This Book Will Haunt You | Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

Added: 2026-05-08

[00:00:00]There's a quote on the front of this book that says one of those books that haunts you for the rest of your life.

[00:00:06]Yes.

[00:00:10]I don't think that a day or a week will go past in my life where I will not think about this book. This is The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham.

[00:00:19]Hi, I'm Abby. I go by Pop Culture Scientist. I'm a physicist and I like to talk about the science of science fiction. Now, I realized quite recently that I don't really get to make as many videos as I would like to make breaking down the science.

[00:00:31]So, I tend to miss out on actually chatting about a lot of books, TV shows, and movies that I will watch because I only make deep dive videos on that stuff once a month. So, I've started this kind of series where I'm just basically riffing on initial reactions to how I feel about stuff right after I finish them. So, I'm not very prepared and I'm not a literary critic or anything like that. So, if you want a proper breakdown of you know, writing styles or things that are really specific to the the literary aspect to it, I'm probably not for you. But, I am a science fiction nerd and a science nerd and I just love talking about the way science is used in plots and the way stories are told.

[00:01:18]Now, I also noticed quite recently that I read an awful lot of classic science fiction. Like, I read a lot of sci-fi that's written in the like maybe '30s to '60s era.

[00:01:32]I was trying to figure out why recently and I and I kind of realized why. It's because I'm writing my thesis at the moment. I'm writing my PhD thesis.

[00:01:40]So, I spend all day immersed in a lot of science that we have right now. And I guess when I do read modern sci-fi at the moment, it is very science-heavy in a way that maybe it's just a bit too much for me. Let's be real. Although, I'm going to tell you what I'm currently reading in a minute and you'll laugh at me then. So, I was just thinking that that might be the reason why. But, because of that, it also means that I read quite a lot of American science fiction authors. Um and there's obviously you know, I have a great love for a lot of them. I mean, you know, classic if we go classic, I read a lot of Asimov. I've read a good bit of Heinlein, a lot of Ray Bradbury.

[00:02:21]I I particularly like Ray Bradbury.

[00:02:23]Philip K. Dick is one of my favorite science fiction authors.

[00:02:26]But, yeah. I So, from that kind of era and I also read like a lot of short story fiction as well, collections and things that are all from that era.

[00:02:35]This is possibly the first time I have read something that is very specifically British.

[00:02:42]And The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham.

[00:02:45]And there is a distinct difference in the writing style of something that is written in the '50s in Britain versus written in the '50s in America. And I'd be very curious to know what other people who are like big science fiction nerds think about this because I do think and and I mean this is respectfully as possible, but this is just a better written book.

[00:03:09]And what I mean is this thing that I struggle with a lot of the time with the science fiction of you know, the classic golden age of sci-fi stuff that I read.

[00:03:20]I always find it interesting how incapable they seem to be of imagining a future that is really progressive.

[00:03:30]Like, it's always still very limited by the '50s ideals of the '50s American culture.

[00:03:40]That seems to still always be a thread through. Now, this is a book written in the '50s, set in the '50s and is very to me quite progressive in the types of things that deals with, the way it handles the characters, and the way that he develops the characters and we get to we get into I mean, there's not a huge amount of people that we get introduced to, but particularly the two main characters that we have, which is Josella and Bill. Um Their interactions, the way that they treat each other, the way that they speak to each other, their roles in society, and everything like that to me feels very modern. And it might just be that London in the 1950s was more modern than America in the 1950s. I'm just thinking that it's potentially that's what was going on. Now, other people may have a different idea and a different thing that they would want to say about all of that. So, this is The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham. It is the only book I have ever read by him and I can promise you I will read every other book that this man has ever written because this is one of the most engaging books that I have read from this specific era of science fiction. Okay, so I'm going to talk about the plot because there's a couple of things that happen throughout that I think are really interesting and that I want to discuss. So, first off is The Day of the Triffids and the way it starts out is we have the story of Bill who got stung by a triffid. We find out a bit later and he's in hospital overnight with bandages over his eyes.

[00:05:15]So, he wakes up in the hospital the next morning and there's just nobody around.

[00:05:18]He can't find anyone. He doesn't understand what's going on. Now, the night before there was a comet. So, a comet was going to pass through the sky and from what we're told, the like orbit of Earth was going to pass through the tail of the comet. So, everyone was going out to look at the comet. We find out later that everyone who went out to look at the comet lost their eyesight.

[00:05:40]And only certain people who were in conditions similar to Bill woke up the next day with their eyesight still intact. So, what kind of proceeds from there is a bit of a story where you have this crossover between these this like catastrophic apocalyptic event that has happened to all of the people who saw the comet, which is globally coupled with this plant life that now exists on Earth called triffids who have these really intense stingers that once they hit you most people will die immediately.

[00:06:20]Wyndham, because he works with triffids not Wyndham, but Bill. Bill, because he works with triffids was able to escape or like not get as much of a sting that would that would cause him to die. Now, initially in the prologue, we find out that the triffids are a type of plant life that has been created in a sort of like behind behind the wall, behind the iron curtain in a Cold War Russia.

[00:06:46]Um as a type of an oil source. So, it's this concept around like the oils that we use for and we use oil in so many different things. So, it's about like vegetable oil, rapeseed oil. You know, there's all these different types of oils that we use and triffid oil is apparently very, very good, very beneficial and will be the next big thing. So, the they try to smuggle some of the triffid seeds out, but in that smuggling procedure, the triffid seeds get spread out and then they just start to populate the Earth.

[00:07:19]So, people learn pretty early on how to cultivate them and harvest them, but also how to keep them trapped and tamper and closed off so that they can't harm anyone.

[00:07:32]But, the big thing about the triffids is they can walk. They can slowly uproot themselves and walk. Now, the reason I'm telling you all of this is because I would love some confirmation from Danny Boyle as to whether this book or as to whether 28 Days Later is essentially a retelling of The Day of the Triffids but in the form of zombies. Because the imagery that we get the entirety throughout this book as Bill tries to navigate his way through London the next day or in the you know, in the days and the weeks preceding the events that have happened.

[00:08:11]And the desolation and the destruction and what he's coming across, whether he's coming across humans, whether they can be trusted or not trusted, or whether he's coming across the plant life later on as the plant life starts to infest a bit more and they need to try to escape from the plant life.

[00:08:31]There's great scenes towards the end where the triffids are like enclosing wherever they find people. They can hear them. The triffids are able to pick up the sounds of the vibrations when humans are nearby and then they just enclose them because the thing about the triffids as well is they are carnivores.

[00:08:49]So, the entire premise of this book, the way it is laid out, the every image I saw as I was thinking about like the empty streets of London was what I was picturing from 28 Days Later. It's like Cillian Murphy walking across Westminster Bridge and it's like I can see Bill walking around Piccadilly Circus.

[00:09:10]It's so satisfying in that way of like just having all of this visual I love when I read something that's set in a place where I lived for a long time cuz it's so much easier to have all that great visual imagery. But, it really does feel like 28 Days Later is a modern retelling of this story.

[00:09:30]Now, a few things that happened throughout it that I think are really interesting is the fact that none of this it kind of implies a little bit along it that the comet tail thing is like an alien event or that maybe the triffids are like an alien creature, but they're not. They are biologically they're it's horticulture. I think that's the right term. You know, they are just created and made on Earth. It is a type of plant life created and made on Earth. Then the comet passing through the comet tail, the ideas that kind of come up around that are very reminiscent of a comet event that happened in the early 1900s where people were concerned cuz we were getting more like new research was happening. We were learning more about comets and what comet tails might be made of and I think it was Halley's Comet was passing and the Earth was going to pass through the tail and it was the first time people understood what types of gases might be in the tail of a comet and there was this genuine fear that everyone on Earth was going to die and there was snake oil salesmen out there selling like gas masks and like antidotes to to the comet gas and stuff which of course nothing happened and there was no effect whatsoever.

[00:10:45]But we learned much later on which I think is a really fascinating like twist in the story is that actually at this time period because of the events of World War II and because of the way nations are interacting with each other, there was a lot of satellites put in orbit around the planet and in those satellites there were weapons of destruction that were chemical weapons basically and so it's a very kind of modern idea I think for science fiction of these for the time period that it was written in as well. I'm trying to double-check actually what year it was written. I mean I do think it says that it was published in 1950.

[00:11:26]Um one.

[00:11:29]First published in 1951.

[00:11:31]So yeah, even just the concept of these satellites being around Earth with these chemical weapons so that it was not actually a comet in the end that the comet was a was a fabrication and something happened or maybe the comet wasn't a fabrication but there was some natural disaster that caused a cascade event of these satellites to release all of this agent that caused everyone on Earth to lose their eyesight and then because of that because having eyesight was an evolutionary advantage for humanity over the Triffids, it turns out then that the Triffids can become the dominating living being on the planet because humans no longer have an evolutionary advantage over them because the humans can't see the Triffids coming so the Triffids can now basically take out the remaining humans. So that's kind of the general story of what happens through.

[00:12:34]The reason why this book is entirely haunting and will stay with me forever is the through line descriptions and discussions around what happens to the people who have lost their sight.

[00:12:48]And when you really think about that, when you really think about that as a natural disaster, like it's one thing when you have a zombie apocalypse or when you have alien invasions, all these other concepts that we see in science fiction of destruction of humanity or what types of things might happen. But a very simple disaster that removes the eyesight from humanity and suddenly we can't survive. Now it's actually interesting because I did talk recently about Project Hail Mary and I talked about how an alien species could evolve without eyes and still be able to interact with their environment and build tools. But that's because you're born into an environment that doesn't have electromagnetic radiation so having eyes and photoreceptors isn't an advantage. But if you live in a world where having eyes was an advantage and then suddenly you don't have them anymore, how do you then navigate within that world? And when you really think about that navigation aspect and when you think about how our world is set up and you start to think about people who are visually impaired and like how do people with visual impairment manage to find ways to navigate through a world that is so completely designed against them. Now there are tools and of course there are people who do very very well. But when you think about the the story as it's presented in this book, this moment where everyone suddenly cannot see and how helpless everyone becomes, how dependent people are on these few individuals that have sight in order to be able to care for everyone. But how do you even care for everyone? If you suddenly wake up one day and you're on the street and every single other person around you cannot see, how do you come together and navigate your way through? How do you find food? How do you find medicine? How do you protect yourself from predators or the cold or you know people with ill ill ill thoughts ill intentions, that's the word I'm trying to think of.

[00:14:58]I I I'm losing my ability to properly describe it but all I can say is reading the book, just going through those moments, the genuine fear that I felt. I have never felt more afraid reading a science fiction book or a dystopia book than I felt reading this in those moments where I thought about the people especially when Bill is trying to discuss with himself what the right thing to do is because you know what can you do and looking at how he's looking at people who are just trying to survive or people who are making decisions that it's maybe best not to survive.

[00:15:39]There's you know choices that people end up making which you can see and you can understand but also when you see the devastation or can picture the devastation and the helplessness of the situation, it's really really hard to not feel genuinely terrified about what we would be like if we woke up one day and we couldn't see anymore and the Triffids could reign supreme.

[00:16:06]This is an absolutely excellent book. I loved it. I think I'll do Midwich Cuckoos next.

[00:16:13]I think that because then I think I'd like to see the the show. Now I haven't watched the movie. There is a movie somebody said there was a movie made in the 60s I think around the 60s based on this. I had a look at it. Now they did say as one of their comments that like it's very different and I had a look at the plot and it is the story is drafted very differently but they did say that it's like well worth a watch as well. So I might I might get around to watching it at some point. But yeah. The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham, highly recommend. Absolutely fantastic read. I loved it.

[00:16:42]So what am I currently reading? Now I also thought I should say that you guys I don't always just read science fiction like I read a lot of other books.

[00:16:51]I have to say it now that I'm here.

[00:16:54]I look one of my favorites is always and will always be Jane Austen. I got that this this was given to me by a family friend years and years ago, Iris. Iris gave me this. Thank you Iris. I love it so much still.

[00:17:08]It's the collection of all Jane Austen books and I also have my like vintage covers collection downstairs as well that I absolutely adore.

[00:17:17]I put off reading Persuasion for a very very very long time and I did that because I knew that it was going to be my last moments. If you're an Austen fan, like I knew that reading Persuasion was going to be my last moments of having my first time with one of her stories, you know?

[00:17:34]So I really have to just kind of I had it on my shelf for so many years before I finally just went okay, today's the day I'm going to read it and immediately it's my favorite of all of her books. I absolutely adore it and I will re-read that. I don't re-read books that often but I will re-read that book time and time again because it is perfect. And I beg the BBC for a full proper adaptation of Persuasion. I beg them. And now that I just finished watching The Other Bennet Sister, I know you can do it.

[00:18:07]So you guys, The Other Bennet Sister was such a freaking joy. I finished that show, 10 episodes, 10 30-minute episodes, absolutely incredible. But I finished watching The Other Bennet Sister and it was the first time since I finished reading Persuasion and all of Austen's other books where I actually came away with that same giddy little feeling that I felt the first time I read any of her books. It is a beautiful adaptation. It is so Jane Austen. It is done I loved everything about it. And the ending was so perfect and I am just like I'm still super giddy about it.

[00:18:46]But yeah, it did make me kind of go please please please can we have Persuasion properly done?

[00:18:52]Like don't get me wrong. The obviously uh There there are two movies that are both fantastic adaptations of Persuasion.

[00:19:03]But I just what I want is like I want the proper treatment. I want the episodes. I want it to have the time.

[00:19:11]Persuasion out of all of Austen's books needs the time. Needs to you need to build the longing and the yearning and the separation and just doing that over like a half an one and a half hour movie just is not enough. It needs all of that. We need all of those extra little stories to be told as well and we need to get the proper conclusions to everything at the end. So yeah, that is my my beg of the BBC. Anyway, what I'm currently reading right now is I finally started for the first time ever Mistborn.

[00:19:42]I've put off reading this for a long time as well mostly because like by the time I finally finished The Wheel of Time, I needed like a major break for a while and because I'm still waiting for Patrick Rothfuss to finish The Kingkiller Chronicle series and I'm still annoyed about that. So, you know, I I just didn't want to start another fantasy series for a while. I was like, I need a bit of a break. And finally, here I am, Mistborn book one. I'm very, very late to the game, you guys. But I I mean, I like to read fantasy, but I just I don't read a huge amount of it because, you know, it's huge series. So, I tend to spend years reading like a series before I will move on to another one.

[00:20:17]Uh but I'm also reading The Wandering Earth, Cixin Liu.

[00:20:22]Uh this is what I was laughing about what I'm saying about, you know, being really stuck in like 50s, 60s, uh golden age, sci-fi. Then I'm suddenly like, Wandering Earth. So, but I picked this up because I've been wanting to do a science-based episode on this concept for a while. This whole whole idea of like moving a planet. It's insane. Not just because of The Wandering Earth, but also because of this book called The Wanderer by Fritz Leiber, which won a Hugo Award many, many years ago. I think it's like won a Hugo Award like I think it's like the 30s or the 40s or something like that. So, excuse me.

[00:21:05]So, yeah, that's basically where I'm kind of going with I don't know I don't think it will be a full deep dive video of the month, but it might be one of my weekly videos where I'll do a quick little breakdown cuz I didn't realize this, but the The Wandering Earth is actually only a short. This is a short story collection.

[00:21:22]So, The Wandering Earth story itself is it's only like 47 pages. It's it's done.

[00:21:27]I already took a lot of notes. Yes, I did. Uh so, I'm going to watch the movie. I'm going to watch the movie um that they made a number of years ago, and then I will do a bit of a science breakdown of that particular story, The Wandering Earth story.

[00:21:44]So, in terms of science fiction other than that, the next book that I will be reading is I will be doing a reread of Neuromancer because I'm prepping that for a video of the month deep dive into cyberspace and the idea of plugging into the Matrix. So, thanks for watching. I know that these videos are random and a bit weird. And maybe someday I'll find a flow with it, or maybe I'll just keep making these really random rambly videos where I just talk about stuff that I'm into.

[00:22:18]And uh we'll see if anyone ever watches them. I think I'll be satisfied just making them and putting them out there because at least gets it out of my brain and into the space. And then maybe you guys, if you do, can can comment on things that you would like me to do like deep deep dive like science of science fiction videos for a month, or if there's like a shorter video that I can do just as one of those um like 10-minute weekly videos, then you guys can let me know.

[00:22:42]But yeah, Day of the Triffids. Let me know what you thought of it, and let me know what you are currently reading.

[00:22:49]Okay, bye. Stay nerdy.