humorous aspects of The Black Cloud:
- posits England still being relevant on the world stage in 1964
- author mouthpiece character trashes Big Bang theory (I mean the scientific theory, not the fucking show)
- “the novel has a recurrent theme of the duplicity and shallowness of politicians compared with scientists”, because of course it does
- Richard Dawkins claimed it was “one of the greatest science fiction novels ever written”.
Sure the international theatre was all about the Cold War and Vietnam War, with civil rights and anti-segregation movements domestically, but the theatre theatre was still British!
I mean, 1964 was literally the year of the famous ‘British Invasion’, and the biggest international hits in terms of albums, novels and movies were all either British-made or set.
Funnily enough a bunch of them (Le Carré and James Bond) were positing Britain as relevant on the world stage in a more political sense at the time. I suppose the last dominoes of the Empire were still standing at this stage, but not for much longer.
(Of course, you get political thrillers and so on portraying Britain as relevant on the world stage today, and indeed it sometimes is in the glorious role of ‘America’s sidekick’.)
But in terms of science I think British academics were still pretty relevant. Well-surpassed by Americans, but making up a good chunk of the advances of that year and taking home a Nobel Prize for the team.
I guess the author was a famed anti-big banger so he couldn’t keep his protagonist from agreeing. Didn’t he coin the term ‘Big Bang theory’ (not the TV show, although I guess indirectly he also has that on his conscience) as an insult?
No defence for Dawkins. Just grateful he didn’t say “since the Bible.”
yes, Britain is still punching above its weight in terms of cultural exports today, although that’s kind of inevitable given it’s English speaking but a relatively small market.