The Day of the Triffids

 Review of the novel by John Wyndham.

This is a novel with timing issues. I have, on a number of occasions, been afflicted with ailments of varying natures – although admittedly I have never been struck with blindness – yet these illnesses on their own have never inspired me to take my own life. In fact, even when recovery was uncertain, I still held hope that in a few days, with or without medication, the problem would clear up.

Blindness too can be temporary; so it surprises me a little how so many of the earth's inhabitants in The Day of the Triffids so swiftly and so keenly take to killing themselves. Sure, I would expect suicides to occur after a few days, once people have decided their blindness was permanent and starvation has stimulated their mind's desperation, but I feel this book's characters spring to self-annihilation much too quickly. This is not a major flaw however, the suicides would come eventually, so Wyndham's over-eagerness has little affect on the narrative or its general credibility.

This is not the only timing issue however. Sadly, for the most part of this book, the author chooses to avoid its most original aspect: the triffids. By the time he dares to venture into the awkward possibilities of these walking plants, the book is almost over and what storylines he brings are treated with a rushed narrative. He is too late in dealing with the triffid story.

The book isn't without ideas. We are treated with intriguing moments of triffid insight and glimpses of possible triffid intelligence, and the book certainly begins well; but it is like Wyndham either finds his invention too incredible, or is simply unable to formulate a satisfying storyline, so instead he focuses much too much of the book on people.

The story also suffers from its first person narrative. As new people are discovered, their stories are related second-hand by the narrator, meaning many potentially exciting encounters with the triffids are missing the desired emotional and personal details. When a blind man wearing a home made triffid-proof helmet is repeatedly slapped about the head by triffid stings whilst making his way to the village centre, this story is told without the expressions of fear and confusion you would expect. We are not told in detail what this encounter was like.

In many instances the individual survival stories are more interesting than the bulk of this book which amounts to little more than characters scrounging for food and driving about a lot in stolen cars. In fact much of what this novel should have been about is dealt only in passing towards the end: studying the triffid's behaviour, the triffids' group assaults on people, finding a way to wipe them out. Essentially, this is a prototype zombie movie but it is a narrative that never quite manages to realise its zombie narrative.

The book picks up greatly in the last chapter but this scenario only lasts for that one chapter and could have easily taken up more of the book as an extra problem to deal with alongside the triffids. In fact, this book seems to hold it characters in a too comfortable setting, keeping things too cushy, somehow maintaining a strong aversion to risk and danger – the things that will make the story exciting.

Josella is hardly a triumph for female protagonists and her entrance to the story is marred by her embarrassment over her apparent overemotional response to the end of the world. The inclusion of Josella as the author of a notorious racy novel is an intriguing addition. Especially since the triffids are more or less 8 foot high walking phalluses who coat their prey in their sticky fluids. I do not recall any description of any flower on the tops of the triffids although one character does liken them partly to orchids; and this floral element is not made a feature so this is not precisely Attack of the Giant Vaginas but more like The Tale of the Clumsy, but Persistent, Walking Penises.

One could probably get all Freudian about these things if one were inclined, but I am not, so I won't. The symbolism of the flower – as both the male as well as the female sexual organ – is not cleanly explored although there are inclusions of quasi-bohemian attitudes dressed up in survival pragmatism, such as the rounding up of blind girls and women to be used merely to bear children for the smaller number of sighted men.

The book also includes some darker elements such as the protagonist trying to save a woman from the clutches of a gang of rapists, then having failed to do so he reasons that she would probably survive better with rapists then on her own. Being published in 1951 one can forgive the author for not delving into these straggling narratives too deeply. It matters not to me this book merely hints at the more darker side of a post-apocalyptic world.

There are a number of innovative British authors who published after the war, and it is certainly a pleasure to read these works. Perhaps the trauma of wartime life helped to aid their imaginations, as the first world war aided the Dadaists. Wyndham's Triffids has a pleasing hollowness, a futility but also a dreary mundanity. It feels grey, overcast, lacking in opportunity. One could be forgiven in thinking this isn't a book set in a post-apocalyptic world but set in the then present day England.

Missed opportunity

This book should really have dealt more with the triffids. It feels like Wyndham does everything he can to avoid the concept, having conjured it and set about writing a book on it. For me the book would be better if it cut out the middle section, scrapped it, and took it from there.

The story lingers too long on fetching supplies and should have taken up a faster pace: The world goes blind, the triffids escape, the safety in the cities is compromised with disease, so the people are forced to go to the triffid-populated countryside – then what? This is where the story really begins but the book never really arrives at that point until the very end when the author seems to have run of of steam.

This book is certainly worth a read, however, and I would certainly recommend a look. Go on, give it a read.

Over and out for now, guys!

xxx