Historically, something has seemingly struck a chord with people about the notion of aliens landing on Earth and wreaking havoc on an unprepared and unsuspecting population. I think people identify with the idea more than the novel itself, as it's spawned an innumerable array of iterations, from other books to movies to graphic novels, to the radio broadcast which supposedly caused a public panic. More on that later.
This obviously highly influential novel was first published by literary luminary H.G. Wells in 1897, but initially in serial form, in Pearson's Magazine in the UK, and Cosmopolitan in the US. It first appeared in book form in 1898. Few of the later adaptations are actually faithful to the plot of the original novel, however, which occurs in a period contemporaneous with that in which it was written, so the material probably didn't resonate all that much with audiences decades later. Despite the rather lackluster prose, the book has remained exceedingly popular for more than a century, having never been out of print for more than a hundred years. One could state that the entirety of the "alien invasion" genre owes it a great debt of gratitude for setting the tone for later generations of sci-fi.
Some have argued, reasonably so, that the novel is a veiled critique (social satire, if you will), of the rampant British imperialism of the day, and tells the account of the overbearing and powerful British essentially ravaging other nations, who lacked the technological development to fight back. There were, in the late nineteenth century, rumblings of discontent over the manner in which the "colonies" were being treated by their European overlords, thus sowing the seeds of revolt. The Martians, it seems, have been eyeing Earth for decades, maybe centuries, intent on colonizing it, as their resource base has been overextended on their home world, and they are in desperate need of a new world to augment their dwindling supplies. This situation, of course, mirrors that of Britain in the period in which the novel was written, as resource extraction was far outstripping sustainable limits, especially in coal, and, most significantly, timber. A primary impetus for crossing the Atlantic to the New World, in fact, was the search for raw materials, particularly wood and precious metals.
I won't rehash the whole plot, but there are some features which are eerily prescient. The Martians send down "cylinders" equipped with some type of heat-ray, which begin destroying everything in their path. The narrator makes it to London, whereupon the story then chronicles the desperate fight in the city, where he, along with his medical student younger brother and some girls picked up along the way, attempt to escape. The Martians then start collecting human victims for a purpose unknown. Just when it seems that all is lost, however, the Earth itself is the savior: the one constant of most of the later adaptations is that the Martians die en masse from pathogens to which they have no immunity. Wells states that they are dead "after all man's devices had failed, by the humblest things that God, in his wisdom, has put upon this earth." We might agreed to disagree that pathogens are the "humblest things" in light of the current pandemic, however. Nor had the world seen the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic, which killed an estimated twenty million people in eighteen months, so this slight oversight is easily forgiven.
An event which made the story and its author even more famous was a 1938 radio program, which supposedly caused a public panic when listeners to the highly realistic broadcast believed that the Martian invasion was an actual one. The famous radio broadcast was an episode of the Mercury Theater on the Air, directed and narrated by future film luminary Orson Welles. It was performed and broadcast live as a Halloween episode on Sunday, October 30, 1938. Apparently, some people didn't get the memo that it was actually a performance, however.
The program began with an announcement that the show was an adaption of the 1898 novel, but then took the form of several news flashes about a UFO falling and landing on a farm in New Jersey. Martians predictably emerged from the cylinder and attacked using a heat ray, like in the novel. Apparently, in the days following the broadcast, there was quite a bit of uproar over the news-bulletin format, which was decried as deceptive (which kind of misses the point, I think), as it did alarm quite a few people. There was even reportedly a brief scuffle between several police officers and the studio staff when the former attempted to stop the broadcast in the wake of (erroneous) reports of stampedes, traffic accidents and even reported suicides.
How much of an actual panic if caused, and whether there were actually any deaths or injuries, isn't really known. However, the event spawned some 12,000 newspaper articles about the impact of the broadcast within just a few weeks. As it took place in the months preceding the outbreak of WWII, even Adolf Hitler reportedly referenced the broadcast in a speech in Munich on Nov. 8, 1938, so it spawned quite a reception! We forget, I suppose, that it was not really until the latter part of the twentieth century that scientists learned that there was no intelligent life on other planets and moons in our own solar system, something we take for granted today. Less than a century ago, however, it was something of an anxiety, especially, as stated above, in light of the colonizing European nations, which essentially enslaved native populations and exploited them mercilessly, for the sole purpose of cheap labor and resource extraction.
A final word on the novel: it's definitely a recommended read, although the prose leaves something to be desired. It seems to have been written from the perspective of an "average" person, simply recounting the events that occurred with little in between. It's really just a progression of events, which makes it rather dry, when it's meant to be a suspense, or horror novel, which it doesn't really achieve. Still, because of its great influence on later works, and, indeed the entire genre itself, it's definitely worth getting back to basics!
This obviously highly influential novel was first published by literary luminary H.G. Wells in 1897, but initially in serial form, in Pearson's Magazine in the UK, and Cosmopolitan in the US. It first appeared in book form in 1898. Few of the later adaptations are actually faithful to the plot of the original novel, however, which occurs in a period contemporaneous with that in which it was written, so the material probably didn't resonate all that much with audiences decades later. Despite the rather lackluster prose, the book has remained exceedingly popular for more than a century, having never been out of print for more than a hundred years. One could state that the entirety of the "alien invasion" genre owes it a great debt of gratitude for setting the tone for later generations of sci-fi.
Some have argued, reasonably so, that the novel is a veiled critique (social satire, if you will), of the rampant British imperialism of the day, and tells the account of the overbearing and powerful British essentially ravaging other nations, who lacked the technological development to fight back. There were, in the late nineteenth century, rumblings of discontent over the manner in which the "colonies" were being treated by their European overlords, thus sowing the seeds of revolt. The Martians, it seems, have been eyeing Earth for decades, maybe centuries, intent on colonizing it, as their resource base has been overextended on their home world, and they are in desperate need of a new world to augment their dwindling supplies. This situation, of course, mirrors that of Britain in the period in which the novel was written, as resource extraction was far outstripping sustainable limits, especially in coal, and, most significantly, timber. A primary impetus for crossing the Atlantic to the New World, in fact, was the search for raw materials, particularly wood and precious metals.
I won't rehash the whole plot, but there are some features which are eerily prescient. The Martians send down "cylinders" equipped with some type of heat-ray, which begin destroying everything in their path. The narrator makes it to London, whereupon the story then chronicles the desperate fight in the city, where he, along with his medical student younger brother and some girls picked up along the way, attempt to escape. The Martians then start collecting human victims for a purpose unknown. Just when it seems that all is lost, however, the Earth itself is the savior: the one constant of most of the later adaptations is that the Martians die en masse from pathogens to which they have no immunity. Wells states that they are dead "after all man's devices had failed, by the humblest things that God, in his wisdom, has put upon this earth." We might agreed to disagree that pathogens are the "humblest things" in light of the current pandemic, however. Nor had the world seen the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic, which killed an estimated twenty million people in eighteen months, so this slight oversight is easily forgiven.
An event which made the story and its author even more famous was a 1938 radio program, which supposedly caused a public panic when listeners to the highly realistic broadcast believed that the Martian invasion was an actual one. The famous radio broadcast was an episode of the Mercury Theater on the Air, directed and narrated by future film luminary Orson Welles. It was performed and broadcast live as a Halloween episode on Sunday, October 30, 1938. Apparently, some people didn't get the memo that it was actually a performance, however.
The program began with an announcement that the show was an adaption of the 1898 novel, but then took the form of several news flashes about a UFO falling and landing on a farm in New Jersey. Martians predictably emerged from the cylinder and attacked using a heat ray, like in the novel. Apparently, in the days following the broadcast, there was quite a bit of uproar over the news-bulletin format, which was decried as deceptive (which kind of misses the point, I think), as it did alarm quite a few people. There was even reportedly a brief scuffle between several police officers and the studio staff when the former attempted to stop the broadcast in the wake of (erroneous) reports of stampedes, traffic accidents and even reported suicides.
How much of an actual panic if caused, and whether there were actually any deaths or injuries, isn't really known. However, the event spawned some 12,000 newspaper articles about the impact of the broadcast within just a few weeks. As it took place in the months preceding the outbreak of WWII, even Adolf Hitler reportedly referenced the broadcast in a speech in Munich on Nov. 8, 1938, so it spawned quite a reception! We forget, I suppose, that it was not really until the latter part of the twentieth century that scientists learned that there was no intelligent life on other planets and moons in our own solar system, something we take for granted today. Less than a century ago, however, it was something of an anxiety, especially, as stated above, in light of the colonizing European nations, which essentially enslaved native populations and exploited them mercilessly, for the sole purpose of cheap labor and resource extraction.
A final word on the novel: it's definitely a recommended read, although the prose leaves something to be desired. It seems to have been written from the perspective of an "average" person, simply recounting the events that occurred with little in between. It's really just a progression of events, which makes it rather dry, when it's meant to be a suspense, or horror novel, which it doesn't really achieve. Still, because of its great influence on later works, and, indeed the entire genre itself, it's definitely worth getting back to basics!
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