5 ms·

A piece of Victorian science fiction considered first tale of urban apocalypse

29 points by Vigier 8y ago

notahacker 8y ago
> It imagines the entire population of London choked to death under a soot-filled fog. The story is told by the event’s lone survivor sixty years later as he recalls “the greatest calamity that perhaps this earth has ever witnessed” at what was, for Hay’s first readers, the distant future date of 1942. He was 10 years out... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Smog_of_London https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Smog_of_London (and a few orders of magnitude of survivor numbers tbf)
smacktoward 8y ago
If you're interested in the history that provided the jumping-off point for this story, a good overview can be found in Lee Jackson's 2014 book Dirty Old London (https://www.npr.org/2015/03/12/392332431/dirty-old-london-a-history-of-the-victorians-infamous-filth https://www.npr.org/2015/03/12/392332431/dirty-old-london-a-...), which goes into great detail on Victorian London's long struggle to clean up its filthy streets, air and water.
jhbadger 8y ago
Another early example of this, although five years later in 1885, was Richard Jefferies' "After London". It basically created the conceit that many works of science fiction used later -- the book is set in what appears to be a medieval society only for the reader to learn later that this isn't the past but the future after industrial civilization destroyed itself by pollution.
- lainga 8y ago
  We wonder,—and some Hunter may express Wonder like ours, when thro' the wilderness Where London stood, holding the Wolf in chace, He meets some fragment huge, and stops to guess What powerful but unrecorded race Once dwelt in that annihilated place The other Ozymandias, Horace Smith, 1818 http://www.potw.org/archive/potw192.html http://www.potw.org/archive/potw192.html
robotkdick 8y ago
I'm not religious, but I am a voracious reader, and I think Revelations from the Old Testament is probably going to predate this apocalyptic story by more than 6000 years. For a more specifically urban tale of apocalypse, there's Sodom and Gomorrah: "Sodom and Gomorrah, notoriously sinful cities in the biblical book of Genesis, destroyed by 'sulfur and fire' because of their wickedness (Genesis 19:24)" Reference: https://www.britannica.com/place/Sodom-and-Gomorrah https://www.britannica.com/place/Sodom-and-Gomorrah Most 'modern' stories have either biblical, Greek, or mythological roots. Apocalyptic themes have always been a big seller, e.g., Jesus of Nazareth predicted a second coming that would not be a pleasant experience. In scholarly circles, he's known as emerging from a group of apocalyptic prophets, which were common for his time.
- zdragnar 8y ago
  Considering the etymology (Greek) and meaning (to reveal, as in the prophesies coming to pass), your point should come as no surprise (it is the book of Revelations, after all). In fact, I become silently irked when I see the word "apocalypse" used in a non-biblical sense, though I am not a religious person.
- AnimalMuppet 8y ago
  Um, Revelations is in the New Testament. It was written around 90 AD. And I don't think any of the Old Testament is as old as 6000 years.
  - robotkdick 8y ago
    You’re right on the details, my bad for not looking up the dates and books, but the argument would be the same, except to say 1600 years or so prior to the cited work in the article, meaning the article is incorrect in its facts. If I was writing an article I guess I would have checked my facts ;)
trop 8y ago
There's some remarkable apocalyptic imagery out and about from even earlier in the 19th century. Check out Samuel Colman's "The Edge of Doom" (a decent reproduction at https://artblart.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/colman_edgedoom-web.jpg https://artblart.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/colman_edgedoom...) for a striking example. From the Brooklyn Museum's write-up: "In The Edge of Doom, Samuel Colman paints the ultimate disaster: the destruction of the world. Lightning was particularly suited for evoking the emotions of awe and terror associated with the Sublime notion of nature. Here, it strikes erratically, blasting classical buildings, carriages, paintings, and even Time (a figure with an hourglass and scythe) to create a central glowing void. All that survives is the memorial sculpture of William Shakespeare, then and now on view in London’s Westminster Abbey." - https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/4811 https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/4811 On one hand, this has to have been a British communication of contemporaneous Caspar David Friedrich sublime, but there also must have been something brewing in industrial London to create fear of impending absolute destruction, and this doesn't read as Biblical wrath to me.
- twic 8y ago
  See also John Martin's 'The Great Day of His Wrath': http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/martin-the-great-day-of-his-wrath-n05613 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/martin-the-great-day-of-... There was an exhibition of John Martin's work a few years ago; looking at a computer screen doesn't communicate just how overwhelming some of it was: http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/john-martin-apocalypse http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/john...

29 points by Vigier 8y ago

> It imagines the entire population of London choked to death under a soot-filled fog. The story is told by the event’s lone survivor sixty years later as he recalls “the greatest calamity that perhaps this earth has ever witnessed” at what was, for Hay’s first readers, the distant future date of 1942. He was 10 years out... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Smog_of_London https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Smog_of_London (and a few orders of magnitude of survivor numbers tbf)

smacktoward 8y ago

If you're interested in the history that provided the jumping-off point for this story, a good overview can be found in Lee Jackson's 2014 book Dirty Old London (https://www.npr.org/2015/03/12/392332431/dirty-old-london-a-history-of-the-victorians-infamous-filth https://www.npr.org/2015/03/12/392332431/dirty-old-london-a-...), which goes into great detail on Victorian London's long struggle to clean up its filthy streets, air and water.

jhbadger 8y ago

Another early example of this, although five years later in 1885, was Richard Jefferies' "After London". It basically created the conceit that many works of science fiction used later -- the book is set in what appears to be a medieval society only for the reader to learn later that this isn't the past but the future after industrial civilization destroyed itself by pollution.

lainga 8y ago
We wonder,—and some Hunter may express Wonder like ours, when thro' the wilderness Where London stood, holding the Wolf in chace, He meets some fragment huge, and stops to guess What powerful but unrecorded race Once dwelt in that annihilated place The other Ozymandias, Horace Smith, 1818 http://www.potw.org/archive/potw192.html http://www.potw.org/archive/potw192.html

robotkdick 8y ago

I'm not religious, but I am a voracious reader, and I think Revelations from the Old Testament is probably going to predate this apocalyptic story by more than 6000 years. For a more specifically urban tale of apocalypse, there's Sodom and Gomorrah: "Sodom and Gomorrah, notoriously sinful cities in the biblical book of Genesis, destroyed by 'sulfur and fire' because of their wickedness (Genesis 19:24)" Reference: https://www.britannica.com/place/Sodom-and-Gomorrah https://www.britannica.com/place/Sodom-and-Gomorrah Most 'modern' stories have either biblical, Greek, or mythological roots. Apocalyptic themes have always been a big seller, e.g., Jesus of Nazareth predicted a second coming that would not be a pleasant experience. In scholarly circles, he's known as emerging from a group of apocalyptic prophets, which were common for his time.

zdragnar 8y ago
Considering the etymology (Greek) and meaning (to reveal, as in the prophesies coming to pass), your point should come as no surprise (it is the book of Revelations, after all). In fact, I become silently irked when I see the word "apocalypse" used in a non-biblical sense, though I am not a religious person.
AnimalMuppet 8y ago
Um, Revelations is in the New Testament. It was written around 90 AD. And I don't think any of the Old Testament is as old as 6000 years.
- robotkdick 8y ago
  You’re right on the details, my bad for not looking up the dates and books, but the argument would be the same, except to say 1600 years or so prior to the cited work in the article, meaning the article is incorrect in its facts. If I was writing an article I guess I would have checked my facts ;)

trop 8y ago

There's some remarkable apocalyptic imagery out and about from even earlier in the 19th century. Check out Samuel Colman's "The Edge of Doom" (a decent reproduction at https://artblart.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/colman_edgedoom-web.jpg https://artblart.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/colman_edgedoom...) for a striking example. From the Brooklyn Museum's write-up: "In The Edge of Doom, Samuel Colman paints the ultimate disaster: the destruction of the world. Lightning was particularly suited for evoking the emotions of awe and terror associated with the Sublime notion of nature. Here, it strikes erratically, blasting classical buildings, carriages, paintings, and even Time (a figure with an hourglass and scythe) to create a central glowing void. All that survives is the memorial sculpture of William Shakespeare, then and now on view in London’s Westminster Abbey." - https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/4811 https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/4811 On one hand, this has to have been a British communication of contemporaneous Caspar David Friedrich sublime, but there also must have been something brewing in industrial London to create fear of impending absolute destruction, and this doesn't read as Biblical wrath to me.

twic 8y ago
See also John Martin's 'The Great Day of His Wrath': http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/martin-the-great-day-of-his-wrath-n05613 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/martin-the-great-day-of-... There was an exhibition of John Martin's work a few years ago; looking at a computer screen doesn't communicate just how overwhelming some of it was: http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/john-martin-apocalypse http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/john...