NIGHTFALL BY ISAAC ASIMOV

Nightfall is a short story written by Isaac Asimov in 1941 and Robert Silverberg adapted it to a novel in 1990. We listened to an audio play by X minus one of the same story.

The story was about a planet, Lagash, which had six suns revolving around it and light was present in every part of the planet. People were used to have light every day, except for the regular eclipse which happens when the moon was at minimum distance from Lagash and the lone sun Beta was at aphelion. The moon was seven times bigger than the apparent size of Beta covers it completely that there would be darkness all over the planet. This eclipse happens every 2049 years and it was not good when the darkness covers the place. People go mad, insane even, that they would do anything to make artificial light - fire. They burned everything they could and resulting to the fall of civilization. Others experience claustrophobia or fear of enclosed spaces, because they feel the walls closing in them when they experienced the darkness. The eclipse would last for half a day, a group of scientists predicted.

There was a place called 'Hideout' wherein selected people (probably families of the scientists) were kept safe and a hundred of invented artificial light source was also deposited there. Food and shelter were given for them for two days while the scientists stayed in the observatory and planned on taking pictures of the eclipse and hopefully informing the next generation of survivors of the nightfall about darkness and why it should not be feared. However, the scientists and the newspaperman who was about to cover the whole story died in the end.

I think the story was worthy of being nominated as the best science fiction short story back in 1965 of the Nebula awards. I had time to read the original short story, a 20-page pdf file, and I was amazed on how a person could imagine such a world and the extreme implications of night, supposing they were not used to it. The fall of civilization every 2049 years and the tales of the survivors - in the story, they were referred to either children or morons only - could have a great effect on the next generation, and it was up to them if it would be positive or negative. In their case, it was negative because the Cult linked it to some religious theories, and never believed that there was a vast universe beyond the six suns of Lagash. Their minds were closed, they never believed that, and as a result, the next generation was never ready for the next eclipse and suffered from fear - fear that they themselves created in the first place.

Reyes, Paollo Deo R,

2013-66992