John Wyndham

[Simon]

Hello Guys,

Just writing a brief blog-article on the topic, and thought it worth consulting those who know on my central argument:

John Wyndham is just about the first SF writer I ever became really absorbed by, Day Of The Triffids, The Kraken Wakes, The Midwich Cuckoos and The Chrysalids are buried so deep in the fibre of my being that I can't really imagine a world without them.  I was therefore pretty stunned to discover recently that his name is pretty much only ubiquitous in Britain.  I'd go as far as to say that he's more read than Clarke, Wells or Aldiss in Britain.  He's part of the background of post-war British literature.

On searching for him on SFF.net tho, I found that his name generated on 18 hits, whereas Aldiss pulls in 68, and Sturgeon pulls in 139.  I realise that his imagery is extremely, extremely english, but I was just wondering whether Wyndham was just unknown to the general public state-side, or whether this applied to the SF community as well...

What do you Americans think of Wyndham?

Cheers

Simon

[jrderego]

I absolutely love his writing. I read Triffids, Chrysalids, and Cuckoos in college and couldn't believe I'd never really heard of him before other than his name being attached to the Triffids film.

I'd bet on a triffid vs. a blind man anyday.

[Simon Painter]

Well I'm not American, but I absolutely love John Wyndham, not only is Day of the Triffids one of my favorite novels (and least favorite films, bleh) but Chronoclasm is one of my favorite shorts.  That probably stands as one of the best time-travel stories I've read yet (I'm a sucker for time travel).

Simon Painter
Shropshire, UK

[Simon]

Obviously I agree about Wyndham's status..  Love love love him.  I am just surprised in consideration how British his impact is, some examples:

1) The BBC have at some time or another dramatised virtually everything he has ever done. ITV did Chocky in the the 1980s, The BBC's DOTT series is a classic, and currently BBC Radio 7 (go look them up, they are broadcast online) are serialising both Chocky *and* The Kraken Wakes... 

2) On the other hand, Hollywood has only made 1 movie of his work, John Carpenter's 1995 version of The Village Of The Damned (based on the Brit 50's movie of the same name, based on The Midwich Cuckoos). 

I'm trying to make a case that 28 Days Later is a scene for scene re-write of Triffids, with Zombies instead of Triffids...  I think Alex Garland absolutely shredded triffids to make that movie... I'm also pretty sure George A Romero and Richard Matheson borrowed heavily from Triffids in inventing the whole Post-Apocalypse Zombie genre...

And yet,  Hollywood ignores him...  And so America ignores him.

It's bizarre.

[wherethewild]

I´m Australian and I would guess that most scifi afficiondos in Australia know him. It´s probable that also non-scifi fans would know The Day of the Triffids and The Kraken Wakes... by name if not actual content.

John Wyndham is not a household name, but he´s also not completely unknown.

[Michael]

Wyndham was a great author, but you have to put him in context with his peers.  Day of the Triffids was written in 1951--the parents of some of these forum members weren't even born then. Take a copy of a 1951  "Amazing Science Fiction" and see how many pulp authors from half a century ago are even remembered at all.  To even rate a thread this century is above 99% of his peers.

"Triffids" get 489,000 Google hits.  Not bad. 

[oddpod]

the BBC day of the triffids serialisation  is bloody fantastic