"The Curse" aka "Nightfall" (short story): Fate of a bombed city
Among the least entertaining stories by Clarke. The only good thing about it is that it is really short!
Story summary (spoiler).
Story describes the state of a dead small town some days after a nuclear bomb was dropped on it. It is completely descriptive - no humans, animals or dialogs - and of course the mood is sad & nostalgic.The town involved is Stratford-upon-Avon, apparently a very well known city in England, located on the banks of river Avon. The city is both the birthplace of William Shakespeare, & where his grave is located. Both the grave & the river make an appearance towards the end of story.
Story apparently gets its title from the last line of the translation-to-modern-English of the well known epitaph on the gravestone, though the story quotes the original epitaph when identifying the grave:
"Good frend for Iesvs sake forbeare
to digg the dvst encloased heare
Blese be y man y spares thes stones,
and cvrst be he y moves my bones."
Story dateline has an anomaly I could not resolve. The city was accidentally bombed some 300 years after Shakespeare died. The story is told a few days after the incident. That would place it about the year 1616 + 300 = 1916 AD. Yet the bomb dropped is a hydrogen bomb!
Acknowledgment.
Till I saw Sarah's comment below, I had no idea of the identity of either the city or gravestone, nor any idea of the importance of both to England. Thanks Sarah.I substantially revised the text above on June 22, 2007 after following Sarah's links, & after rereading the story.
See also.
- Other stories with nearly the same subject matter: Ray Bradbury's "There Will Come Soft Rains", & Arthur Clarke's "If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth ...". Bradbury's version is the lightest read.
- Henry Gee's "Are We Not Men": While I didn't quite like either, if you liked Curse, you might like this story by Gee too. Very similar telling style, though on a different subject.
Fact sheet.
"The Curse" aka "Nightfall", short story, reviewAuthor: Arthur C Clarke
First Published: 1953
Rating: C
Collected in.
5 comments:
Actually, I love this story. It's subtle, though, and it went completely over my head the first time I read it.
It's not just any small town, after all--and certainly not any old epitaph, either. :)
This story completely rocked! It actually gave me chill bumps when I read it! I especially loved the tone of the piece.
Stratford upon Avon is a town - not a city. It's actually quite small - this is a great story though.
Trust me, I live there.
Yeah i live in Stratford too
I find it a great story. Haunting, poetic, foreboding, with very fluent and well constructed text. Linking Shakespeare to nuclear war is an effective way to show how nuclear war would be an end to not only the modern world but the whole of human civilization.
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