Universal Sunlight Phobia

[rvm45]

Friends,

I was watching a Vampire Movie and I wondered what original twist could be given the old idea.

I briefly imagined Vampires who could only move freely about in daytime rather than at night.

That led to this idea—though it isn't Supernatural and has nothing to do with Vampires.

What if, over a few days time, every man, woman and child was stricken with an extreme dread of Sunlight?

They aren't Albinos or Vampires. They don't burst into flames or rot away before your eyes if the Sunlight touches them.

In fact, tests have shone that the Sunlight does no physical damage whatsoever.

But force someone to stay in Sunlight for more than two or three minutes and they will go permanently stark raving mad.

By the way, this phenomena only effects humans.

Now a few hardy souls, well insulated from direct Sunlight touching them, might sit on a Porch or in their house and look out into a Sunlit yard, but even this would make most people very nervous and unhappy.

Something else to consider—these folks are not Light Phobic—only Sunlight Phobic. If their strange affliction has increased their night vision at all, the improvement isn't dramatic.

#1} Could a Technological Civilization like ours persist if everyone was afraid of Sunlight?

Yes, though there would be an adjustment period. Crops could be sown and cultivated at night with the proper lighting. Railroads , bridges and even sky scrapers could be built at night—with enough lighting.

Trucks could run from Sunset to Sunrise. A few very hardy truckers might be able to drive during daylight, so long as Sunlight didn't touch them.

Or daylight driving might be done by closed circuit television, with no direct link to the outside.

#2} So what would be the point? _{(story wise)}

I can't see anyone building their main story around Solar Phobia. It would need to be just one of the exotic differences that makes your story setting unique.

The great difficulty of traveling half of each day might also be one more obstacle your Hero faces as he rushes frantically to catch the bad guys, save the human race from extinction, rescue his beloved _{(gag, uck!!!)} or find a working Porta-John...

But think about the beauty possible. We all like to admire the home where the owner really went overboard with the colored lights at Christmas. I don't get into the Sex and Gambling scene like Las Vegas has—but I've admired their lighted walkways on TV.

In a world where everyone came out at night—and only at night—Places might be lit up like it was Christmas year round—and even small towns with no more than 10 000 to 20 000 people might have Vegas style lighted walkways.

Sure, there would be a certain trend toward big high candlepower floodlights—though the new LEDs might prove more energy efficient...

But businessmen might lure in more customers with a multi-colored light show than with Big Sodium Arc and Mercury Vapor Lamps.

Some homeowners might take pride in the distinctive lighting around their homes.

Well anyway—as always—anyone who thinks they can write a good story with my ideas, feel free to borrow any or all of them.

Ideas are only part of a story. It is also how we weave them together that makes them worth reading.

If every good writer here wrote a story using Solar Phobia as a starting point, each story would be good and original.




.....RVVM45

[papaof2]

Would the bad guys wear dark goggles and reflective suits to hide their identities when they went about doing evil in sunlight instead of darkness?

Would people who avoided the sunlight become a night-active society, working for 8 hours after sunset, then partying until dawn?

Would people who lived in the dusk to dawn time period develop better night vision (stronger visual purple; more or different light-senstive cells in the eye)? Would internal changes in the eyes cause external changes (multiple eyelids to provide different levels of shielding from the sun)? Would they develop infra-red or thermal sensors over many generations?

Would they use geentic engineering on themselves or to develop dark-adapted pets and/or work animals?

Sent from my IdeaTabA2109A using proboards

[rvm45]

Well, I had wondered about folks going abroad totally shielded during Daylight hours..

Lets just say that very, very few folks could handle being that close to Sunlight however determined and evil they might be.

Any change in eyesight by "Evolution" would be slow—particularly since most folks would spend most of their Night hours somewhere that it was fairly well lit.

Development of better Night Vision Equipment might go into high gear.

Pets seem to adapt pretty well to whatever hours their people keep.


.....RVM45

[freebirde]

Asimov did something like that in his "Caves of Steel" books with people being afraid of being outside. Almost everyone lives in massive cities with no direct contact with the outside world, the farms worked by robots.

[kaijafon]

I could see this dividing the people... cause there would have to be some that did not get that fear for some reason.... either because they did not get exposed to whatever caused it or they simply think differently... this would give a good antagonist to the story also...

If I remember correctly, in "Blade" or one of the movies.... they developed weapons that used UV light, same as the sun.... would these night dwellers be afraid of this light?

I think someone could write the story and "sell it" to the reader.

[willc453]

Wonder how farmers would do if they were changed? Such as being unable to protect their orange groves in Fla. during a freeze for example? Or maybe being a racial thing with whites being hit hardest of all? What would happen to society then?

[rvm45]

Friend,

I was rereading this after these many years, to see if anyone had made any new comments.

I think that I'd seen the last comment by "willc453"—but anyway, he pondered what the implications would be, if one race was more or less affected by the syndrome than another.

Races ARE different.

Give a Physical Anthropologist the bones from someone's little toe, and he can tell you which race the toe's owner came from.

Now, I will say that we don't know what the bedrock traits ARE. Culture smooths over real differences while it exacerbates minor differences or creates differences out of whole cloth.

BUT we live in a PC Society where even the hint that there might be inborn differences between the races—or sexes—or between good and evil—is seen as a HEINOUS OFFENSE AGAINST ALL THAT IS GOOD, AND LIGHT AND HOLY IN THE WORLD.

I wouldn't dare to write such a story, even with the most mild inoffensive intentions…

But if you have the gift to navigate that minefield, more power to you!

…..RVM45

[willc453]

One of Ben's stories (The Affected) I thought about, but haven't written, is based on two stories: the movie Last Man On Earth, the one with Vincent Price. The other is an old D&D Greyhawk(?) campaign in which the adventurers find a land which is ruled and run by vampires. This would be one of those alternate earth histories in another dimension. Think of the first Blade movie where he shows that woman the glyph/marking on a human showing who owns him. Farms raising/breeding/bleeding humans for their blood. Since vampires basically live forever, they're not about to make a bunch of other vampires as they want to make sure they have enough food for themselves. Ben's checking out this new world, but doesn't understand why there are so many humans are basically living in the dark at night... these are the breeding farms for humans. In the cities, which are lighted, shows many people, but their body temperatures are different than those in the darkened areas. Being a doctor, Ben KNOWS his blood is different as he once tried saving someone he cared about and no, that story hasn't been written yet. So, he jumps to this city (thinking NYC) that looks like it's in the 1950's. Heck, even thought maybe in that world, that Hitler's army actually discovered an actual vampire, but it got loose and...... Imagine the "Super Race" now filled with vampires. Being faster and stronger than humans, the last thing they really need are guns, etc. Imagine ALL of Russia and China as "cattle" farms for its blood alone. While the vampires need blood, they can also eat regular food...except for garlic of course. With Ben being like he is around women, he's checking some of them out in this version of NYC. He's attracting the attention of more than one woman, one which decides to have a quick "nip" as his blood is MOST unusual. Maybe humans are cultivated by their race, with one race being favored over others? You know, like there's a lot of winery brands, but some are more famous/desirable than others. As to that vampire lady, it did not end well for her....think of that fat vampire in the Blade movie which exploded when exposed to constant UV light. This p*sses off other vampires who see this happening and how DARE one of the cattle kill one of their own? Was thinking of bringing in some of the mechanical Lara people, both male and female versions. And yes, Ben has used male versions of them. Human drones if you will, will run the human and regular farms and in return, they get a lot of bennies from their vampire masters.

As to being racist/non pc, that don't bother me at all if there's a good story involved. I've laughed when blacks tell how there were great civilizations on Africa's continent. World of difference between an empire vs civilization. There's the Zulu for example which was a great empire, but when you compare it to what happened in China and Rome for example, they were not only empires, but also civilizations. What would of happened if Genghis Khan HADN'T been defeated? But I was looking at what if blacks did have a great empire and civilization and ruled the world, with other races being in the minority? Think of how blacks were treated in the south, but this time it's blacks doing it to whites? Or the Chinese ruling the world...or at least all of Asia and Europe? One of Ben's stories (unwritten) is about a guy (white) who is out and out racist. The kind that Dad helped kill in WW 2 and Grandpa helped bury. Another one of those stories I started just to help remind me of this characters ability and attitude.

[hua man]

Solar Affliction Syndrome used as a social media phenomenon, like Trump Derangement Syndrome. Unknown attackers preying on those who step into the light, then disappear like Supermarket Sweep. Pollutants in the air causing a short lived light magnification in small (50 ft) radius. Mass Hysteria about UV poisoning.



willc453- see "White Man's Burden" John Travolta and James Earl Jones