Are these creatures everywhere? Has the earth been given over to them?

The War of the Worlds  by H.G. Wells
Originally published in 1898

Spoiler Alert: Plot Summary
The War of the Worlds is about men from Mars. Literally. Well, okay, they're not actually human, they're more like snakes, and they're not really gendered (at least from what we can tell) but you get the drift. It's turn of the century (20th century) England, and our nameless protagonist, Mr. Man (for lack of a better name) is bopping about his daily business, being a philosophy professor and all, and then poof! The Martians invade. Chaos ensues (unsurprisingly, though this comes as a surprise to some early, and soon dead, characters) and mostly by sheer accident, the narrator manages to live through the messy and mostly fatal ordeal. The Martians don't seem to want anything, other than to take over the Earth (I mean, is that so much to ask?) and they don't need much food, just the occasional human (or ten). Things go from bad to worse as the Martians make their way from smaller English towns to merry old London, and it seems like maybe we'll just have to throw up our arms and become Martian meat, but then SOOPRIZE, the Martians all die. They are apparently not able to process bacteria, and the humans they've been snacking on this whole time were plum FULL of the stuff. So Mr. Man makes his way through the detritus to his home, thinks for sure his wifey got kilt, and then ends up finding her back at their house, too, to live happily (well more like cautiously) ever after.
Spoiler Over: Continue Here

This book was lots of fun. I mean, it was fairly dark and all, since the Martians are kind of 'in the lead' in the whole battle for Planet Earth thing for most of it, but still fun. I can see how incredible it would be to read it as a first in its genre, since it still stands up quite well even now that we're fairly inundated with alien invasion stories. 

I did a little digging on the whole radio broadcast thing, since I had heard that some people heard this story on the radio and thought it was true. Turns out there were a few peeps who heard this on the radio and thought Martians really were invading, but probably not that many. (Amusingly, the article I read said that the particular radio show in question was simply not that popular. Lolz.) Still, can you imagine hearing a story like this on breaking news, only to find out halfway through that it was fiction? Definitely a bit tricksy. Apparently Orson Welles wasn't trying to fool anybody, but the commercials didn't play for the first 30 minutes or something so people thought it was a news bulletin broadcast of the latest news. 

Hokay. Onwards to the rest of my thoughts, in no particular order. (As usual.)

Mr. No-Name Protagonist
Well, we haven't had one of these in a WHILE, have we blobbists? I believe that Prousty's YBN (Young Boy Narrator) was the last one we had, although that seems awfully long, so maybe I'm forgetting someone. In case you didn't know, I am NOT a fan of the whole "I'm not naming my protagonist" shtick. I feel like if we're going to spend 178 pages together, I would love to have a name to call you by. Any name. A last name is fine! A first name only is fine! I'll take a letter! (I'd like to buy a vowel!)

Anyway, all we got was Mr. Man, and then later, Mr. Man's wife and Mr. Man's brother. I suppose it was supposed to give an 'every man' quality to the narrative, but I feel like I still could have identified with Mr. Man if his name was, say, Bob. Or Bill. Or Archie. Or INSERT ANY NAME HERE.

Men
Well, speaking of Mr. Man, it occurred to me that this book was on the older side (1898 was over a century ago now) and it showed itself most in its gender stereotypes. Sure, there were references to older technology and stuff, but it being about aliens gave it a newer feel. It was more jarring to read comments about "silly women", and "weak women", and then realize after 174 pages that women really weren't going to be in this novel. I counted, and in the first two times, Wells mentions men 9 times. Women? Zero. Sure, he means 'man' as in 'mankind' in many of these places, but still. I'm pretty sure if there was an alien invasion, even a hundred years ago (hell, especially a hundred years ago) women would have something to say or do about it. 

Who's waking in Woking?
The name of the town in the beginning of the book in sleepy England is Woking, which I loved. It gave me this fantastic image of the Land of Nod, a quiet, tucked away hamlet where nothing major happens until BOOM. Aliens arrive.

The Martians
The Martians are delightfully creepy. Here's a snippet I liked:

All night long the Martians were hammering and stirring, sleepless, indefatigable, at work upon the machines they were making ready, and ever and again a puff of greenish-white smoke whirled up to the starlit sky.

London as a character
There are tons of books where cities become a character of their own, and London has made it into thousands, if not millions, of books by now. That said, it was fun to read about London here as if she was an entity of her own, outside of and beyond the simple contents she contains. We'll forgive H.G. Wells for calling it the 'greatest city in the world'. He probably never visited Philadelphia ;)

Words new to me

carmine - a vivid crimson color

erethism - a state of abnormal mental excitement or irritation

heliograph - a signaling device by which sunlight is reflected in flashes from a movable mirror; a telescopic apparatus for photographing the sun (pictured right)

kopje - a small hill in a generally flat area (Afrikaans, from Dutch)

theodolite - a surveying instrument with a rotating telescope for measuring horizontal and vertical angles (pictured left)

tocsin - an alarm bell or signal (from Old French)

Lines I liked

• Life is real again, and the useless and cumbersome and mischievous have to die.

• Few people realize the immensity of vacancy in which the dust of the material universe swims.

• I was a battleground of fear and curiosity.

• What good is religion if it collapses under calamity?

This was a short novel, so it seems fitting that this is a fairly short post. I'm off to read Family, or Dear Ones, or something of that ilk. 

Sending love, soothing quiet evenings, and no surprise Martian visits to my dear blobbers. Keep safe, keep faith, good night.