Nightfall - A Reaction Paper

In a nutshell, Nightfall tells the tale of a distant universe, in a planet with 6 suns, about to experience darkness for the first time.

On a planet called Lagash, a group of scientists warn the public of an impeding doom. A darkness that would swallow a world that has never experienced darkness before (6 suns, so, yeah.). In this world, "night" does not exist.

The darkness is going to be caused by an eclipse, as discovered by the astronomers. They discovered this while investigating an anomaly in the orbit of the planet Lagash. They have just recently discovered the Law of Universal Gravitation, and realized that the anomaly is caused by a moon, hidden due to the fact that it is always bright due to the 6 suns. The eclipse will occur when the sun Beta is at max distance from Lagash, and the moon at minimum distance. This occurrence only happens every 2049 years, and the eclipse will plunge the world into total darkness.

This actually coincides with the belief of a religious group, known as the Cult. The scientists considered the Cultist's beliefs, that at the end of the cycle, the world will be thrown to darkness, and entities known as "stars" will appear, and take the souls of men to bind them to the Immortal, leaving behind empty shells of beastly creatures. The scientists managed to prove the existence of the darkness with the eclipse. The going mad part, is attributed to the psychological effect of darkness. It is theorized that, because the population is not used to darkness, it will drive people mad. The psychological effects of the eclipse would destroy their civilizations. However, this caused conflict between the Cult and the scientists, with Cult, feeling that explaining the emergence of "Stars" as a natural phenomena would take away its sanctity. They considered this blasphemy, and during the eclipse, rounded a mob to attack the scientists. The story ends with the world plunged into the darkness, the scientists trying to record the emergence of stars, while the mob slowly tears away at their observatory.

It is interesting how Asimov wrote the discoveries in this story. The scientists postulated that the law of gravity would've been discovered and understood faster had there been only one sun that the planet revolves around in. (Pretty much a description of the world we live in now.) There is also that mysticism that surrounds the discovery of stars by the people who have never experienced darkness before. I find it funny that the vision of a starry sky would drive the people of Lagash mad, while we regard it with such an adoration for its beauty.

Darkness is such a normal phenomenon for us, since we spend half of our lives in it. Asimov imagined a world so close, yet radically different, and gave us an account of what will happen, and how people will function in such a scenario.

It is also interesting to note how these natural phenomenon shaped the religious beliefs of the people of Lagash, and how religion conflicts with technology and scientific discovery.

Asimov is one hell of a science fiction writer.