The Paranoid Fifties (The Day of the Triffids, I Am Legend, Time Out of Joint)

1. The Day of the Triffids, by John Wyndham, is a 1951 post-apocalyptic novel about a plague of blindness that befalls the entire world, allowing the rise of an aggressive species of plant. 2. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson, is a 1954 horror fiction novel. It was influential in the development of the zombie genre of fiction, and in popularizing the concept of a worldwide apocalypse due to disease. 3. Time Out of Joint by Philip K. Dick. Well before The Truman Show we have the story of a fifties town that has been built and maintained to provide an environment for one man. Victor Nielson has one special talent that he can continue to use even though he has retreated to a delusional state from his life in the late 20th century, and the government is doing everything it can to help him to do it.The novel epitomizes many of Dick's themes with its concerns about the nature of reality and ordinary people in ordinary lives having the world unravel around them.