The solar eclipse was seen on Liberty Island in New York on August 21, 2017. Credit – Noam Galai/WireImage—Getty Images
TThe moon will pass in front of the sun on April 8, creating a total solar eclipse; This will be the first eclipse to hit the lower 48 states of the United States since 2017. Although the next eclipse to pass Canada and the United States won’t occur until 2044, TIME has compiled notable depictions of eclipses in novels, TV shows and movies to help fill the time until then, courtesy of Professor Lisa Yaszek. Department of Science Fiction Studies at Georgia Tech.
Yaszek says eclipses occur in stories when there is a dramatic change of events in the plot and in moments of “dangerous and negative change, chaos and confusion.” Below are eight examples of eclipses in popular culture.
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain
Yaszek calls Twain the first to accurately use a solar eclipse in a work of modern science fiction. In the story, a 19th-century engineer named Hank Morgan faints and wakes up in medieval Europe, using his knowledge of solar eclipses to gain power over Merlin and everyone else in King Arthur’s court. One description of the eclipse is as follows: “As I wrestled with the strange sixth-century garb, it grew darker and darker and darker. Finally it was pitch black, and the crowd felt the cold, eerie night breezes waft through the place and saw the stars come out and twinkle in the sky.” “He groaned with horror. Finally, the eclipse was complete.”
Isaac Asimov’s “Night of Night”
This short story tells the story of a group of scientists who have very emotional reactions to the eclipse. As Yaszek puts it, “This is a really powerful story, both about how scientists can get it wrong, but also about how scientists have feelings, and how we all have feelings, and how affected we are by these huge events around us.” A psychologist’s perception of what will happen after the eclipse: “‘First the eclipse that will begin in three quarters of an hour, then the universal Darkness and perhaps these mysterious Stars – then madness and the end of the cycle.'”
Three Body Problem By Liu Cixin
This book, which was recently adapted into a Netflix series, technically features syzygy, which occurs when the sun, moon and earth converge to a straight line during a solar or lunar eclipse. In the 2008 novel, eclipses are seen as destructive. Aliens want to invade Earth because their planet has become unstable and uninhabitable due to multiple eclipses. Yaszek describes how this scientific term is used in the novel: “It reminds us of the horror and horror of eclipses. We tend to associate eclipses with luck, luck, and changes in history. Three Body Problem “It’s an incredible dramatization of that.”
Eclipse: Courtship of the Sun and Moon
In this approximately 10-minute 1907 short film, director Georges Méliés stars as an astronomer lecturing a class of young astronomers about the upcoming eclipse. When the time comes, he looks through a giant telescope to watch an eclipse and sees that both the moon and the sun have human faces, winking at each other and sticking out their tongues seductively as the moon moves towards the sun. . When the moon covers the sun, it means they are having some kind of sexual intercourse. According to the Princeton University Art Museum, Méliés is considered the “father of the science fiction genre in film.”
2001: A Space Odyssey
Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 classic begins with an eclipse; Earth, Moon and Sun are aligned. The moon slowly moves towards the bottom of the screen, revealing the full moon sun with an orange glow. This is a view not from Earth, but from somewhere else in the solar system. The film then moves on to the “dawn of humanity”. According to Yaszek, opening the film with a solar eclipse represents how they “get used to marking these kinds of changes in history and moments.”
pitch black
David Twohy’s 2000 film is set on a distant planet where a spacecraft crashes, killing most of the passengers. It turns out that a prisoner, played by Vin Diesel, is really helpful during a solar eclipse because he can see perfectly in complete darkness. When the eclipse occurs and chaos breaks out in the moment of darkness, the prisoner leads the effort to bring things under control. Amidst the darkness, a British antiques dealer realizes that his stash of fine wine can be used as lighting fuel.
The Simpsons: “Marge vs. the Monorail” and “Gone Maggie Gone.”
In the classic episode “Marge vs. the Monorail”, an eclipse occurs as the solar panel monorail spins out of control. The monorail stops briefly, and when the eclipse passes and the sun comes out, the monorail begins to accelerate again, out of control. In “Gone Maggie Gone,” the Simpsons watch the solar eclipse in Springfield through contraptions made from shoeboxes and a toilet paper roll. Marge watches the eclipse without glasses and is forced to wear bandages over them for two weeks afterwards. One news anchor joked, “A total eclipse is like a breastfeeding woman in a restaurant, it’s free. It’s beautiful. But under no circumstances should you look at it.”
Write to: Olivia B. Waxman at olivia.waxman@time.com.