A NIETZSCHEAN INQUIRY INTO JOHN CHRISTOPHER'S “EMPTY WORLD”

Year 2021, , 435 - 453, 24.06.2021

Cenk Tan

https://doi.org/10.33171/dtcfjournal.2021.61.1.17

Abstract

John Christopher's Empty World (1977) is an apocalyptic novel which depicts a fatal
pandemic through the eyes of adolescent children. In specific, the story is presented
through the perspective of fifteen-year-old Neil Miller who loses his family and heads off to
the streets of London to seek company in his quest for survival in a desolated city. Neil
finally meets Lucy and Billie, two girls his age and the children then decide to move in
together. This study aims to analyse Christopher's Empty World from a philosophical, in
particular, Nietzschean point of view. Friedrich Nietzsche is a philosopher who had an
immense impact in all areas of the social sciences and the humanities. This article thereby
discusses three Nietzschean doctrines: the will to power, the eternal recurrence and amor
fati. All these three notions are interrelated in Nietzsche's cosmological theory and his
metaphysical hypothesis. Thus, the ultimate purpose of this article is to reveal how and to
what extent Nietzschean doctrines are manifested in John Christopher's Empty World.
These manifestations will be discussed with relevant references to the text in association
with the setting and prevalent themes of the novel.

Keywords

Speculative Fiction, Apocalyptic Literature, John Christopher, Empty World, Friedrich Nietzsche, Pandemic, COVID-19, Coronavirus

References

• Atasoy, Emrah. “Spekülatif Kurguda Salgın Teması.” Ankara University Journal of the Faculty of Languages and History-Geography 60.2 (2020): 672-685. Web. 20 January 2021.
• Brodsky, Garry. “Nietzsche’s Notion of Amor Fati.” Continental Philosophy Review 31.1 (1998): 35-57. Web. 16 February 2021.
• Christopher, John. Empty World. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015.
• Clasen, Mathias. “Imagining the End of the World: A Biocultural Analysis of Post-Apocalyptic Fiction.” Evolution and Popular Narrative. Boston: Brill, 2019. 69-82. Web. 20 December 2020.
• Cunningham, Gustavus Watts. “On Nietzsche's Doctrine of the Will to Power.” The Philosophical Review 28. (1919): 479-490. Web. 5 September 2020.
• Dolson, Grace Neal. "The Influence of Schopenhauer upon Friedrich Nietzsche." The Philosophical Review, 10.3 (1901): 241-250. Web. 10 May 2021.
• Han-Pile, Béatrice. “Nietzsche and Amor Fati.” European Journal of Philosophy 19.2 (2011): 224-261. Web. 19 October 2020.
• Heidegger, Martin. Nietzsche: Volumes One and Two. New York: HarperCollins, 1991.
• Janaway, Christopher. Willing and Nothingness: Schopenhauer as Nietzsche's Educator. Oxford University Press, 1998.
• Joullié, Jean-Etienne. Will to Power, Nietzsche's Last Idol. Basingstoke: Springer, 2013.
• Kain, Philip Joseph. “Nietzsche, Eternal Recurrence, and the Horror of Existence.”The Journal of Nietzsche Studies 33.1 (2007): 49-63. Web. 25 January 2021.
• Koç, Evrim Ersöz. “The Duality of Hope and Despair: Thornton Wider’s Apocalyptic Vision in the Skin of our Teeth.” DEU Journal of GSSS 13.2 (2011): 83-95. Web. 10 February 2021.
• Kılıç, Sinan. “The Eternal Recurrence as Difference in Nietzsche’s Metaphysics.”Temasa Journal of Philosophy 9 (2018): 19-38. Web. 12 November 2020.
• Loeb, Paul. “Eternal Recurrence.” The Oxford Handbook of Nietzsche. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. 645-671. Web. 20 September 2020.
• Milona, Michael. “Philosophy of Hope.” Historical and Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Hope, New York: Springer, 2020. 99-116. Web. 6 January 2021.
• Mollison, James. “Nietzsche Contra Stoicism: Naturalism and Value, Suffering and Amor Fati.” Inquiry 62.1 (2018): 93-115. Web. 25 February 2021.
• Nehamas, Alexander. “The Eternal Recurrence.” The Philosophical Review 89.3 (1980): 331-356. Web. 10 September 2020.
• Nietzsche, Friedrich. Beyond Good & Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future. Trans. Walter Kaufmann. New York: Vintage, 2010.
• Nietzsche, Friedrich. On the Genealogy of Morals: Ecce Homo. Trans. Walter Kaufmann. New York:Vintage, 1967.
• Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs. New York: Vintage, 1974.
• Nietzsche, Friedrich, and Walter Kaufmann. The Will to Power: A New Translation. Trans. R. J. Hollingdale. New York: Random House, 1967.
• Peters, Charles Clinton. “Friedrich Nietzsche and His Doctrine of Will to Power.” Monist 21.3 (1911): 357-375. Web. 17 October 2020.
• Pippin, Robert. Nietzsche: Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
• Solomon, Robert. “Nietzsche on Fatalism and “Free Will”.” The Journal of Nietzsche Studies 23.1 1 Mar. (2002): 63-87. Web. 27 December 2020.
• Tilburg, Theo Van, and Pearl Dykstra. “Loneliness and Social Isolation.” The Cambridge Handbook of Personal Relationships. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. 485-500. Web. 28 January 2021.