John Wyndham: Why 'The Chrysalids' is his best book... and not 'The Day of the Triffids'!

 

 

Sure Philip K Dick is a genius and I love Richard Matheson's writing but for me, John Wyndham is the ultimate authority on science fiction. Now personally, I don't lusually like sci-fi that takes us to bizarre new worlds where every other thing has a made up name and the whole story is inundated with meaningless jargon. That's why Wyndham is so great, as most of his classic stories are rooted in our reality, with only one or two changes that alter the way our society works. The best sci-fi should hold a mirror up to our own lives, encouraging us to examine our flaws and find ways to better ourselves. 

But The Chrysalids is set in a dystopian society from the future and includes unusual terms such as 'Tribulation' and 'Deviations'. It's the only one of Wyndham's most famous novels that isn't set in the 20th century or focusses on middle class Britain and yet I still think it's easily his best work. So why is it that I love The Chrysalids so much?

 

 

The answer is that the issues it raises are still relevant despite the books unusual setting and these themes are becomingly only more significant as time goes by. The Chrysalids is about the power that religion can hold over the people trapped under its hold and the hypocrisy that this can create, resulting in the destruction of lives. Set in a post-apocalyptic future, society in this novel has turned to Christian fundamentalism for answers and anyone who is seen as 'different' in either beliefs or appearance is hunted and persecuted. The Chrysalids is a story of prejudice and fear that is in many ways reminiscent of Miller's classic play The Crucible, in both the paranoia it provokes and its American frontier feel.

This new society believes that 'The Tribulation' (presumably a nuclear holocaust) was a reckoning brought down by God and to prevent it from returning, normality must be preserved at all levels to a religious degree. The problem though, is that the radiation has affected much of the populace, resulting in minor mutations such as six fingers or toes and anyone caught being different is instantly labelled as a 'Blasphemy' and is banished or killed. Many of the book covers for The Chrysalids focusses on a variation of this striking image.

The story revolves around a boy called David, who is raised in a zealously religious family but befriends a girl named Sophie, who is hiding the fact that she has six toes on each foot. The idea of mutation as a metaphor for prejudice on a realistic social level has been explored in works as varied as the graphic novel Maus and even the X-Men comics but the mutants in this novel are somewhat more subtle in appearance than these guys.

As The Chrysalids progresses, SPOILER ALERT, David comes to realise that he has developed a mutation of his own, although his is not physically apparent like Sophie's. Without saying too much, the struggles that David and the other 'Blasphemies' face while trying to survive in their society say more about discrimination in the real world than numerous essays could ever say on the subject. There is one particularly harrowing chapter in the book that I will never forget, where a woman discovers that her newborn child is a 'Blasphemy' and she has to decide what she is going to do with it. All I will say is that Wyndham at his best is gut wrenching. 

So why hasn't The Chrysalids been adapted numerous times into a TV series or a movie like Day of the Triffids? Is it not good enough? I think the answer is that it just wouldn't work. The novel has far too much depth to be easily translated to screen and the failed attempts to successfully film Triffids has not exactly increased its chances, as this trailer from the 1962 movie adaptation demonstrates all too well.    

Don't get me wrong; Day of the Triffids is an incredible novel and is a modern classic in every respect but I found that out of all of Wyndham's novels, The Chrysalids was the one that stuck in my brain long after I had finished reading it and at the end of the day, isn't that what you want from a book? Something to be enjoyed yet also change or heighten your understanding of things? Even if you are not normally a fan of sci-fi, I still beg you, read this book and read it now. Then go read Chocky and Triffids and all of Wyndham's other major works. You will not be disappointed...until you get to The Kraken Wakes that is. Nuff said.

If you think that there's another Wyndham book out there better than this one or even if you just agree and want to show some Chrysalids love, then please comment, follow, plus and like below. Thanks!