The Yorkshire Ranter suggests that the Dog's[sic] Dogs of War by Forsyth as the world's deadliest novel.
The plot of Dog's[at least I am consistent...] Dogs of War is a coup in an African country, and it seems likely the book has been used as a "how to" manual several times, possibly most recently in the Mumbai terrorist attacks.
But, is it really the world's deadliest novel? And if not, what is?
For example, a major plot element in Debt of Honor has a lot in common with the 9/11 attacks.
There is of course also the Satanic Verses, and the Turner Diaries.
But, is there a novel which started major wars, or contributed significantly to such; not counting political tracts like Mein Kampf etc.
Is there fiction which either triggered major casualties, inspired such or served as a manual for starting mass casualty events?
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If people got a pinprick for every misplaced apostrophe, that would be the deadliest apostrophe misuse.
How did you get it in there anyway? Your source doesn't stick it in there.
Abe Lincoln once accused Harriet Beecher Stowe, jocularly but somewhat unfairly, of starting the American Civil War.
"But, is there a novel which started major wars, or contributed significantly to such..."
Well, interpretation as "novel" will be debated, but : the bible?
The interesting thing about TDOW is that it's not the interpretation of the ideas in it that causes violence, or alignment in factions based on it - it's actually using it as a HOWTO. Hence my crack about economists.
Deadliest? Not by a long shot.
WORLD COMES TO AN END:
no more civilization, or people, or worse...
Totally apocalyptic novels may have started as a subgenre of science fiction with "The Last Man", by Cousin de Grainville (1805), the author being a rather a heretical priest. In terms of literally destroying the planet Earth, we may start with astronomer Camille Flammarion's "Omega: The Last Days of the World" (1893).
Some simply smashing books:
1. "The Last Man", by Cousin de Grainville (1805)
2. "The Last Man", by Mary Shelley [18??]
3. : Plague "Omega: The Last Days of the World" by Camille Flammarion (1893)
4. "Etidorpha: on the End of Earth" by John Uri Lloyd [Lloyd, 1895; Sun, 1975; Pocket]
5. "The Purple Cloud" by M. P. Shiel (1901)
6. : volcanic gas kills everyone except the protagonist "The Second Deluge" by Garrett P. Serviss (1912)
7. : Earth flooded by watery nebula, a few people saved by a second Ark "The Poison Belt" by Arthur Conan Doyle (1913)
8. "The Scarlet Plague" by Jack London (1915)
9. : disease permanently ends civilization "Last and First Men" by Olaf Stapledon (1930)
10. "The End of the World" by G. Dennis (1930)
11. "Creation's Doom" by D. Papp (1932)
12. "When Worlds Collide" by Philip Wylie & Edwin Balmer (1933)
13. (New York: Stokes) Two planets approach Earth, one destroys it, one is our escape "Death of a World" by J. J. Farjeon (1948)
14. "Earth Abides" by George R. Stewart [Random House, 1949; Ace; Crest; Hermes] : plague
15. "Day of the Triffids" by John Christopher (1952): space-phenomenon causes mass blindness, genetically-engineered carniverous plants take over
16. "One in Three Hundred" by J. T. McIntosh (1954) Garden City NY: Doubleday) Darwinian selection as fraction of 1% of humans can survive the sun's nova to escape to Mars
17. "No Blade of Grass" by John Christopher (1957): plague kills rice, wheat, other edible grasses, mass starvation ensues
18. "The Tide Went Out", by Charles Eric Maine [Ballentine Books, 1959]: drought
19. "The Long Winter" by John Christopher (1962): new ice age wipes out society
20. "After Doomsday" by Poul Anderson (1962)
21. "Cats Cradle" by Kurt Vonnegut [Holt Rinehart Winston, 1963; Dell; Delacorte]: all water metamorphoses into "ice-nine"
22. "The Burning World", by J. G. Ballard [Berkley, 1964] a.k.a "The Drought" [Gregg, 1976; Penguin]
23. "The Ragged Edge" by John Christopher (1966)
24. "The Furies", by Keith Roberts [Berkley, 1966]: extraterrestrial wasps
25. "All Fools Day", by Edmund Cooper [Walker, 1966; Berkley]: infectious insanity
26. "Cataclysm, the Day the World Ended" by Don Pendleton
27. [Pinnacle, 1969] "Mutant 59: The Plastic Eaters", by Kit Pedler & Gerry Davis [Viking, 1972; Science Fiction Book Club; Bantam]: virus degrades all plastic
28. "The Hephaestus Plague", by Thomas Page [Putnam, 1973; Bantam]: insects
29. "The Swarm", by Arthur Herzog [Simon & Schuster, 1974]: insects
30. "The Last Whales" by Lloyd [Robert] Abbey [London: Grove Weidenfeld, Feb 1990; Doubleday UK, July 1990; Bantam UK, Mar 1991; New York: Ballentine, Aug 1991]: Blue Whales point-of-view after nuclear war
31. "Ashes, Ashes", by Rene Barjavel (19??): electricity no longer works
32. "The Death of Iron", by S. S. Held [19??] : metal fatigue, sort of
33."The Death of Metal", by Donald Suddaby [19??]: metal fatigue, sort of
[truncated]
See web page for more, including films on the topic...
Er, novels that lead to actual deaths, by inspiration or example, not fictional deaths in novels - and I don't want to go all RAH 666 on this.
I don't think the Bible counts - not really a novel, more a collection of poems and novellas with a sort of common setting.
I also am a coward and don't have the time or inclination to deal with comment deluges...
The notion that TDoW is a deadly novel isn't a given. It may be convergent planning, and a corollary of the disclosure fallacy (that a security vulnerability is not unsafe as long as it isn't exposed, but the fallacy is that this supposes that smart people couldn't figure out the vulnerability on their own)
The strategy in the novel may just be of some value, and independent thought of planners may end up with the same result.
I remember reading a novel which had a building blown up using diesel and fertilizer in a truck. Some time later we had the Oklahoma city bombing. Was the book responsible, or could one independently arrive at the conclusion that diesel and fertilizer is pretty effective at making thing go 'boom!' ?
WADR to Jonathan, I'm not aware of anyone actually using - say - 24 on that list in a plot to release extraterrestrial wasps. My point is that we already have three or possibly four documented cases of people using TDOW in actual, practical coup attempts, and now a terrorist attack that bears a close tactical similarity to it.
Over on Chad Orzel's blog I made an argument that More's "Utopia" was the deadliest novel.
Alex, WDAR:
In Ray Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles", the first humans to land on Mars are killed by a native Martian's Bee Gun.
The Bee Bee Gun comes a few varieties, such as:
1. An actual gun that shoots bees.
2. A special ability to control bees.
3. A character that is actually made of bees.
4. Dogs with bees in their mouths so when they bark they shoot bees at you.