Nightfall by Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov
Source- archive.org

 The 'Nightfall' by Isaac Asimov is a popular science fiction story published in 1941. The story talks about a possible planetary world which has never experienced darkness and is always under the influence of constant light. The celestial mechanism of Lagash is such that it is surrounded by six suns which allows the planet to experience eternal daytime. However, it is also revealed that every 2049 years, there’s a multi-solar eclipse because of which the planet falls into the state of utter darkness for few hours making it desolate for the inhabitants to live in.

Once in two-thousand years, all the suns of Lagash extinguish as they move far away from the it and the planet is left to stumble alone as it plunges into darkness. The fictional planetary world who see the night sky for the first time end up destroying their civilization. According to the beliefs of the cultists in the story when darkness engulfs, men are robbed of their souls and they become inhuman. Darkness influences them to such an extent that they become like beasts desperate for light and they go insane.

According to the story, there have been historic evidences which show that their population has gone mad and destroyed civilization many times when this thing called “night’ fell every thousand years. Throughout the story, the scientists of laboratory were on tenterhooks and were trying to record their observations of the phenomena for the future civilizations to know and sustain. Since the inhabitants of Lagash have never experienced the absence of light, the total eclipse will make them go insane. In the attempt to escape from the darkness, they will try to create light by setting their cities on fire, and thereby causing accident and involuntary destruction of their civilization and then new cycle of life begins.

As a result of delving into sunless atmosphere and the consequent loss of mankind and civilization every two thousand years, one can conclude light as the source of survival for the people of Lagash whereas darkness is symbolic of death.  According to me, the night and darkness is also used as a metaphor for self-destruction which results into global humanitarian crisis for their planet. The magnificent revelation of the vast universe and the disclosure of the fact that their planet was in the centre of an inter-galactic system leaves a grave impact on the people. It was not only the irruption of the nightfall or darkness on Lagash, but also the knowledge of the cosmos and stars that makes them go insane. Before this they were living in state of utter ignorance of the fact that their planet and suns were the only celestial bodies in the universe. 

 With the Nightfall, Asimov explores the psychological effects on human mind when we plunge into an atmosphere which is unnatural or foreign to our body. The human mind becomes desperate under such circumstances causing psychological imbalance. Even seconds of darkness can feel like eternal darkness as it is unnatural to the landscape of the planet. The exposure to total darkness degrades the mind and body which results into insanity.

In the story, the tunnel of mystery was a psychological experiment done on the people of Lagash to know the effects of darkness of their mind and body. It was revealed that the tunnel of mystery can lead to breathing problems, claustrophobia, insanity, and even death. This is because, the people of Lagash are sensitive to darkness and any kind of darkness put them into a state of panic.

The dark and desolate landscape of Lagash parallels the deteriorating human psyche thus highlighting the effect of the environment on man and the connection between the individuals and their landscapes. The issues of human mortality versus galactic forces, failure of human consciousness to fully understand these forces are central to the theme.

Faro and Yamot’s experiment to construct a little house which looked like stars shining through dark in order to immunize them tells us a lot about the nature of darkness of the universe. Total Darkness makes you feel as if the walls and ceiling are crushing in on you.

 Also, the religious beliefs of the cult will lose their significance as soon as there is some scientific proof backing it and it will just come a natural phenomenon, instead of a religious marvel. The cult will lose its identity, significance and the book of revelations would become useless. 

 All the living beings live in a symbiotic relationship with their environment. Human beings are bound to the mundane boundaries of the atmosphere in which they live in. Light is a biblical symbol of divinity, enlightenment and truth but according to me, Light had been continuously deceiving Lagash for thousands of years. It was the ‘darkling of the sky’ which disclosed the vast knowledge about the universe to the people. However, the knowledge contrasted with their biological body function. Darkness leaves a catastrophic effect on their states of mind. The fact that the darkness will be gone in few hours but they will become insane, tells us about how light keeps their lives sustained but also holds them back from the acknowledging the vast heavens of the universe.

Bhimayana

Bhimayana 

 

Bhimayana is a graphic book published in 2011, which represents an imaginative visual translation of Bhimrao Ambedkar’s autobiography “Waiting for Visa”.  Bhimayana is an  effort to address the oppressions faced by the historically subjugated population of Untouchables and to make their story a universal experience. It  deals with the issue of ‘Otherness’ faced by Dalits in the society, accounting for everyday expulsions from – Water, Shelter and Travel.

The narrative of ‘Bhimayana’ is replicated in the form of text, design and illustrations. The tribal craft of the Gond community of central India is used in illustrating the graphics of the book. These illustrations are symbolic, evocative, densely metaphoric and form a very significant component of the graphic narrative. The whole idea resonates around the hegemony of graphics over words where graphics become the constant companions of expressions for the marginalised and serve as a linguistic site for the them to draw what they can’t speak.

Bhimayana deploys this tribal artform infilled with Digna pattern work, rendering a traditional ethnicity to the book and hence, creating a powerful visual biography. The book doesn’t seek realistic representation of the characters in the form of photorealism but creates a non-realistic world where almost all the characters look alike.

Prajna Desai in her review to the book writes-

“Its two interlocking strands join Ambedkar’s biography with a string of thumbnails about present day caste prejudice, violently pervasive in villages, though all but invisible to most urban Indians.”

The book coexists in repressed historical events and ignorant contemporary reality perceived by the urban Indians. In a world where the looming presence of Dalit atrocities is still denied, graphic narrative juxtaposed with texts, clippings and art becomes an attractive mode of representing this sub-altern issue.

In Book 1, Water, we see thirst embodied as fish. The water pump, too becomes an angry face when Bhimrao is denied water. A harvester is seen crying in response to the massacre at Satara. Even the chair on the bus stand appears to be benign and gentle to all the people irrespective of their caste, gender or opinions. It’s the human beings that tend to decide the place to one must belong.

The book is constructed in a way to generate a constructive imagery based on the idea of silence. The pointing finger image symbolise accusatory fingers, pointed in the direction of the victim of caste.

There’s an anthropomorphic structuration of inanimate objects. The bus in which Ambedkar travels is cheerful and gentle. The art makes a contrast as inanimate objects are seen serving as metaphors and embodies emotions while upper class people tend to remain inhumane in their approach towards Dalits.

Ambedkar’s words in Book 2 (page 48) are shown as shedding water and thus, reviving the souls and quenching the centuries old thirst of the Dalit people. Since generations Untouchables have been segregated from the society. The book exploits this fact and provides an alternate structure through its Art, which is beyond the hierarchies of the society; rejecting the realistic and existing caste ideology. The human chain metaphor in Book-3 (page 90) suggest an unbreakable network of unity of Dalit community while witnessing the Gandhi-Ambedkar debate. A dancing peacock represents the happiness whereas a fort which Ambedkar visits take the shape of a dungeon (Book- Travel, page- 73). 

Bhim and his brothers leaving for Masur
Book 1- Water

Also, a hunger starved, preying animal imagery in the form of crocodile is always present along with the casteist Brahmins, and a fish always accompanies the Dalits; creating a contrast between the two species of marine animals, one preying on the other.  A contrast in the form of speech bubbles is also created. Victims of oppression are generally given the “bird speech/swan balloon” whereas oppressors have been awarded with “sting balloons”.

Bhimrao becomes the face of the Dalit community as the book maps the journey of discrimination faced by him since his childhood. The book uses art as catharsis which makes the readers relate deeply to the story. The art of Bhimayana depicts the sorrows and the pains felt by the marginal people. It pierces through the readers making a space for the emotions which can’t be represented through mere words. These heart-wrenching experiences leave a dramatic influence on the readers. It also evokes an unsettled feeling that leaves it traces in the shape of these imageries.

The genre helps the readers  to connect with the social inequities and the dehumanised otherness which symbolise the victims as ‘type’ and not ‘individuals’. Visual narratives have become a powerful tool of communication in popular literature as it is able to exert a control through profuse use of imagery. Visuals have always been more perceptible and communicative than textual mediums. It is because of the intense and engaging nature; the book is able to generate an emotional appeal.

Bhimayana being a graphic novel bridges the gap between the insusceptible readers and the victims of segregation. Through its graphic narrative, it is able to translate the atrocities faced by Dalits and render it to the readers, amplifying the magnitude of the subject.