"The Comet" is a science fiction short story written by W. E. B. Du Bois in 1920. It discusses the relationship between Jim Davis, a black man, and Julia, a wealthy white woman, after a comet strike unleashes toxic gases that kill everyone in New York except them.
Originally published as the tenth chapter of Du Bois's Darkwater: Voices From Within the Veil,[1] "The Comet" was reprinted in the 2000 anthology Dark Matter: The Anthology of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Speculative Fiction by Black Writers.[2] It helped lay the foundation for a paradigm known as Afrofuturism.[3][4]
- ^ Du Bois 1920, p. ix.
- ^ Thomas 2000.
- ^ Elia 2016.
- ^ Ogbunu 2020.