Fear of the dark in sci-fi

[parallaxicality]

I just finished watching Stephen Moffat's latest Dr Who ep, and, since its theme was fear of the dark, I thought I'd post a question that's been bugging me.

Why can't scifi exploit fear of the dark?

I don't get it. Space is infinite and eternal night. It's the blackness we hide from when we pull the covers over our heads. It seems strange to me that science fiction has never really treated it that way. Oh sure, you have shadows and dark caves and such, but hardly any stories I can think of has ever drawn out the fearful qualities of space itself. Off the top of my head I can think of two examples, William Gibson's short story "Hinterlands" (which to my mind is still the best story he has ever written) and Alien.

[SpecialEd]

Well I can think of at least 2 examples of where it's at least been touched upon & I'm sure others can come up with more.

1- "Pitch Black." Nasty nasty creatures that only can come out at night. (On a planet that experiences darkness only every couple decades or so-like how does that evolve?) A high-tech boogie-man story, basically.

2- Conversation between Halie & Jane in "Serenity." Halie says something to the effect that the prevailing theory on the reavers is that people got to the edge of the galaxy, looked out into all that darkness, & the darkness looked back-got inside them somehow & wigged them out. Kind of poetic actually- I liked it.

[Nowhere Man]

"Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov, of course.

Fred

[ravens_cry]

Oh yes, "Nightfall", it really made you feel the terror of no light.

[Paul Beardsley]

Yes, "Nightfall" is a good example.

Then there's Michael Moorcock's The Black Corridor, which is specifically about the darkness in space. I remember reading it in one evening, and being terrified. I was young at the time, though...

Steven Moffat's The Silence in the Library was a return to True Doctor Who. Very good indeed and, like Cordwainer Smith's "No No Not Rogov" it demonstrated that it's the mundane aspects of the far future that will really freak you out, rather than the monsters.

[Krel]

I always liked Arthur C. Clarke's "A Walk in the Dark". http://arthur-clarke-fansite.blogspo...val-fears.html

David.

Found a radio show version of it: http://beta.odeo.com/episodes/185010...-Dark-10-01-76

[mike alexander]

"Ghost V", Ron Goulart, I believe.

[SkepticJ]

H.G. Wells' The Time Machine. The Morlocks haunt the night.

Unlike their treatment in the movies, I don't really view them as the bad guys in the novel--there are no bad guys.

[eburacum45]

A lot of H.P. Lovecraft's stories hinge on the terrors that lurk in the dark spaces between the worlds. He was a good Sci-Fi writer for his time, especially in his consistent use of non-humanoid aliens.

To be honest, space is a pretty scary place, and exposure to vacuum would kill you as easily as any swarm of 'Vashta Nerada'. I can imagine that a culture of space-dwelling humans would make up bogiemen like the Elder Gods or the Vashta Nerada, simply to instill in their children a cultural fear of unprotected exposure to empty space

[mike alexander]

Forgot "The Game of Rat and Dragon".

[jokergirl]

Slightly OT, but something worse than dark - the hyperspace in Niven's short stories, that your eyes/brain can't picture at all and which drives you mad after a while.

[Weird Dave]

...Why can't scifi exploit fear of the dark...

Because it's not the dark you need to be scared of. Out in the black you're hidden. Safe, as long as you keep your radio and thermal emission to a minimum.

It's the light you should fear. We're in the light now. Just a few million miles from a blazing beacon that cries out "Planets! Warmth! Water! Prey!". The subtleties of the light reveal our Earth, give away its exact location - they may even see our sillhouette. And it is the same light, stored in fossil fuels, that powers the transmitters with which we foolishly advertise our primitive pre-interstellar naivety. And they will come. And the place of light will become a place of massacre, become a place of silence. And then they will leave, to hide in the comforting darkness from things even they fear. Things that all who visit the light should fear.



Hmm, late-night overactive imagination there .

[parallaxicality]

Woah. Bit by the Blarney stone there. Some nice phrasing.

I always liked Arthur C. Clarke's "A Walk in the Dark". http://arthur-clarke-fansite.blogspo...val-fears.html

David.

Found a radio show version of it: http://beta.odeo.com/episodes/185010...-Dark-10-01-76

Thanks I loves me a good ghost story.

[Krel]

Because it's not the dark you need to be scared of.

Old joke. I'm not afraid of the dark...Its the things in the dark that I am afraid of.

David.

[Weird Dave]

Old joke. I'm not afraid of the dark...Its the things in the dark that I am afraid of.

David.

And I suppose you're not afraid of heights, you're afraid of depths; not afraid of falling, you're afraid of landing; not afraid of dogs, you're afraid of teeth.

Anyway, back on topic... I've read the short story Nightfall, and it was excellent and most relevant to the question. Do people generally prefer the short story or the novel (which I should probably seek out sometime). I understand there are film versions as well, about which many bad things have been said.

[AndreasJ]

FWIW, I liked the short story better, which I read many years after reading the novel.

[Jason]

Short story. Nightfall as a novel didn't add anything to the basic idea.

[tdvance]

And I suppose you're not afraid of heights, you're afraid of depths; not afraid of falling, you're afraid of landing; not afraid of dogs, you're afraid of teeth.

Anyway, back on topic... I've read the short story Nightfall, and it was excellent and most relevant to the question. Do people generally prefer the short story or the novel (which I should probably seek out sometime). I understand there are film versions as well, about which many bad things have been said.

I like the novel better, and didn't like either film version that well.

[Abbadon_2008]

I like the thought of a 'Frightening Abyss' of darkness. While you might find a cozy world to make your own, you've got to cover a lot of black, cold, unfriendly territory to get there.

Radiation, cosmic rays, extremes in temperatures, flying debris, no air...and any alien life form is just gonna new variables to the mix.

[ravens_cry]

I have never read the novel, but my experience with novels that were originally short stories hasn't been good.

[CJSF]

Yes, just to be clear, the above posts reference the WRITTEN stories called "Nightfall" (Novel or short story), NOT the movie.

CJSF

[BigDon]

Barbara Hambly's The Time of The Dark, Walls of Air and The Armies of Daylight, three good books in a trilogy. Read and be entertained my friends.

Why it's so good you can't tell the authors a woman!

(runs off zigzaging in a low crouch while trying to keep solid objects between him and Gillian)

[Krel]

And I suppose you're not afraid of heights, you're afraid of depths; not afraid of falling, you're afraid of landing;

Actually the old joke is that I'm not afraid of heights, or falling, just the sudden stop.

not afraid of dogs, you're afraid of teeth.

Well, I have to admit, that one is true, but then I have always liked dogs. I do also have a healthy respect for the part you feed.

David.

[Nowhere Man]

I understand there are film versions [of "Nightfall"] as well, about which many bad things have been said.

Oh my yes, do strive to avoid seeing the 1988 version at least. I've not wasted my time on the 2000 version.

Fred

[Delvo]

There was actually a 2000 "Nightfall"? It sounds like you could be referring to "Pitch Black", which was not based on "Nightfall" at all and not meant to be connected to it in any particular way except maybe as a vague general inspiration for the settings... but the setting alone, NOT the plot or characters.

[ravens_cry]

Pitch Black was quite good. Not cerebral, but quite good at conveying the terror involved. It wasn't however so much a fear of the dark, as what lived there.

[hhEb09'1]

Slightly OT, but something worse than dark - the hyperspace in Niven's short stories, that your eyes/brain can't picture at all and which drives you mad after a while.

IIRC, the character in Niven's short story Neutron Star suffered a great deal from exactly what the OP is getting at--didn't his ship turn transparent?

[eburacum45]

I get irritated when reading Nightfall over the astronomy in the story; the situation Asimov describes is so extremely unlikely that it could probably never happen. In real multiple star systems a habitable planet would have plenty of night-time periods with no suns in the sky. This kind of spoils the story for me; if taken as a hard science fiction story, Nightfall requires a bit too much suspension of disbelief.
And Pitch Black is far worse in that respect.

[parallaxicality]

I found Nightfall on audio. Pretty good, though it seems unlikely to me that any society would invent the car before it invented candles. Surely they had basements?

http://escapepod.org/2007/04/05/ep100-nightfall/

[captain swoop]

Actually the old joke is that I'm not afraid of heights, or falling, just the sudden stop.

Or as Arthur says 'It's not a question of who's habitat it is, it's how hard you hit it'