"Nightfall" is a 1941 science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov about the
coming of darkness to the people of a planet ordinarily illuminated at all
times on all sides. It was adapted into a novel with Robert Silverberg in 1990.
The short story has been included in 48 anthologies, and has appeared in six
collections of Asimov's stories. In 1968, the Science Fiction Writers of
America voted Nightfall the best science fiction short story written prior to the
1965 establishment of the Nebula Awards, and included it in The Science Fiction
Hall of Fame Volume One, 1929-1964. The short story was published in the
September 1941 issue of Astounding Science Fiction magazine under editor
John W. Campbell. It was the 32nd story by Asimov, written while he was working
in his father's candy store and studying at Columbia University. According to
Asimov's autobiography, Campbell asked Asimov to write the story after
discussing with him a quotation from Ralph Waldo Emerson:
If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe
and adore, and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city
of God! Campbell's opinion to the contrary was:
"I think men would go mad." Plot summary
The fictional planet Lagash is located in a stellar system containing six suns,
which keep the whole planet continuously illuminated; total darkness is unknown,
and as a result so are all the stars outside the planet's stellar system.
A group of scientists from Saro University begin to make a series of
related discoveries: Sheerin 501, a psychologist, researches the effects of
prolonged exposure to darkness; Siferra 89, an archaeologist, finds evidence of
multiple cyclical collapses of civilization which have occurred
regularly about every 2000 years, and Beenay 25 is an astronomer who has
discovered irregularities in the orbit of Lagash around its primary sun Alpha.
Beenay takes his findings to his superior at the university, Aton, who
formulated the Theory of Universal Gravitation. This prompts the
astronomers at Saro University to seek the cause of this anomaly. Eventually
they discover that the only possible cause of the deviation is an
astronomical body that orbits Lagash. Beenay, through his friend Theremon 762,
a reporter, has learned some of the beliefs of the group known as the Cult.
They believe the world would be destroyed in a darkness with the
appearance of stars that unleash a torrent of fire. Beenay combines what he
has learned about the repetitive collapses at the archaeological site,
and the new theory of potential eclipses; he concludes that once every
2049 years the one sun visible is eclipsed, resulting in a brief "night".
His theory is that this "night" was so horrifying to the people who experienced
it that they desperately sought out any light source to try to drive it away:
particularly, by frantically starting fires which burned down and destroyed
their successive civilizations. He also postulates that the "Apostles of the
Flame" started out as vague surviving legends and myths after the last
eclipse: small children too young to understand what was happening did not go
insane but grew up half-feral in the ruins, and as they grew older the only
clues they had were the insane ramblings of adults who had lived through the
eclipse. Over the centuries these vague stories became legend, and then a cult
of religious devotion. Since the current population of Lagash
has never experienced general darkness, the scientists conclude that the
darkness would traumatize the people and that they would need to prepare for it.
When nightfall occurs, the scientists and the rest of the planet are most
surprised by the sight of hitherto invisible stars outside the six-star
system filling the sky. Never having seen other stars in the sky, the
inhabitants of Lagash had come to believe that their six-star system
contained the entirety of the universe. In one horrifying instant, anyone gazing
at the night sky – the first night sky which they have ever known – is suddenly
faced with the reality that the universe contains many millions upon billions of
stars: the awesome, horrifying realization of just how vast the
universe truly is drives them insane. The short story concludes with the
arrival of the night and a crimson glow that was "not the glow of a sun", with
the implication that societal collapse has occurred once again. In the novel
and X Minus One program, civil disorder breaks out; cities are destroyed in
massive fires and civilization collapses, with the ashes of the fallen
civilization and the competing groups trying to seize control.
Setting The six star system of Kalgash is
complicated. They are named Alpha, Beta, etc. in the original short story, and
with original names in the novel. In the novel, Onos is the primary sun of
Kalgash and is located 10 light-minutes away, similar to the distance from Earth
to our Sun. The other five suns are minor in comparison, but provide enough
light to prevent the inhabitants of Kalgash from defining "night". The only
other distance given is that Tano and Sitha are about eleven times as far away
as Onos is. Onos – Yellow dwarf – similar to the Sun
Dovim – Red dwarf Trey and Patru – Class A or F Main
Sequence Stars, described as "white" – binary star system
Tano and Sitha – Class A, B or O Main Sequence Stars, described as "blue" –
binary star system From what can be drawn from the text,
Onos, the star appearing brightest and largest in Kalgash's sky, is the star
that Kalgash orbits. Onos in turn orbits around the binary system Trey and Patru,
the other binary system Tano and Sitha, and the red dwarf star Dovim. In
addition to these stars, the only other celestial object mentioned is Kalgash's
moon, dubbed Kalgash Two by the scientists of Kalgash. Kalgash Two
follows an eccentric orbit around Kalgash and eclipses Dovim, during a
period when from one part of Kalgash, Dovim is the only star visible, every
2049 years. The characters of Nightfall travel to
three separate locations on Kalgash. Most of the book is set in Saro City,
which is situated near a large forest with trees, bushes, and Graben. As
stated in the introduction, the weather in the book is analogous to the
meteorologic experiences of the characters in the book, and the region
of Saro City receives rains that last several days. The first major weather
fluctuation mentioned in the book is the sandstorm that Siferra 89 avoided by
hiding under a tarpaulin with her crew. The other weather event was the
monsoon-like rains that occurred after Sheerin 501 returned from a consultation
in Jonglor, which is described as a northern city. Siferra 89 travels to
Beklimot, which is described as half a world away from Jonglor. Beklimot is
located on the Sagikan Peninsula, near mountains. Beklimot is in a sandy, arid
desert region. Adaptations in other media
In the 1950s, the story was adapted for radio programs Dimension X and X Minus
One. In 1976, Analog Records, as their only
release, presented a further dramatization of "Nightfall" on a 33 1/3
rpm vinyl record, produced by James Cutting and recorded at American
Learning Center. After the story, it includes a dialog between Isaac Asimov
and Ben Bova. In 1988, a low-budget movie was produced
based upon the story. The movie was shot on location at the Arcosanti Project,
using the resident community members as background actors. Another film version
was made in 2000. In April 2007, the story was the 100th
episode of Escape Pod, a science fiction podcast.
See also Solar eclipses in fiction
References Further reading
Smaran Deshmukh, Jayant Murthy. "Nightfall: Can Kalgash Exist".
arXiv:1407.4895. Bibcode:2014arXiv1407.4895D.
External links Audio review and discussion of Nightfall
at The Science Fiction Book Review Podcast
Emerson's essay from which the quote above comes: Nature. In "The Early
Asimov: Book Two", p. 64, Asimov laments that he was not able to find the
quotation. Nightfall - Read by Stephen Eley on the
100th episode of Escape Pod.