War of the Worlds Double Dose

At the beginning of the month I listened to Orson Welles’ radio program War of the Worlds. I found it on YouTube in six parts, each about 10 minutes long. (Here is Part 1). It was good. It was creepy. It was believable. I was up way too late with a bad head cold – very sleep deprived and filled with a variety of cold-combating drugs. This made the performance even better.

I could just see how in that time of limited technology and news programs, that people truly believed that something was going down. Maybe not Martians, per se, but surely a world calamity was just around the corner?

With that appreciation on my mind, I decided to read H. G. Wells‘ World of the Worlds, written 1898. I chose the audio version from NetLibrary, performed by Christopher Hurt. This tale started off very mellow. Every day British dude doing his morning routine, fetching a morning paper, some rumor or tall tale about some space pod. So of course folks have to pack a picnic basket and go out and see for themselves and have a little holiday. Eventually, unfortunately, the Martians inside the space pod wake up and use this incredibly effective heat ray to barbeque everyone who came out for fun in the sun and sight-seeing. Thus starts the calamity.

Through one man’s narration, we learn of his choice to send his wife off with her cousin to some safe, cozy country side, while he goes trekking into danger. Personally, I think this guy was a more dedicated sight-seer than his wife. Personal opinion here: I think that relationships that are lopsided like that (1 person has all the common sense and the other person has all the fool-hardiness) are pretty difficult to maintain over a number of years. Here is me wishing them luck.

We get to follow this guy through descriptions of the scenery, other humans’ reactions to the situation, the military actions he stumbles upon, and the destruction by the ever increasing number of Martian space craft zapping the cities to rubble. There are several well thought-out dialogues about how humanity may or may not continue under Martian rule. I especially enjoyed the speculations on the Martians themselves, based on what little the humans had seen of them.

But as many of you know, the Martian Rule never comes to pass. Their strange terraforming red weed never takes and eventually they themselves are brought low and decimated. I won’t say how, just in case you truly don’t know. Overall, the sheer mellowness – lack of gore and descriptions of violence – surprised me. I mean, the Earth is being invaded. Humans are being wiped out. It was quite a nice change of pace from the modern horror stories.