After reading “The Comet”, all I could think about were the numerous disaster films that start off the same way. Guy gets lucky enough to be somewhere safe before the comet/asteroid hits, destroys humanity, and now it is a struggle for survival in a decimated world. It is a story that has been told numerous times in literature and film. The one thing that I was not able to recall was how many of these stories have a black man as the hero. Even in a time when all races are considered equal there are not a lot of black heroes represented in film or television. I looked around on the internet and according to one website, http://www.pajiba.com/seriously_random_lists/fear-of-a-black-planet-black-presidents-in-film-and-television.php, even the president has only been black 7 (technically 8 according to the site i found) times in film. That is a ridiculously low number when you think about all the films that are churned out year after year. So, I started thinking if that is how it plays out in our current time, how well did this story go over in 1920? I tried to look for some info but came up short, so if anyone can help, please hook me up with some knowledge because I find it hard to believe that this story was accepted during its time. I’m just curious to find out how people would react at that time when civil rights were just evolving. Even in the story, after New York City is totally decimated the characters were still noticing the color of the hero’s skin. I would think that after the total annihilation of the city that appearance would not come close to making the list of things that should cause concern. So if anyone has any info about the initial reactions to this story I would love to hear about it because it must have been rough at the time this story was published.
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