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A History of Fear in British Culture, Identifying the Discursive Formations That Have Shaped the Apocalyptic Discourse in Britain Over the Last 120 Years

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A History of Fear in British Culture, Identifying the Discursive Formations That Have Shaped the Apocalyptic Discourse in Britain Over the Last 120 Years The idea of apocalypse has a long tradition in the history of civilization. Secularized speculations about the end of the world have been a part of public discourse in Britain ever since the 19th century. This study investigates fiction about the potential end of humankind, written and produced by British writers and filmmakers from the 1890s to the beginning of the 21st century. Martin Hermann argues that British apocalyptic fiction is deeply embedded in the cultural context of its respective era. Applying ideas from Michel HERMANN Foucault’s The Archaeology of Knowledge and analyzing works by H. G. Wells, John Wyndham, John Brunner, Stephen Baxter and other, less remembered authors of speculative fiction, Hermann traces a history of fear in British culture, identifying the discursive formations that have shaped the apocalyptic discourse in Britain over the last 120 years. · · Fear A History of ‘Working through an impressively wide range of examples, Hermann draws out the larger trends and currents of this enduring mode of writing.’ ADAM ROBERTS Royal Holloway, University of London Author of several acclaimed SF novel British Apocalyptic Fiction, 1895 A History of Fear British Apocalyptic Fiction, 1895 –2011 – 2 011 MARTIN HERMANN Foreword by Adam Roberts A History of Fear British Apocalyptic Fiction, 1895−2011 The idea of apocalypse has a long tradition in the history of civilization. Secularized speculations about the end of the world have been a part of public discourse in Britain ever since the 19th century. This study investigates fiction about the potential end of humankind, written and produced by British writers and filmmakers from the 1890s to the beginning of the 21st century. Martin Hermann argues that British apocalyptic fiction is deeply embedded in the cultural context of its respective era. Applying ideas from Michel Foucault’s The Archaeolog y of Knowledge and analyzing works by H. G. Wells, John Wyndham, John Brunner, Stephen Baxter and other, less remembered authors of speculative fiction, Hermann traces a history of fear in British culture, identifying the discursive formations that have shaped the apocalyptic discourse in Britain over the last 120 years. He contends that these formations run alongside the great historical divides of the 20th and 21st century. MARTIN HERMANN is an academic librarian at the Bavarian State Library in Munich. He has published articles on American and Irish film. In the area of library and information science, he is the co-founder and co-editor of the German-language open access journal Perspektive Bibliothek and co-editor of Bibliotheken: Innovation aus Tradition (2014). A History of Fear British Apocalyptic Fiction, 1895−2011 MARTIN HERMANN © 2015 Martin Hermann Except for all images, this book is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0). This licence allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the book; to adapt the book and to make commercial use of the book providing attribution is made to the author (but not in any way that suggests that he endorses you or your use of the work). Attribution should include the following information: Hermann, Martin (2015). A History of Fear: British Apocalyptic Fiction, 1895–2011. Berlin: epubli. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/ First published 2015. ISBN: 978-3-7375-5774-0 (Printed Version) DOI: 10.6094/UNIFR/10080 (Free Electronic Version) Go directly to free electronic version: Typesetting: Martin Hermann Technical advice: Thomas Dienst Cover design: Martin Hermann Cover illustrations: Steve McGhee. The two cover images and three additional images were commissioned by TV channel Yesterday to mark the launch of the new series Perfect Storms. epubli GmbH www.epubli.co.uk Dedicated to my parents, Angelika and Richard Hermann. And to my wife, Anna. Contents List of illustrations viii Foreword by Adam Roberts xi Acknowledgements xiii Introduction 1 1 A definition of apocalyptic fiction 14 2 First age of extinction 26 3 Apocalyptic wars 50 4 Nuclear threats, Cold War 70 5 Eco-doom 105 6 Fears in transition 123 7 Apocalypse after 9/11 136 Conclusion 163 Notes 168 Works Cited 198 viii List of illustrations 1 Charles Darwin as an ape. Caricature by an unknown artist. ‘A Venerable Orang-outang. A contribution to unnatural history’. The Hornet, 22 March 1871. Public Domain. 2 Lester and Landry Baker laugh at Professor Mirzarbeau’s appearance. Fred T. Jane, The Violet Flame, p. 70. Public Domain. 3 Professor Mirzarbeau gesticulates to Landry Baker. Fred T. Jane, The Violet Flame, p. 180. Public Domain. 4 The British population is prepared for the next gas attack. Cartoon by Ernest Howard Shepard. Punch, 24 November 1937: ‘The Blessings of Peace or Mr. Everyman’s Ideal Home.’ Used with kind permission. 5 Humanity collapses under aerial poison gas attacks. Cartoon by Bernard Partridge. Punch, 8 April 1936: ‘The Dawn of Progress. But how am I to see it? They’ve blinded me.’ Used with kind permission. 6 Passworthy’s son and the soldiers are going to war. Things to Come (0:13:15). Copyright 1936, London Film Productions. 7 The crowd welcomes the victorious dictator. Things to Come (0:42:26). Copyright 1936, London Film Productions. 8 The Soviet communists rule on alien planets. Cartoon by Anton. Punch, 21 July 1954. Used with kind permission. 9 Nuclear bombs will cause humankind to go extinct as a species. Cartoon by Norman Mansbridge Punch, 5 March 1958: “To-day it is everything which is at stake – the kindliness of our natural environment, the human experience, the genetic composition of the race, the possibilities of health and life for future generations. Not only is this danger terrible, but it is immediate.” (George F. Kennan, Russia, The Atom and the West) Used with kind permission. 10 Londoners doubt the deployment of the atomic bomb just when it strikes. Cartoon by Norman Mansbridge. Punch, 24 February 1960: “It’ll be just the same as it was with the gas in the last war – they’ll never use it.” Used with kind permission. ix 11 Khrushchev sprays the Chinese weeds with a lethal pesticide. Cartoon by Norman Mansbridge. Punch, 23 September 1964. Used with kind permission. 12 Aliens land on a poisoned and polluted planet Earth. Cartoon by Michael Cummings/Express Newspapers. Daily Express, 10 November 1969: ‘So it wasn’t the H-bomb that finished off the Earth people, after all!’ Used with kind permission. 13 AIDS sits on Civilization’s shoulder. Cartoon by Nicholas Garland. The Independent, 28 January 1988: “…For within the hollow crown that rounds the mortal temples of a king keeps death his court, and there antick sits, scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp…” (King Richard III) Used with kind permission. 14 Jim is walking away from the missing persons poster. 28 Days Later … (0:12:28). Copyright 2002, DNA Films/UK Film Council. 15 A missing persons poster in New York after September 11, 2001. Photograph by Mike Caine. Used with kind permission. 16 The British people become targets for the US soldiers. 28 Weeks Later (0:53:07). Copyright 2007, Fox Atomic, DNA Films, UK Film Council, Figment Films, Sociedad General de Cine, Koan Films. 17 US soldiers have massacred the Green Zone’s residents. 28 Weeks Later (0:54:54). Copyright 2007, Fox Atomic, DNA Films, UK Film Council, Figment Films, Sociedad General de Cine, Koan Films. 18 US military personnel torture Alice. 28 Weeks Later (0:36:21). Copyright 2007, Fox Atomic, DNA Films, UK Film Council, Figment Films, Sociedad General de Cine, Koan Films. 19 US military personnel torture Alice. 28 Weeks Later (0:36:31). Copyright 2007, Fox Atomic, DNA Films, UK Film Council, Figment Films, Sociedad General de Cine, Koan Films. 20 The Earth is almost fully submerged under water in the year 2035. Image by Malcolm and Jonathan Burke (www.calculatedearth.com). Stephen Baxter, Flood (p. 349). Used with kind permission. Foreword by Adam Roberts We tend to think of ‘apocalypse’ as a time of chaos, the order of the cosmos breaking apart, worlds ending, anarchy and disaster. It might seem paradoxical, then, that Martin Hermann’s absorbing study of British Apocalyptic Fiction is so scrupulous and methodical in its approach. But the paradox is only apparent. There is more than scholarly reticence behind the cool thoroughness of this monograph. It is, in its way, a tacit vision of apocalypse itself. Working through an impressively wide range of examples, Hermann draws out the larger trends and currents of this enduring mode of writing. He convincingly demonstrates that British Apocalyptic Fiction underwent a ‘process of internationalisation and globalisation’ across the century, from stories adopting a merely British point of view to stories in which the whole world is the stage of end-times and societal breakdown. The period studied reaches from the British Imperial power to the drawn-out process of decolonisation, through two World Wars and one Cold one to the present post 9-11 tessellation of ethnicities, ideologies and cultures that makes up the British Isles. In a way, the question of critical heat, or coolness, goes to the heart of the matter. Hermann painstakingly and carefully maps out this hysterical (or, since that word is tainted with its sexist implication that the womb is the site of human panic and irrational, perhaps we could say gonadical) territory. His broadly Foucauldian, discourse-analysis approach is cogent and yields insightful results, bringing a large number of apocalyptic disorders under a larger order. As he notes in his opening chapter, culture texts function in part as symptoms of broader social anxieties, such that compiling a history of ‘apocalyptic fiction’ is in effect ‘to write a history of cultural fear communicated through discourses of apocalypse’.
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