ABSTRACT JOHN WYNDHAM – THE DAY OF THE
TRIFFIDS. (1951) Penguin Books. This is the definitive carnivorous man eating plants story in all horror and science fiction. The triffids are a vicious, mobile poisonous dart spitting species of plant produced by scientific experimentation, and which people now have trouble keeping from growing over-populous. For able-bodied people, the triffid moves slowly and proves mostly relatively easy to avoid. The
hero of the story is a triffid expert who got too close to a live triffid, which fired its poison spores and blinded him. He has been taken to a London
hospital, where as the story begins, he
waits to find out if his eyesight has been saved or not. He has
bandages on. Their removal will tell him if he will see again. He waits patiently, but the hospital is eerily quiet. He realises that something is wrong. After a while, he removes his own bandages, despite the risk, but he can now see. He finds instead that most other people can’t see. He isn’t
blind, but most of humanity is blind now. This is as a result of satellites in space releasing an excess of energy, which created a spectacular aurora borealis style lighting display in the evening skies. All who watched it have subsequently gone blind. The hero now finds that he is one of the few who can still see in a world not only of blind people, but one in which the triffids can now more easily catch their prey – people. The hero leads a small band of survivors in a desperate attempt to get out of the country safely for somewhere not yet affected by rampant
Triffid growth. The story has been filmed once, badly and successfully turned into a BBC TV series. It was also a huge influence on the film 28 Days later which also featured a formerly blind hero wandering through deserted city streets. The Triffids remain one of the greatest monster creations in all SF.
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