I am currently listening to the audiobook of Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka's terrifying 80s post-nuclear oral history WARDAY, which opens with a slightly botched USSR attack on the greater NYC area and always brings to mind these Bonestell paintings. Recommended book (I've read it probably 10 times since 1987), despite Strieber eventually going off the deep end with UFO stuff later in his career. The description of the events leading up to the nuclear exchange from a character who relates being with the President in the NEACP is harrowing, as is the description from a survivor's perspective of the attack on NYC. I am always reminded that, in this telling, I would have been vaporized in an instant the day before my little sister's 12th birthday based on the detonation of a warhead in eastern Queens.
The problem is that the genie 🧞 is out of the bottle and will never return. All we can do is try to contain the technology and to find ways not to use it. A truly sad state of affairs. Pax
The images are indeed harrowing, but what's sticking with me is the subtitle. "Hiroshima, USA" is a pretty darn effective title, but "Can Anything Be Done About It?" seems particularly poignant, plaintive.
Of course, as your work on civil defense has frequently made clear, the only answer is the one Joshua comes to in War Games.
Funny how a carefully researched, realistic image of New York on fire gets such horrified reactions, while the same thing happening in some other country wouldn’t bother most people at all.
But it was a brilliant idea, beautifully executed, and likely to do more to avoid nuclear war than scores of earnest books and papers.
“Let us suppose that the great empire of China, with all its myriads of inhabitants, was suddenly swallowed up by an earthquake, and let us consider how a man of humanity in Europe, who had no sort of connection with that part of the world, would be affected upon receiving intelligence of this dreadful calamity. He would, I imagine, first of all, express very strongly his sorrow for the misfortune of that unhappy people, he would make many melancholy reflections upon the precariousness of human life, and the vanity of all the labours of man, which could thus be annihilated in a moment. He would too, perhaps, if he was a man of speculation, enter into many reasonings concerning the effects which this disaster might produce upon the commerce of Europe, and the trade and business of the world in general. And when all this fine philosophy was over, when all these humane sentiments had been once fairly expressed, he would pursue his business or his pleasure, take his repose or his diversion, with the same ease and tranquillity, as if no such accident had happened. The most frivolous disaster which could befall himself would occasion a more real disturbance. If he was to lose his little finger to-morrow, he would not sleep to-night; but, provided he never saw them, he will snore with the most profound security over the ruin of a hundred millions of his brethren, and the destruction of that immense multitude seems plainly an object less interesting to him, than this paltry misfortune of his own”.
Very excited to see this new venue! You have always posted excellent material and am always waiting for more. As a aerospace/ defense illustrator I've studied this painting many times. It's the first picture at the start of the article I find particularity interesting. The one with the detonations instead of the later aftermath. I believe Bonestell actually did the painting over an underlayment of an enlarged photo of that view of Manhatten. He's worked with paint over the entire surface and I'm not saying he simply painted explosions over a photo. It's a very good solution to the problem of creating so much detail. My curiosity is peaked and I wonder if there was a deadline looming and he needed a short cut. The other painting is done differently (though the photographic part may be farther buried beneath semi- tansparent paint). I worked on a similar project for the National Space Society showing the aftermath of an meteor hitting Los Angeles and the Bnestell work was at my elbow the whole time. It's nice to see a good reproduction- they are hard to find and this seems to be the best! Thanks again!
Gad, I came across these images in the early 80s researching a project in the archive of my old university. They've stayed with me all these because the stark quality of them had an imapct that no photo could ever capture. Think about that for a second, all anyone at Hiroshima who was taking pictures would have to do is simply point the camera at any scene of devestation and click: he would probably have an image that would have been quite memorable if not harrowing. Paintings like those here on the other hand require a long chain of deliberate decisions on the part of the painter as to color and shading, angle of view etc, all of which demand an immense knowledge of the subject, far more than the average person would have: it wouldn't surprise me to learn that the painter had trouble sleeping at night given what he Had to know to get this as right as it seems,...
Funny thing, for me at least, is that these images arn't the most powerful of the moment of a nuclear attack or the seconds after the Bombs detonate: that honor would have to go with the scene of nuclear devastation that appeared in the Twilight Zone Episode called "Time Enough To Last" . I've watched the episode about a dozen times since first seeing it as a kid and it never fails to impress me in the way that it conveys a sense of utter desolation after a nuclear exchange while at the same time avoiding all the cliches of a nuclear attack(mushroom cloud image, raging fires, charred bodies etc): all you get in that episode are visuals that imply an immense power visiting Burgess Merideth and the community he lives, one so powerful that it might not even be possible to look at without being destroyed(shades of the Gorgon!).
The illustrations are so vivid that they look like representations of a historical event rather than a possible calamity.
The British used a 20kT "nominal bomb" in their Civil Defence planning too.
I am currently listening to the audiobook of Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka's terrifying 80s post-nuclear oral history WARDAY, which opens with a slightly botched USSR attack on the greater NYC area and always brings to mind these Bonestell paintings. Recommended book (I've read it probably 10 times since 1987), despite Strieber eventually going off the deep end with UFO stuff later in his career. The description of the events leading up to the nuclear exchange from a character who relates being with the President in the NEACP is harrowing, as is the description from a survivor's perspective of the attack on NYC. I am always reminded that, in this telling, I would have been vaporized in an instant the day before my little sister's 12th birthday based on the detonation of a warhead in eastern Queens.
All anyone has to do is to read Nuclear War by Annie Jacobson to understand how a nuclear exchange will mean the end of the world. Pax
The problem is that the genie 🧞 is out of the bottle and will never return. All we can do is try to contain the technology and to find ways not to use it. A truly sad state of affairs. Pax
The images are indeed harrowing, but what's sticking with me is the subtitle. "Hiroshima, USA" is a pretty darn effective title, but "Can Anything Be Done About It?" seems particularly poignant, plaintive.
Of course, as your work on civil defense has frequently made clear, the only answer is the one Joshua comes to in War Games.
Funny how a carefully researched, realistic image of New York on fire gets such horrified reactions, while the same thing happening in some other country wouldn’t bother most people at all.
But it was a brilliant idea, beautifully executed, and likely to do more to avoid nuclear war than scores of earnest books and papers.
“Let us suppose that the great empire of China, with all its myriads of inhabitants, was suddenly swallowed up by an earthquake, and let us consider how a man of humanity in Europe, who had no sort of connection with that part of the world, would be affected upon receiving intelligence of this dreadful calamity. He would, I imagine, first of all, express very strongly his sorrow for the misfortune of that unhappy people, he would make many melancholy reflections upon the precariousness of human life, and the vanity of all the labours of man, which could thus be annihilated in a moment. He would too, perhaps, if he was a man of speculation, enter into many reasonings concerning the effects which this disaster might produce upon the commerce of Europe, and the trade and business of the world in general. And when all this fine philosophy was over, when all these humane sentiments had been once fairly expressed, he would pursue his business or his pleasure, take his repose or his diversion, with the same ease and tranquillity, as if no such accident had happened. The most frivolous disaster which could befall himself would occasion a more real disturbance. If he was to lose his little finger to-morrow, he would not sleep to-night; but, provided he never saw them, he will snore with the most profound security over the ruin of a hundred millions of his brethren, and the destruction of that immense multitude seems plainly an object less interesting to him, than this paltry misfortune of his own”.
- Adam Smith (“The Theory of Moral Sentiments”)
No foreign power would nuke Noo Yark. Why would they nuke our enemies? We'd have to nuke it ourselves, and probably ought to.
Very excited to see this new venue! You have always posted excellent material and am always waiting for more. As a aerospace/ defense illustrator I've studied this painting many times. It's the first picture at the start of the article I find particularity interesting. The one with the detonations instead of the later aftermath. I believe Bonestell actually did the painting over an underlayment of an enlarged photo of that view of Manhatten. He's worked with paint over the entire surface and I'm not saying he simply painted explosions over a photo. It's a very good solution to the problem of creating so much detail. My curiosity is peaked and I wonder if there was a deadline looming and he needed a short cut. The other painting is done differently (though the photographic part may be farther buried beneath semi- tansparent paint). I worked on a similar project for the National Space Society showing the aftermath of an meteor hitting Los Angeles and the Bnestell work was at my elbow the whole time. It's nice to see a good reproduction- they are hard to find and this seems to be the best! Thanks again!
Gad, I came across these images in the early 80s researching a project in the archive of my old university. They've stayed with me all these because the stark quality of them had an imapct that no photo could ever capture. Think about that for a second, all anyone at Hiroshima who was taking pictures would have to do is simply point the camera at any scene of devestation and click: he would probably have an image that would have been quite memorable if not harrowing. Paintings like those here on the other hand require a long chain of deliberate decisions on the part of the painter as to color and shading, angle of view etc, all of which demand an immense knowledge of the subject, far more than the average person would have: it wouldn't surprise me to learn that the painter had trouble sleeping at night given what he Had to know to get this as right as it seems,...
Funny thing, for me at least, is that these images arn't the most powerful of the moment of a nuclear attack or the seconds after the Bombs detonate: that honor would have to go with the scene of nuclear devastation that appeared in the Twilight Zone Episode called "Time Enough To Last" . I've watched the episode about a dozen times since first seeing it as a kid and it never fails to impress me in the way that it conveys a sense of utter desolation after a nuclear exchange while at the same time avoiding all the cliches of a nuclear attack(mushroom cloud image, raging fires, charred bodies etc): all you get in that episode are visuals that imply an immense power visiting Burgess Merideth and the community he lives, one so powerful that it might not even be possible to look at without being destroyed(shades of the Gorgon!).
Somehow I’d never come across those images. Terrifying but no surprise. Many thanks for a fascinating essay.
Does Collier’s provide a response to its own question: “can anything be done about it?”
Very harrowing perspective.