Book Review: "The Chrysalids" by John Wyndham

The Chrysalids (1955)
John Wyndham (1903-1969)

200 pages

Are we nearing such moral and social disorder that frightened parents will run back to Mother Church and beg her to discipline their children, at whatever cost to intellectual liberty?

The Lessons of History, 96, Will and Ariel Durant

It seems almost axiomatic that intellectual liberty declines--- sometimes significantly --- in times of societal stress. Though it’s not always a turn to “Mother Church,” populations can react to violent events or even only perceived threats by all too willingly sacrificing their freedom of expression and opinion in exchange for the apparent security of authoritarian regimes. A kind of mob rule can in fact occur in support of government restrictions, with a fearful majority actively and aggressively intimidating and coercing anyone venturing outside the norms, characterizing such people as dangerous, a risk that must be expunged at any cost.

John Wyndham’s novel The Chrysalids presents perhaps the extreme case for a civilization under stress: the desperately slow recovery after a world-wide nuclear war. Set in a distant future, in which much of the planet and its population have been destroyed, the descendants of those who survived have passed through a long, dark period of chaos and uncertainty, and are only gradually rebuilding the structures of civilization.

Wyndham centers his story around David, a boy whose family lives in a farming village on the border of a growing federation of such communities in current day Labrador. Though that place name has remained, the region itself has changed dramatically in this future, having become warm enough to support extensive agriculture, which forms the basis of life and the economy for the slowly coalescing society.

The members of this federation know little about the world of the distant past, other than that some sort of cataclysmic event occurred, referred to as the “Tribulations,” which ended the civilization of those they call the “Old People.” Legends abound of seemingly impossible technological capabilities possessed by the Old People but lost in the Tribulations; the one clear legacy the survivors regularly confront is a propensity for babies, animals and plants to appear with mutations. The growth of the federation is in fact dictated by the frequency of deformities seen in areas beyond its borders, called the “Wilds”: over generations, as fewer deformities are seen among the plants and animals in the Wilds, people expand out into them to found new settlements.

The appearance of mutations has thus, since far back into the long dark period after the Tribulations, played a central role in the lives and concerns people of the federation. With no understanding about what causes these deformities, however, the reasons why they appear more frequently in some years than others and in some family’s crops or animals or children but not others remains a mystery. This vacuum of knowledge about the causes of the deformities, and their implicit association with the ancient destruction, has not surprisingly engendered deep-seated fear and superstition.

To assuage their uncertainties the survivors have placed their faith in the one book that has survived from the Old People: the Bible. In particular, they hew tightly to an extension, entitled “Repentances,” written in the dark period following the Tribulations. The text of Repentances describes how God wrought the Tribulations on the Old People as punishment for some unrevealed behavior. In order to repent for those sins, it demands that the survivors root out and destroy any abnormality, whether in a plant, animal or person.

To accomplish this, the government and church instituted a merciless set of religious strictures, which have over time became harshly enforced cultural mandates, with children taught to fear any deformity.

There was only one true trail [back to grace] …. But so faint was the trail, so set with traps and deceits, that every step must be taken with caution, and it was too dangerous for a man to rely on his own judgement. Only the authorities, ecclesiastical and lay, were in a position to judge whether the next step was a rediscovery, and so, safe to take; or whether it deviated from the true re-ascent, and so was sinful. (40) 

Able to count on the almost fanatical support of the majority, the government of the federation actively pursues the rooting out of any mutations that appear, through purity officers assigned to every village.

However, as the occurrence of deformities has gradually but visibly declined --- at least in the gradually expanding lands of the federation --- and as ships exploring far beyond the Labrador’s natural borders have brought back reports of people in distant lands whose appearance would seem to violate the word of the Repentances, but who otherwise seemed normal and happy, doubts are beginning to arise among some members of the community about the draconian measures, and about what truly constitutes a dangerous deformity.

For David and some of his friends this question becomes deeply and dangerously personal. They have discovered within themselves an ability that, though not directly visible, puts them at risk from the extremists in their society if discovered. To survive they conceal this ability --- but the risk remains ever present, and weighs ever heavier on them as they grow up. When events finally conspire to reveal their secret, the friends must rally to each other’s support, to confront and defend themselves against the impassioned wrath of their erstwhile families, friends and landsmen.

The story's title is based on a variation of the word chrysalis, which, according to Merriam-Webster, means ‘a sheltered state or stage of being or growth’ (such as for a butterfly), a definition that aptly describes the growing federation of villages in this novel. In the aftermath of the horrific events of the past, a hard shell of dogmatism has protected this slowly expanding population of survivors for untold generations. Gradually, however, a growing segment of the community look to a more rational basis for life, wanting to free themselves from the stifling rules that have constrained their society.  The religious mainstream of the community, however, remain deeply fearful of any weakening in the resolve of the people to re-earn God’s grace, and will not yield without a fight.

As Christopher Priest points out in his Introduction, although The Chrysalids has a post-apocalyptic setting, Wyndham has presented a timeless examination of the debilitating effect that extremism can have when it takes hold of a society. Despite whatever basis may have originally existed for such it to develop, such extremism inevitably leads to constraints on behavior and thought that stunt a society’s growth and development. Wyndham’s cautionary tale, however, ultimately offers a combination of a glimmer of hope and call to arms: rational people can and must push back against the darkness.

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Other reviews / information:

The Introduction to The Chrysalids was written by Christopher Priest, another science fiction writer whose novel Inverted World, also published by NYRB; my review here.

This another wonderful selection in the New York Review of Books (NYRB) Classics collection.

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Have you read this book, others by this author, or even similar ones by other authors? I’d enjoy hearing your thoughts.
Other of my book reviews: FICTION Bookshelf and NON-FICTION Bookshelf

Book Review: "What is Happening in Catalonia" by Eduardo Mendoza

What is Happening in Catalonia (2017)
(Qué está pasando en Cataluña)
Eduardo Mendoza (1943)

94 pages

In 2017, an escalating series of events repeatedly brought the separatist movement in the Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia to the top of news feeds around the world. The long history, complex social dynamics and often arcane details of the political maneuvering involved have made it challenging for those outside of the country to understand the situation. Absent a deep understanding of the details, one is generally left with little basis on which to evaluate the competing claims of either side in the dispute.

Hoping to clarify some of this confusion, the Catalan writer Eduardo Mendoza has released a short book on the relationship between Catalonia and Spain, and the implications to the current unrest. In What is Happening in Catalonia he notes that even within Spain the conflict has for years been marked by a great deal of misunderstanding. Much of this, he argues, has arisen out of myths about Catalonia and its people --- myths that have been propagated among both Catalans and their non-Catalan, fellow citizens of Spain.

Over twelve concise but compellingly written chapters he addresses these myths, introducing them, analyzing how they took root and describing how they have contributed to aggravating an already volatile situation. A number of the chapters explore the experience of the Catalan people during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, which lasted from the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939 until his death in 1975. Mendoza claims that mischaracterizations of this period have solidified into dogma now trotted out by those in the separatist movement to support their cause, without a thoughtful consideration of their validity.

Another set of chapters examine the history of Catalonia, from a region of largely independent villages of farmers and fisherman, through a period of rapid modernization during the industrial revolution, and up to the recent challenges posed by issues such as immigration. Mendoza suggests that, like peoples in other regions of the world, Catalans have created stories of a romantic and noble past as a means of developing a coherent vision of their identity. Similarly, in Spain outside of Catalonia, more prejudicial images of the Catalan people have developed which tend to deprecate Catalan identity. In either case, Mendoza presents arguments that explode these simplified images.

Mendoza rounds out the book with chapters that discuss how Catalonia fits into the idea of Spain, and the implications of his analysis for the status and future of the separatist movement.

Though directed to the immediate challenges of the Catalan separatist movement for both Spain and Catalonia, Mendoza’s analysis in the book ties into broader issues of our day. Addressing, for example, the current attraction in many countries around the world --- and most particularly in western democracies --- of movements focused around an often powerful, but generally incoherent position against the status quo, he writes:

The political position of the contra movements is a characteristic of an age in which has disappeared any form of opposition to a social-economic system that is dismantling with impunity the welfare state and any hint of distributive justice. A considerable sector of the electorate exercises their vote as a punishment --- a castigation. This is understandable, but the result can be noxious. In the best cases it leads to instability; in the worst, to situations worse than those against which those contra movements sprang up. (83)

Las posturas políticas a la contra son una characterística de una época en la que ha desaparecido cualquier forma de oposicíon a un sistema socioeconómico que va desmantelando impunemente el estado de bienestar y cualquier amago de justicia distributiva. Un considerable sector del electorado ejerce el voto de castigo. Es comprensible, pero el resultado suele ser nocivo. En el mejor de los casos conduce a la inestabilidad; en el peor, a situaciones peores que aquéllas contra las que se ha actuado. (83)

Thus, a sense of disempowerment in the face of social challenges --- such as the impact of economic disruption or accelerated immigration --- has left populations latching onto groups motivated by a single-minded desire to dismantle existing political institutions, with little in the way of a coherent plan to replace them. The results of the 2016 U.S. presidential election can be viewed as an example of such a “castigation” when viewed in light of comments by the historian Vincent Harding in 2011 that “for the white community of America, there is this uncertainty growing about its role, its own control, its own capacity to name the realities.” (An extended version of Harding's comments can be found here.)

Mendoza’s observation of the power of myth and the impact of social disruption on the development of the Catalan separatist movement has parallels to observations by Eric Hoffer, in his essay The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements:
… frustration not only gives rise to the desire for unity [with a larger cause] and the readiness for self-sacrifice but also creates a mechanism for their realization. Such diverse phenomena as a deprecation of the present, a facility for make-believe, a proneness to hate … and many others which crowd the minds of the intensely frustrated are … unifying agents and prompters of recklessness. (Hoffer, 59, my review of the book here)

In his book What is Happening in Catalonia, Eduardo Mendoza has provided an engaging introduction to some of the more common narratives particular to the Catalan independence movement. In his arguments, he has tied the situation in Catalonia to broader challenges facing societies world-wide, making the book valuable beyond that particular situation. In that context, an observation he makes toward the end of the book would seem to indicate his doubts about whether workable political solutions can be found for many of these conflicts:

The illusion of democracy lies in the belief that democracy is a superior state in which it is sufficient to invoke it as if it were a charm through which all problems can be resolved. But it is not that. The life of a society is difficult. Democracy offers some means of mitigating arbitrariness and abuse of power, but nothing more. It only constitutes the rules of a system, as merciless as any other one. (69)

El sueño de la democracia consiste en creer que la democracia es un estado superior en el cual basta invocarla como si fuera un sortilegio para que se resuelvan todos los problemas. Pero no es así. La vida de una sociedad es dura. La democracia ofrece algunas recurso para mitigar la arbitrariedad y el abuso del poder, pero no más. Es sólo el reglamento de un sistema tan despiadado como cualquier otro. (69)

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Other reviews / information:

At this point, I’m not aware of this book having been translated yet into English.   The translations from Spanish of the quotes in the review are mine.

Read more quotes from this book here.

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Have you read this book, others by this author, or even similar ones by other authors? I’d enjoy hearing your thoughts.
Other of my book reviews: FICTION Bookshelf and NON-FICTION Bookshelf