by The solar eclipse is seen at Liberty Island, August 21, 2017 in New York City. Credit – Noam Galai/WireImage – Getty Images
TThe moon will pass in front of the sun on April 8 to create a total solar eclipse, the first since 2017 to hit the lower 48 US states. Although the next such eclipse to cross Canada and the US won’t happen until 2044, TIME has rounded up notable eclipse pictures in novels, TV shows and movies to help fill the time until then, courtesy of Lisa Yaszek, Professor. Science Fiction Studies at Georgia Tech.
Eclipses seem to appear in stories when there is a significant change in events in the plot and moments of “dangerous and negative change, of chaos and confusion,” says Yaszek. Below are eight examples of eclipses in pop culture.
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain
Yaszek calls Twain the first person to properly use a solar eclipse in a work of modern science fiction. In the story, a 19th-century engineer named Hank Morgan wakes up in medieval Europe, and uses his knowledge of solar eclipses to gain power over Merlin and everyone else in King Arthur’s court. One description of an eclipse states, “It grew darker and darker and darker and blacker, as I struggled in those hideous sixth-century clothes. It became dark, finally, and the multitude groaned with horror to feel the cold uncanny night fan breezes through the place and to see the stars coming out and twinkle in the sky. Finally the eclipse was total.”
The nightfall by Isaac Asimov
This short story is about a group of scientists who have very emotional reactions to an eclipse. As Yaszek says, “It’s a really powerful story about how scientists can get it wrong, but also about how scientists have feelings and how we all have feelings and how we’re moved by them these massive events around us.” One view of what will happen after an eclipse, from a psychologist: “”First the eclipse – which will begin in three-quarters of an hour – then universal Darkness and, perhaps, the mysterious Stars – then madness, and the end of the cycle.”
The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin
In this book, which was recently adapted into a Netflix series, there is technically a psychic, which occurs when the sun, moon and earth are close to a straight line during a solar or lunar eclipse. In the 2008 novel, an eclipse is seen as destructive. Aliens are trying to invade Earth because their planet is unstable and uninhabitable due to multiple eclipses. As Yaszek describes the use of this scientific term in the novel, “It reminds us of the horror and horror of eclipses. We tend to associate eclipses with changes in luck, fortune, and history, and The Three Body Problem that’s a great play.”
The Eclipse: Courtship of the Sun and the Moon
In this 10-minute short film from 1907, director Georges Méliés plays an astronomer lecturing to a class of young astronomers about an upcoming eclipse. When the time has come, he goes through a huge telescope to watch an eclipse and sees human faces on both the moon and the sun as they touch each other and stick out their tongues, seductively, and the moon making its way to the sun. . When the moon covers the sun, the implication is that they have some kind of sexual contact. 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, the Earth, Moon and sun in alignment. The Moon gradually moves towards the bottom of the screen, revealing the entire sun in an orange glow. It’s not a view from Earth, but from somewhere else in the solar system. Then the film segues to “the dawn of man.” To Yaszek, the film’s opening with an eclipse shows how “they get used to marking these kinds of changes in history and moments.”
Dark black
David Twohy’s 2000 film is set on a remote planet where a spaceship has crashed, killing most of the passengers. A prisoner played by Vin Diesel is very helpful during a solar eclipse because he can see perfectly in total darkness. When an eclipse occurs, and chaos erupts during the moment of darkness, the prisoner leads the effort to bring things under control. In the midst of the darkness, an English antiques dealer sees that his store 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 monorail with solar panels spins out of control. The monorail stops briefly, and when the eclipse passes and the sun comes out, the monorail goes back to an out-of-control speed. In “Gone Maggie Gone,” the Simpsons family watches an eclipse in Springfield through contraptions made from shoeboxes and toilet paper rolls. Marge watches the eclipse without glasses and then has to wear a bandage on them for two weeks. A news anchor jokes “a total eclipse is like a woman breastfeeding 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.
