아늑한 파국은 없다: 존 윈덤의 『트리피드의 날』에 나타난 기술문명 비판

No Cozy Catastrophe: A Critique of Technological Civilization in John Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids

This study investigates John Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids(1951), an iconic piece of post-apocalyptic literature, by focusing on the array of disasters portrayed within the narrative. It explores the inversion of established dominance-subordination dynamics stemming from a botanical retaliation and humanity’s downfall due to unbridled greed and uncritical trust in technology. The analysis delves deeper into the circumstances leading to widespread human blindness triggered by malfunctioning artificial satellites armed with chemical weapons. This event displaces humans from their position as nature’s exploiters, thereby overturning the nature-human relationship. Further, the study illuminates how Triffids, carnivorous plants resulting from haphazard genetic modification experiments and used to serve capitalist interests, steadily infiltrate England’s sophisticated society, pushing humanity towards extinction. Despite the ‘cozy catastrophe’ tag, The Day of the Triffids is far from comforting, and it graphically communicates the disastrous consequences of human arrogance and blind reliance on technological civilization. This research explores the gradual encroachment of British civilization by the Triffids, scrutinizes the reversal of the nature-human relationship as most of the populace loses sight, and examines how such a fictional disaster can offer realistic societal contemplation.