The War of the Worlds

DNF
Once again I find myself in the minority.

WEARISOME

This book left such a bad impression in me that I haven't been able to bring myself to rise the slightest interest to even watch the movie.

Probably everyone knows the basic plot, so there is no need to elaborate -- Martians come, they kick humanity's collective ass. The story is narrated by an average (if well-educated) guy who happens to see the arrival and survive, and is scrambling around trying to find food without getting seen in the process. Contra the movies, he is not heroic or important to the outcome of the invasion, which I thought an intriguing authorial choice.

A couple aspects that were interesting to me:

--The narrator several times mentions that how humans are feeling as the Martians prey upon them must be similar to the helplessness and fear that animals feel when we hunt and kill them. The Martians are abhorrent to us because they are killing us, and also look hideous to us, but that's perspective. From their point of view they are doing nothing wrong. I wonder if their have been any reception studies done on how Wells' contemporaries felt about this position?

--I haven't heard this mentioned, but WoW is in fact an alternate-history novel, or set in a similar parallel universe, because it is mentioned in passing that this invasion occurred in the recent past and now we have all sorts of new technology thanks to remainders of Martian vehicles, and also there is greater global cooperation. Has anyone ever written a follow-up novel in this setting? It seems like such an obvious idea (especially with the end point that the Martians could attack again and Earth needs to prepare) that I cannot believe no author has done it, but I haven't encountered such a book.

p.s. Why is the cover bright pink? Doesn't really suit the tone of the book, and I doubt that was colored by Gorey.

The War of the Worlds belongs to the league of immortal books.
Tribal wars, civil wars, colonial wars… H.G. Wells managed to raise a phenomenon of war to the higher interplanetary level.

The air was full of sound, a deafening and confusing conflict of noises – the clangorous din of the Martians, the crash of falling houses, the thud of trees, fences, sheds flashing into flame, and the crackling and roaring of fire. Dense black smoke was leaping up to mingle with the steam from the river, and as the Heat-Ray went to and fro over Weybridge its impact was marked by flashes of incandescent white, that gave place at once to a smoky dance of lurid flames. The nearer houses still stood intact, awaiting their fate, shadowy, faint, and pallid in the steam, with the fire behind them going to and fro.

Panic and terror… It is useless to fight back… The only way to escape is to flee and hide… And the horrendous invaders – gigantic extraterrestrial bedbugs – know no mercy.

Four or five little black figures hurried before it across the green-grey of the field, and in a moment it was evident this Martian pursued them. In three strides he was among them, and they ran radiating from his feet in all directions. He used no Heat-Ray to destroy them, but picked them up one by one. Apparently he tossed them into the great metallic carrier which projected behind him, much as a workman’s basket hangs over his shoulder.

Although the victory may come from an unexpected quarter but all the invasions sooner or later are doomed.

A triumph of 19th century imagination!

Man had not yet learned to fly when HG Wells conceived this story of a Martian attack on England. Giant cylinders crash to earth, disgorging huge, unearthly creatures armed with heat rays and fighting machines. Amid the boundless destruction they cause, it looks as if the end of the world has come.

This novel represents an extraordinary blend of prophetic hard science fiction together with a superb narrative of the human effects of fear, war, mob psychology, courage, arrogance, pride, despair, faith and stupidity among other human strengths and weaknesses.

The ending represents a new beginning for a humanity that has received a wake-up call and an opportunity to start over with what Huxley would call a "brave new world".

Paul Weiss

As I was reading this, two thoughts struck me.

The first was that this book was less about Martians than it was about how humanity views itself as the "Kings of the Earth". Mankind has always had this annoying tendency to think that whatever serves us is good and right, despite whatever injury is done to the Earth and any other living creature on it in obtaining whatever it is that we want. The Martian invasion served only to open our eyes to this blindness and willful ignorance.

I appreciated some of the artilleryman's ideas on cohabitation, in so far as he compared the surviving humans to rodents or small animals -- the Martians (as the "New Kings of the Earth") will let us be, as we mean them no harm-- unless they run out of food, that is. Isn't this really how animals must see us? I think so. Too bad that's not true... Humans will hunt, kill and exploit for the sport of it, not just for survival.

The invasion in the book awakens us to the fact that there is always someone bigger, badder and meaner out there to hunt humans as if we are now the animals.

But I digress!

My second thought was that it was really odd that all 7 of the mentioned Martian cylinders landed in England. I mean, even if we expand this to include Ireland, Scotland and Wales, we are talking about an area of 151,502 square miles. Compare this to Asia at 17,700,000 square miles or even Europe at 3,930,000 square miles. (Figures are from Google.)

About 3/4 through the book, it's mentioned that other cylinders are probably wreaking havoc on other parts of the world. I suppose it must be assumed that they had some trajectory and that the cylinders were shot at the same time each day to follow it, but then why only aim at one area if world domination is your goal?

In this one particular, I could not suspend my disbelief to allow for 7 out of 10 cylinders to hit such a small area of the planet.

I am probably over-thinking this... I feel better after getting all of that off of my chest though! I did really enjoy the story itself, and would definitely recommend it to anyone. It's short enough so that it is not a daunting read, but it contains such a large story that it is immensely entertaining.

“Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.”

Another 'template' book that has influenced so many other forms of artistic expression. I have to admit I think of this book every time we collect samples from secluded places; is anyone thinking about the impact that a germ/virus could have on us if the wrong 'thing' got loose? Several of my friends have mentioned the eerie similarities between this classic novel and our current experience with COVID.

n  n

A few days ago I have read this juicy article on a Portuguese magazine ("Visão"): 5th September...still missing 3290 days for a visit to Mars.

The article speaks about NASA's visit by 2030. Yet, a Dutch company* is preparing to anticipate NASA in a decade. A no-return voyage, vegetarians by force...and a water factory are some of the ideas approached.

To my knowledge, though thousands worldwide had already applied, there are 8 Portuguese people ready to embark; but only 4 of them disclosed their names. Ages between 19 and 42. Maybe one of them up there ...in 2023.


n  n


Dreams that never end,...Mr Wells.
-Martians, beware, it's "our turn"!



n  n

Yes, this is truly a classic of science fiction; a book first published in 1898.

It's about a Martian invasion: missiles launched from planet Mars carry strange creatures/machines inside...which, when out of its carrying cylinders, wreak havoc everyone and everything.

Truly, a paranoid vision of a planet close to ours: a place that receives only "half of the light" of the sun, and whose hardened-hearts inhabitants "carry warfare" sunward. They see our green planet...while theirs got cooled. And their "intelligences are greater than ours". They watch us keenly.

It's the end of the 19th century and astronomer Ogilvy at Ottershaw village, England, wonders about the "thing" they "were sending us". People used to scoffle at the idea of "Mars inhabitants": a vulgar one.

And then for 10 nights a flame was watched: and it happened: the falling star reached Earth!

Ogilvy tried to find it...though he had seen nothing. There was a thing buried on the ground: a hot huge cylinder in Horsell Cadron...it was 6 o'clock: and "there's a man inside it!".

But nobody believes this report. The cylinder was of a yellowish white metal...an unfamiliar one: extraterrestrial. Excavations start. Stent, the Astronomer Royal is called upon...so Lord Hilton, lord of the Manor.

n  n


Out of the cylinder came little tentacles, like a little grey snake....and then the bulk, that body mass...round eyes...arms like an octopus. There's horror around. An ungovernable terror is gripping the main character.


The Deputy attempted to communicate by holding a white flag ...but that group was swept of existence, it became a group of specks.

Fear.

From the cylinder emanates a flash of light, a greenish smoke...it's the light of destruction. "Three puffs of green smoke"...and the spinning mirror...the heat ray: forty people have died.

n  n

More troops are deployed, another cordon of soldiers....and a squadron of hussars...and a regiment of 400,...a second cylinder had fallen on Earth.


n  n

And yet, out of that area people carry on the routine. Some are curious to know how "they" live on another planet.

Ogilvy said that it's impossible for Martians to live on Earth: due to the excess of oxygen and the gravitation force here being 3 times higher than Mars'.

Meanwhile, the main character had his last civilized meal. Why hasn't the story been printed in a London paper yet?
...
n  n
("their things...")

n  n
n  n

("our things...")

*http://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/22/wor...
http://www.mars-one.com/en/roadmap2015

UPDATES:
http://rt.com/news/158216-mars-one-wa...
(Girlfriend or Mars? RT interviews Mars One hopefuls)

One-way Ticket to Mars (RT Documentary) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfKzhj...

Group’s ‘Mars One’ Project Is ‘So Ambitious’ That Even the CEO Admits It’s Pretty ‘Crazy’
Aug. 25, 2015 8:58am in:http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/...

Sydney Do :“the analysis that we’ve made and the historical analysis that we’ve done, is that no, they cannot do this, and it is infeasible.”

http://marsmobile.jpl.nasa.gov/multim...

By the way, the (European) Schiaparelli Lander is about to touch down on Mars
19th October 2016
...
Sad news: it seems the Lander was "destroyed on impact".
24th October 2016


https://www.theguardian.com/science/2...
Quite interesting testimony of these 3 volunteers, a Mozambican doctor, an Iraqi-American woman, and a UK Physicist.
Three volunteers are on the shortlist to be among four people on the Mars One programme:
https://www.theguardian.com/news/vide...
25th November 2017

UPDATE

It seems the mission is over. Pity.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...
7th May 2019.

Mars Attacks! BBC Unveils 'War of the Worlds' Trailer
in:
https://www.space.com/war-of-the-worl...


Covid-related UPDATE

https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/epid...

Wells message for Greta Thunberg, in a quote from the book:

"The secular cooling that must someday overtake our planet has already gone far indeed with our neighbour (Mars)".