The Kraken Wakes

John Wyndham
The Kraken Wakes Cover

The Kraken Wakes

Bormgans
3/22/2025
Email

So indeed -- like Robinson in Antarctica -- Wyndham goes explicitly epistemological. His protagonists are journalists, a very clever narrative device to focus on how society generates truth. Serendipitously, Greg Egan uses the exact same technique in Distress, the book I'm reading now.

Just like the epistemological gap between us and alien intelligence, there is an unbridgeable gap between us and the truth -- the gap between our conception of truth and the Ding an sich. Wyndham explores a bit of the processes through which various humans and human organizations shape and change what they consider to be true.

Paradoxically, it is my own subjective reaction to what could very well be true that hindered my enjoyment of the novel.

(...)

Full review on Weighing A Pig

https://schicksalgemeinschaft.wordpress.com/2025/03/21/the-kraken-wakes-john-wyndham-1953