"Nightfall"- An Illuminating Short Story by Issac Asimov

Source: UmMuseum.com

Writing legend Issac Asimov added to the genre of science fiction in a big way, most notably with his short story collection on robotic intelligence in I, Robot. One of his lesser known stories, "Nightfall" explores something entirely different: the limits of human knowledge.

On the distant planet, Kalgash, an eclipse is about to take place. The thought of an eclipse has the people of Kalgash in a panic.

Kalgash is a special planet, home to six suns. Six suns means that Kalgash is in a constant state of light. Darkness is a foreign concept to Kalgash citizens. They do not even fully realize what stars are, or that an eclipse is a natural occurrence, not a supernatural event to fear.

Every 2,049 years, Kalgash has an eclipse. With each eclipse, civilization collapses due to insanity born of the fear of darkness. The only people that survive the eclipses without going insane are children, the elderly, and drunkards.

The premise of the story seems ridiculous: one night of darkness is capable of collapsing 2,049 years of civilization? Yet, humans always fear what they cannot understand. Author Isaac Asimov takes note of this, and one of the characters in “Nightfall” says “[of the stars and darkness] You can’t conceive that! Your brain wasn’t built for the conception of infinity or of eternity. You can only talk about it. A fraction of the reality upsets you, and when the real thing comes, your brain is going to be presented with the phenomenon outside its limits of comprehension. You will go mad” (Asimov p. 8).

Stars, like infinity, are beyond the characters comprehension. One character has a ‘cute notion’ of the possible number of stars in the sky, stating there could only be a dozen or so, and no more. Another misconception shared by Kalgash citizens is the idea that a planet with only one sun would be uninhabitable because “Life--which is fundamentally dependent upon light---[cannot] develop under those conditions [of partial darkness]” (Asimov p. 17).

Religion is another part of the story that Asimov ridicules. The Cultists are a religious group founded around the worship of darkness and stars. They are the only people of Kalgash that long for the eclipse, as they believe that starlight will cleanse their immortal souls. There are Earthbound religions that share similar sentiments of a promised salvation that must always come hand-in-hand with apocalyptic prophesies.

Asimov’s story takes perceptions of what is possible and turns it on its head. From the perspective of an Earthling, Kalgash citizens are laughable in their ignorance. The scary thing is that we Earthlings have our own dangerous misconceptions.

“Nightfall” is a short story full of commentary on the true limits of human knowledge. In thinking that we know everything (Asimov is telling the reader), we know nothing. All of our petty reasonings designed to understand the scope of the universe and its inner workings are inadequate, especially when they’re founded on fear and superstition instead of fact.

Asimov, Isaac. “Nightfall”. Astounding Science Fiction (1941). Print .

The Racial Implications of Herman Melville's "Benito Cereno"

"An Attack on a Galleon"
Artist: Howard Pyle (1905)
Source: Wikimedia Commons

Herman Melville’s story Benito Cereno chronicles the American Captain Delano’s experience with the Spaniard cargo vessel, the San Dominick. Upon first boarding the vessel, Delano is surprised to see black slaves roaming the ship freely. He looks around for a captain, or any white man in authority, and he soon comes upon the Spaniard, Benito Cereno. Benito appears sickly, as his coughing fits continually interrupt his words. Constantly at Benito’s side is his black servant, Babo.

To Delano’s eyes, Babo is the perfect servant. He is sweet, loyal, and Delano says of Babo to Benito, “I envy you such a friend; slave I cannot call him,” (Melville 3). Though there is plenty of strange activity on the boat that puts Delano off his guard (slaves sharpening hatchets, a black child’s violence that goes unpunished after he strikes a Spanish boy and draws blood), Delano lets his good nature convince him that everything is orderly enough on the San Dominick. What Delano is unaware of is the mutiny aboard the ship; the Africans are in charge of the Spaniards, a thought that Delano seems too naïve to comprehend. The mutineers have disguised their actions so as to stake a claim on Delano’s boat.

Benito Cereno’s view of blacks is partly an antidote to racial stereotypes, while at the same time, it presents another stereotype. African-Americans as obedient, jovial, and ignorant. It took almost the entire story for Delano to realize that the slaves were capable of a great deal more than he had assumed possible for black men and women. Not only had the slaves murdered their owner (Benito’s friend Alexandro Aranda), but they had the intelligence to arrange the duplicitous meeting between “Captain” Benito and Captain Delano, driving the circumstances to their advantage.

What I found to be another stereotype in the story was the fact that the slaves were the antagonist. In plenty of stories, the black man is seen as ‘bad’ or ‘wrong’, and usually in parallel to their dark skin. I did not like that the slaves were the antagonist, even though the story hinted at this possibility more than once (unbeknownst to the trusting Delano). An interesting note was the comparison of the savagery between the slaves and the white authorities: the slaves took Aranda’s body and made of it a sort of display, like a warning on the prow of the ship (a skeleton). And yes, that seems barbaric and disgusting, but when Babo is tried and hanged, his head is put on a pike for display in the city of Lima, another warning of a different sort, but not really different at all. Perhaps a point Melville was trying to convince the reader of is that, despite race, men are very alike in terms of behavior, as both races in the novel are capable of great violence and great intelligence.