The Chrysalids

St Just Monday Morning Reading Group 26th April 2020.

The chrysalids. John Wyndham.

The majority of the group enjoyed reading this book; most had read it before, some years ago, and generally appreciated it more on re-reading. Many found it especially relevant to the present time – 'real and scary', 'had a particular relevance', 'thought-provoking and strangely pertinent to the times', were expressions that people used to describe this. Almost everyone liked John Wyndham's writing style and found that the book 'hooked' them, was 'a page-turner' and a good tale with excellent characterisation.

Most of us, again, however, thought that the narrative tailed off towards the end, when the chase comes to an end and the Zealand rescuers make too many rhetorical speeches about change and evolution. This seemed to several readers unusual in John Wyndham's writing, as his style is usually more consistent. Also the ending was considered a bit too 'nice', when the heroes are whisked away to a new and better world.

The chief interest in this book, we thought, was the clever handling of its themes of a post-apocalyptic society, authoritarian and quasi-religious in nature, dedicated to a kind of purity of race or of species, which one reader compared with Hitler's Arianism. Equally well put is the idea, described obliquely rather than spelled out, of the apocalypse which brought this situation about, which we are free to assume was a nuclear war. Particularly resonant also is the concept of what the 'old world' was like, or what the book's characters thought about it. One reader said:
“The phrase "They aspired greedily and then refused to face the responsibilities they had created", this made me think of climate change, global warming and our need to follow a market economy, John Wyndham was writing that in 1955. We, perhaps I should say I, could suggest that coronavirus has been sent to give our world a chance of a good hard look at itself. What do we really need, certainly accessing food is proving an essential, but we don't need much money at present because there is nothing to buy or nowhere to go. It is hard to write this when the consequences of this virus are so terrible but John Wyndham's look back at the old world does make you think and how wise he seems in retrospect.”

The escape of a group of children from this society, who had a 'mutation' of their own which was a form of telepathy, also provides a gripping and suspenseful tale which readers found very involving.

Particular points that readers noticed were the depiction of Labrador as a warm and fertile land which had only two months of winter; the horror of compulsory sterilisation of those considered imperfect; the precise nature of the telepathic traits amongst the children and how far this might extend; the futuristic city that David dreamt about at the beginning of the book being an actual city, presumably in an undamaged New Zealand; and the Zealanders' views about telepathy being merely a part of evolution, and whether this did or did not make their society better than any other.

One reader actively didn't like the book very much, describing it as a “good Boy's Own story”, and was put off by the repetitive descriptions of the bigotry of David's father and his religious fundamentalist community, the patronising homilies of his Uncle Alex, and the almost equally bigoted New Zealand community. (Another reader particularly liked Uncle Alex, his thoughts and his explanations of how different people looked at their differences).

Comparisons were made with John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids, and The Midwich Cuckoos.

This book was read during March 2020 and the national lockdown because of the Covid-19 virus, and so the discussion was not 'live' as usual, but took place via a Facebook group, email and telephone conversations. If we had been able to meet in person, we all thought the books themes of bigotry, prejudice in the name of religion, diversity, eugenics, global warming and telepathy would have provided fruitful topics for debate.