barely mentions the antics of what he or rather Nick calls the more classically minded citizens. 85 00:11:32,030 --> 00:11:36,860 The science aspect of this book, considered a science fiction, 86 00:11:36,860 --> 00:11:45,590 is about the exploration of deep oceans in search of the menace and hypotheses about its identity. 87 00:11:45,590 --> 00:11:50,900 Different strategies attempted to protect ships, defend the coasts. 88 00:11:50,900 --> 00:11:55,670 Attack the invader. The end happens offstage, 89 00:11:55,670 --> 00:12:01,370 as it were when Phil and Nick learn there's a successful weapon has at last been 90 00:12:01,370 --> 00:12:10,550 developed and deployed so that human life on Earth can begin to rebuild itself. 91 00:12:10,550 --> 00:12:15,230 Much academic ink has been spilt over the question of genre, 92 00:12:15,230 --> 00:12:24,110 and deciding whether this book is science fiction or fantasy is, in my opinion, not important because I read it as fantasy. 93 00:12:24,110 --> 00:12:32,600 Many of the greatest works of science fiction have at least one powerful myth underlying their story. 94 00:12:32,600 --> 00:12:39,440 Windham has invoked a fantastic supporting fabric of literature and legend to 95 00:12:39,440 --> 00:12:46,895 create a classic novel out of what would otherwise be a tale of stark horror.