The Kraken Wakes (Writers in Lockdown)

I was asked by my publishers Fantastic Books - https://www.fantasticbooksstore.com/ - to do a small article for "Writers in Lockdown".   And in it I speculate as to what great writers of the past would have made of the Coronacrisis.  And admit that I am making nothing of it, writer-wise at the moment.   

The 1950s was something of a heyday for Sci Fi writers - they had all sorts of ideas - and I was wondering what John Wyndham might have made of this.   His "The Day of the Triffids" must surely still be in print, as it was recently adapted for the telly - a depressing and clunky adaptation which I hope did not put anyone off reading his wonderful and very readable book - which was about the plant world turning on us.

Then there was "The Kraken Wakes", in which mysterious Somethings - like falling stars -  fall into the sea, and slowly, inexorably, the sea levels begin to rise.  Its a really good read, if you need something absorbing during lockdown.

A great title too.  And great titles are not that easy to find.  It is from this Tennyson poem:

The Kraken Wakes
Tennyson

Below the thunders of the upper deep;
Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee
About his shadowy sides: above him swell
Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;
And far away into the sickly light,
From many a wondrous grot and secret cell
Unnumbered and enormous polypi
Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green.
There hath he lain for ages and will lie
Battening upon huge sea-worms in his sleep,
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;
Then once by man and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.


Poor old Kraken!  And of course Armageddon "the latter fire" will bring relief and rescue to the animal creation as well as to all faithful humans.

The Kraken, should he happen to exist, will be able to sleep on in peace then, and will treat all passing sea-worms kindly.

On Tuesday night we celebrated the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ.  In giving up his perfect human life, he paid back the perfect human life that Adam so tragically threw away in Eden. And he also sanctified the name of his Father, Jehovah.

Jesus' perfect life course, his staying faithful and obedient to his Father until death, despite the horrendous pressures that Satan and his system were able to bring to bear on him, shows once and for all time that Adam could have obeyed.  Nothing would have been easier for him. Jehovah's creation was perfect. There was no flaw in Adam that made him disobey. It was a deliberate and tragic choice.

But we, every one of us on the earth now, have the opportunity to make a different choice from the one our first parents made. We can choose not to go "the world's" way, but to seek for our Creator, Jehovah, find him, learn about him, and do our imperfect best to obey him.

We are all in the valley of the decision. So what decision will we make?

If we make the choice to love and obey our Creator, there is more happiness than we can imagine ahead for us, right here on the earth.   And there is happiness right now in serving Jehovah, as he is "the happy God".  Timothy speaks of "the glorious good news of the happy God, with which I was entrusted".

We cannot now call at your door with this glorious good news. But you can call on us at our website JW.org, and you can do a Bible study with us on line.  Or I would be very happy to conduct one with you.

Please please do.