A virus called Wuhan-400 causes outbreak … in a Dean Koontz thriller from 1981. How is it that some books appear to prophesy events?

South China Morning Post ^ | 02/10/2020 | Kate Whithead

[SeekAndFind]

The Eyes of Darkness, a 1981 thriller by bestselling suspense author Dean Koontz, tells of a Chinese military lab that creates a virus as part of its biological weapons programme. The lab is located in Wuhan, which lends the virus its name, Wuhan-400. A chilling literary coincidence or a case of writer as unwitting prophet?

In The Eyes of Darkness, a grieving mother, Christina Evans, sets out to discover whether her son Danny died on a camping trip or if – as suspicious messages suggest – he is still alive. She eventually tracks him down to a military facility where he is being held after being accidentally contaminated with man-made microorganisms created at the research centre in Wuhan.

If that made the hair on the back of your neck stand up, read this passage from the book: “It was around that time that a Chinese scientist named Li Chen moved to the United States while carrying a floppy disk of data from China’s most important and dangerous new biological weapon of the past decade. They call it Wuhan-400 because it was developed in their RDNA laboratory just outside the city of Wuhan.”

In another strange coincidence, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which houses China’s only level four biosafety laboratory, the highest-level classification of labs that study the deadliest viruses, is just 32km from the epicentre of the current coronavirus outbreak. The opening of the maximum-security lab was covered in a 2017 story in the journal Nature, which warned of safety risks in a culture where hierarchy trumps an open culture.

Fringe conspiracy theories that the coronavirus involved in the current outbreak appears to be man-made and likely escaped from the Wuhan virology lab have been circulated, but have been widely debunked.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Look up the term ‘remote viewing’ ... some writers may have it without knowing it.

THANKS, I LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERYDAY !!

[GOPJ]

...Chan points to the 1898 novella Futility, which told the story of a huge ocean liner that sank in the North Atlantic after striking an iceberg. Many uncanny similarities were noted between the fictional ship – called Titan – and the real-life passenger ship RMS Titanic, which sank 14 years later. Following the sinking of the Titanic, the book was reissued

[trebb]

I read just about everything Koontz puts out - very prescient and his admixture of science fiction/fantasy with reality keeps it fun...he has a series out about a agent on the run (Jane Hawk) and “the powers that be” have concocted a nano-bot solution that allows complete control (Dem wet dream) and some of his comments give it a “1984/Fahrenheit 451” feel.

[Freedom4US]

“Fringe conspiracy theories have been debunked”

Yeah, sure. If you say so.

[dangus]

I recall reading about how people on the Titanic didn’t realize the danger the ship was in in part because they were watching a movie (then a very novel experience for the upper classes; movies were considered trash) about a disaster.

[Grammy]

"I read just about everything Koontz puts out - very prescient and his admixture of science fiction/fantasy with reality keeps it fun"

I used to read all of Koontz stuff, but I finally realized that he was scaring me so bad that it wasn't helpful to my life.

[Buttons12]

Too bad they weren’t listening to the radio.

[trebb]

I find him to be an optimist - his characters generally have something special to offer.

[wgmalabama]

Bump. Interesting.