Big Dumb Object

In discussion of <a href="/facts/Science_fiction/d9hE2Lwt">science fiction</a>, a Big Dumb Object (BDO) is any mysterious object, usually of <a href="/facts/Extraterrestrial_life/arxCPFTQ">extraterrestrial</a> or unknown origin and immense power, in a story which generates an intense <a href="/facts/Sense_of_wonder/UN0MevoU">sense of wonder</a> by its mere existence. To a certain extent, the term deliberately deflates the intended grandeur of the mysterious object.
The coining of the term has been attributed to reviewer <a href="/facts/Roz_Kaveney/80drq9le">Roz Kaveney</a> in 1981, but it was not in general use until <a href="/facts/Peter_Nicholls_(writer)/ATUQ6ldY">Peter Nicholls</a> included it in <a href="/facts/The_Encyclopedia_of_Science_Fiction/pluNehE6">The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction</a> as a joke in 1993. 
Edward Guimont and Horace A. Smith propose that the origins of the Big Dumb Object trope can be found in <a href="/facts/H._P._Lovecraft/hUATuFcN">H. P. Lovecraft</a>'s novellas <a href="/facts/At_the_Mountains_of_Madness/oKbnWe79">At the Mountains of Madness</a> and <a href="/facts/The_Shadow_Out_of_Time/Wmaqld5w">The Shadow Out of Time</a>, both of which feature human expeditions to immense ancient alien cities in remote parts of our world, and both of which were early influences upon <a href="/facts/Arthur_C._Clarke/2XJ6UGDB">Arthur C. Clarke</a>.

Big Dumb Object open-in-new

Big Dumb Object