Vision of Apocalypse in Nightfall by Isaac Asimov - Book Report/Review Example

VISION OF APOCALYPSE IN "NIGHTFALL" BY ISAAK ASIMOV 2007 Vision of Apocalypse in "Nightfall" by Isaak Asimov From very ancient time people were eager to know what would happen tomorrow, day after tomorrow or even in the far future. So that obscurity pushed people to dream about next days imagine and create different pictures about future in their mind. But it is often happens that things which are strange to people cause fear and uncertainness. That is why literature called "apocalyptic" appeared. "Apocalypse" is a Greek word and stands for revelation and the meaning is to unfold things not previously known and which could be known apart of unfolding. The roots of this literature are hidden in religion and to be exact in the Bible. Apocalyptical elements we can find in the prophetical books of Joel and Zecharian and more mature and well-developed apocalypse presented in the book of Iaiah and book of Daniel. So the origin of the apocalyptical genre begins from unfulfilled prophecy and traditional elements drawn in different sources. One more source of apocalyptical fiction was basic mythological and cosmological traditions that open before the seer the secrets of the future no less surely than those of the past. The general object of apocalyptic literature was to solve the difficulties connected with the saintliness of God and the suffering of His righteous servants on earth. The saintliness of God stipulated according to the law the temporal happiness of the righteous and the common prosperity of necessity; for as yet there was no promise of life or recompense beyond the grave. But this feature was not found to obtain as a rule in life, and the difficulties arising from this conflict between perspective and experience centered round the lot of the righteous as a community and the lot of the righteous man as an individual. Old Testament prophecy had addressed itself to both these problems, though it was hardly conscious of the claims of this latter. It concerned itself essentially with the present, and with the future only as growing organically out of the present. Modern variant of apocalyptic literature exists in genre of Science Fiction. Author who writes in the genre of Science Fiction at the same time is close to and far from religion. Every Science Fiction writer tries to be a creator of his own world with its own laws and creatures. Apocalyptic Science Fiction is a branch of Science Fiction that is concerned with the end of whole civilization through the nuclear war, plague or some other general disaster. The nature of catastrophe varies and depends only on author's imagination. In the history there were so unusual disasters and one of them is coming of the darkness described in the story "Nightfall" written by the famous Science Fiction author Isaac Asimov. It is one of his earliest stories and one of the best-known stories. To make sure that "Nightfall" belongs to apocalyptic literature peculiar features of the genre must be identified. Some main aspects such as "the last day of the world", "connection with religion" and "social criticism" that approve this belonging are shown below. Understand the nature of composition helps biography of the author. Speaking about the author Isaac Asimov, he was born on the 2nd of January in 1920, in Petrovichi shtetl, near Smolensk, Russia. His real name was Isaak Judah Ozimov. He was the oldest of three children. His parents were Orthodox Jews. In 1923 Isaac with his parents immigrated to the USA and settled in Brooklyn, New York. There his parents temporarily changed his birthday to September 7, 1919, in order to send him to school a year earlier. Their family name was changed from Ozimov to Asimov. From his early childhood Asimov was an avid reader. He knew Yiddish and English languages and only a few words in Russian. His education began in 1925 in the New York Public School. In 1935 he graduated from high school, in 1939 received a B.S. and in 1941 he earned his M. Sc. in Chemistry from Columbia University. From 1942 to 1945 Asimov was a chemist at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard's Naval Air experimental station. After the end of the war, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and was send to the island of Oahu and was destined to participate in the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll in July 1946. But he avoided that by receiving an honorable discharge in May 1946. In 1948 he completed his post-graduate studies and earned his Ph. D. in Chemistry and from 1949 his teaching career began at the Medical School of Boston University, becoming assistant professor in 1951, and associate professor in 1955. In 1958 Asimov gave up his teaching career and became a fulltime writer. He was fired, but he retained his title and later returned as a lecturer and was promoted to the rank of full professor in 1979. Asimov was considered to be one of the best lecturers at Boston University. Isaac Asimov was brought up as a non-religious person. During his life he called himself an atheist and later he used the term of "humanist". His philosophical position stood for humanism and rationalism. He was a supporter of the Democratic party. Asimov as a free thinker saw science fiction literature serving as a pool where ideas and hypotheses are expressed with unrestricted intellectual freedom. In his youth Isaac was fascinated with Science Fiction magazines which were sold at the general store of his father. At the age of 11 he wrote his first fiction about adventures of a boy in a small town. His first publication was in Amazing Stories magazine in 1939 the story "Marooned Off Vesta". In 1941 a story "Nightfall" was written It is one of the best Science Fiction stories ever written. He created classics such as "I-Robot" and the "Foundation" series. Later he founded "Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine", which became a best-selling publication. Isaac Asimov died on April 6, 1992, in Boston, Massachusetts because of AIDS. He was infected with it during the operation on his heart. His body was cremated and ashes were scattered. "Nightfall" was the favorite story of Asimov. It was written after when the author had read the quotation that belongs to Emerson. The idea of it is how to preserve the remembrance about stars appearance if it happens only one night in a thousand of years (Asimov 1977: 5). The plot of the story reflects this idea. The story runs about one alien planet Lagash the people of which do not know what night is. With no nighttime, the stars cannot be seen and therefore are not known. Astronomical science has not yet reached the point of being able to look beyond the suns. The concept of darkness is mysterious and frightening. The cause of such a phenomenon is that Lagash exists with six suns that give the planet sunlight every time (Asimov 1977: 6). But due to the prediction of the scientists every 2,049 years darkness comes and the whole civilization destroys and after that a new civilization will appear (Asimov 1977: 11). And this day came. Only four hours left before darkness covers all and Asimov tries to explain how so rare eclipse can blot out all the light and why the event always has result in universal chaos (Asimov 1977: 6). Through the whole story the idea of important role of science was held out. The trick he used is placing the story in the Observatory of the scientists who are able to predict the coming phenomenon. Aton 77, the old director of Saro University and chief astronomer is preparing to try to save some details about their civilization and to create the message to the next civilization in order to warn them about that event. As the scientists prepare for disaster, they are joined by a newspaper reporter Theremon 762, and all hope to save future generations from fear through a record of factual knowledge. However, a religious cult is also predicting the phenomenon as a judgment against evil (Asimov 1977: 6). ''Nightfall'' is a psychological thriller as scientists fight ignorance, zealotry, madness, and their own fears of the unknown. Newspaperman Theremon 762 was trying to get an interview from Aton 77 regarding the collapse of civilization, which Aton and his colleagues at the university have predicted. After some hesitation, Aton agreed to give Theremon the interview. This interview, with several digressions and interruptions, forms the bulk of the story (Asimov 1977: 7). The first interruption was the entrance of Sheerin 501, a fat, jovial psychologist, who actually provided most of Theremon's information. The day of Nightfall had arrived, but the world was largely unprepared. The scientists and the religious leaders had proclaimed the day of doom, but the people of Kalgash were largely unbelieving. Only too late they finally learned the truth; the eclipse started at the predicted time, sending people into the panic. As the darkness was getting deeper, even those who were prepared for it had felt their inner fears taking control of them - and then came total eclipse and disaster. Darkness was horrible enough, but every mind soon collapsed at the ruthless onslaught of thousands of points of light from the sky. The horror and wonder of the stars penetrated the depths of their souls; never before had anything this terrifying even been imagined (Asimov 1977: 16). The main theme of this story is correlation between darkness and light. On a planet with the constant daylight people thought that darkness is impossible (Asimov 1977: 3). The story presents an interesting theory about the effects of darkness on a people who have never experienced it. To people who live in everlasting daylight to find themselves in the dark is so unusual and the result will be very sad because due to the theory they will go mad in darkness even though the stars will be visible (Asimov 1977:13). In that darkness they will try to get light and as the main source of light after the sun is fire so people will burn wood. But in all-encompassing panic to find much wood is practically impossible therefore they will burn everything they have nearby. The outcome will be - the entire planet will be in fire and people themselves will ruin everything that had been created for two thousand years (Asimov 1977:14). Also this theme of darkness and light we can refer to people. People of Kalgash lived in mental darkness because future was unknown to them. That darkness will redouble because of madness. Only scientists know the truth and this gives them light. The characters in this story are not alien creatures with mysterious appearances antennas and blue or green skin. They are humans physically and mentally. They have names and use contemporary language. This story is a metaphor for life on the Earth. It has a social subcurrent because it was written in the 1941 when the Second World War began. In short, all Science Fiction literature has been used as a way of imagining the relationship between technology, science and society, both as an inspirational source guiding the direction of scientific development, and a way of popularizing and disseminating scientific ideas. In the "Nightfall" we can clearly notice that connections: all the story took place in the Scientific Institute of Saro, where a group of scientists discovers that the planet is going to have an eclipse in which all six suns are going to disappear from the planet. They had deducted laws due to which that disaster will happen. The main law was the "Theory of Universal Gravitation" and as it was said by one of the scientists Sheering only twelve men in Lagash were supposed to understand it. So after such horrible discoveries men of science tried to tell this truth to people, but it lead to nothing (Asimov 1977: 12). To write such kind of stories for Asimov were usual due to his education and occupation. One more aspect that genre of apocalyptic Science Fiction exists on is expectations. Mostly those expectations are not good. In the "Nightfall" scientists were in expectations of unknown phenomenon. But on the other hand they had a hope that people who are in the bunker made by scientists in order to save themselves and their relatives will survive and will bring the message to next generation (Asimov 1977: 9). Very often Science Fiction writers try to set reader's hopes off, or play upon people apocalyptic fears. So because of this it is of interest to note that one of the most frequently recurring themes in Science Fiction is that of apocalypse and human destruction through various means. Asimov in his story had chosen a very specific kind of disaster and it is very symbolic. Occasionally, some Science Fiction works can be a form of social criticism, which reader shall examine below, which enables a popular readership to examine a difficult social problem from an informed yet fictional perspective. However, most "end of the world" stories are frequently dualistic, their writers often taking delight in considering of the destruction of everything that they hate, and then taking their readers on an imaginative journey through their kind of Utopia - if there is anything utopian left after the means of holocaust has passed on. Yet apocalypse and the consequences of holocaust continue to be one of the most popular themes in sci-fi. In Asimov's "Nightfall" we do not find the world after the disaster (Asimov 1977: 25). But we can imagine what would happen after the night had gone away because we know that all on this planet is cyclic. Some people will survive the dreadful night and it will be their duty to renew the civilization on Kalgash (Asimov 1977: 8). Science Fiction connection with religion is very strong but every time it has the form of opposition. Science Fiction writers do not afraid to fall from grace. Mostly all of them are heretics and this does not scare them because they earned this brand from the first minutes when Science Fiction appeared. Over and above their free game with elements and essences of the world is heretic only on the surface because if to take deep all this has the source from very serious science. Reader can clearly notice religious elements in the "Nightfall" such as "Book of Revelations" in which the apocalypses was predicted. It can be easily associated with the Bible. Of course there is an opposition between the science and religion in the story. In this case it has the form of competition. Both scientists and cultists have their own theories about coming disaster. Scientists insist on physical nature of the disaster and people of religion stand by the religious myth of the "Stars" (Asimov 1977: 11). And with every minute of the eclipse that competition increases. With the death of Cultist Latimer 25 the author give readers to understand that science had victory over the cult. (Asimov 1977: 20) Very often it seems to people that Science Fiction writers can do everything in their works. They can create a new religion with new gods as easily as they make unknown universes. They have an opportunity to think over different situations and to present them to people. Apocalyptic Science Fiction shows different catastrophes and makes people think about how they can escape them. So Science Fiction has a great possibility of upbringing scientific worldview. The specification of this genre supposed contradiction with all dogmas that exist in the world. The "Nightfall" by Asimov is a unique apocalyptic story that became the classics of apocalyptic Science Fiction. In spite of its shortness it has a rich content that makes it a sample to follow. References: 1. Isaac Asimov, The Best of Isaac Asimov 1939-1952, Nightfall, Sphere Books, 1977, pp. 369. Read More