It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction. (Discuss)

Cosy catastrophe is the name given to a style of post-apocalyptic science fiction that was particularly prevalent after the Second World War and among British sf writers. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... It has been suggested that Post-holocaust be merged into this article or section. ... Apocalyptic science fiction is a sub-genre of science fiction that is concerned with the end of civilization, through nuclear war, plague, or some other general disaster. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ...

The term was coined by Brian Aldiss in Billion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction. A "cosy catastrophe" is typically one in which civilization (as we know it) comes to an end and everyone is killed except for a handful of survivors, who then set about rebuilding their version of civilisation. Brian Aldiss at 63rd World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow, August 2005. ...

English author John Wyndham was the figure at whom Aldiss was primarily directing his remarks, especially his novel The Day of the Triffids). The critic L. J. Hurst dismissed Aldiss's accusations, pointing out that in the book the main character witnesses several murders, suicides, and misadventures, and is frequently in mortal danger himself.^[1] John Wyndham (July 10, 1903 – March 11, 1969) was the pen name used by the often post-apocalyptic British science fiction writer John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris. ... The Day of the Triffids is a post-apocalyptic 1951 novel by the English science fiction author John Wyndham. ...

A later example of the genre was the 1970s British television serial Survivors, created by Terry Nation. Survivors was a British television series devised by Terry Nation and produced by Terence Dudley at the BBC from 1975 to 1977. ... Terry Nation (August 8, 1930 – March 9, 1997) was a British television screenwriter and is probably best known for creating the villainous Daleks for the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who. ...

References

1. ^ *Essay by L.J. Hurst

External links

• Essay by L.J. Hurst
• Bibliography of cosy catastrophes and dreadful dooms