What do The War of the Worlds and W.A.L.-E have in common?
Plenty.
I just finished The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells tonight. (If you have not read the book, this won't make much sense, and it also contains spoilers)
You may read it here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=-9QfOx1BrBgC&dq=%22war+of+the+worlds%22&pg=PP1&ots=5VA0uMAU78&source=bn&sig=7T-AufxaGzBv1sokzuGg8NvFBms&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result
I can certainly see why his contemporary, GK Chesterton, took him to task.
(http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Gilbert_K_Chesterton/Heretics/Mr_H_G_Wells_and_the_Giants_p1.html)
He has infused the book with philosophy -- nay, the book is moreso born of philosophy. He finds space to ridicule Christianity and religion in general, with the depiction of the curate, the ravings of the artilleryman, and the comments of the narrator. I did find it interesting that he seems to turn religion back into a positive light at the end, though I hardly think it undoes much damage already caused.
More strange to me was his assault on humanism. What? Yes, it was shocking to me, living in a secular humanistic society, to hear such blatant denial of the human species. Wells is certainly not a humanist.
I give him a lot of credit though, for a pure presentation of evolution. My secular humanistic society has progressed to the place where they really don't believe evolution anymore. Wells presents it pure and rational. If it happened, it could happen anywhere, probably did, they could be more intelligent than us, they could attack us, and we could be like ants to them. Humans are not the highest lifeform, we just happen to be right now. Please notice that Natural Selection was the key component in the War of the Worlds.
Back to W.A.L.-E. Why on earth do I say these two have something in common? Ahh, precisely because of earth. There has been an idea for years that humans will eventually wear the earth out. We will need to progress in space, because we need to leave this planet. After using up the earth, we will move to another planet, and begin to use it up too. (see C.S. Lewis, The Space Trilogy for a strong reaction to these ideas.) Now, this idea is very humanistic, for it assumes humans to be "it". Both C.S. Lewis and H.G. Wells counter the idea, funny enough. From War of the Worlds to W.A.L.-E so much later, this idea is seen.
Ok, enough philosophy --
--One literary comment: The cliched "happy ending" of this book is almost revolting. Sure, victory is good, but then all of a sudden, his wife is there ... What? Did he run out of paper, or out of inspiration? That was a little too easy in comparison with the rest of the book, lol.--
-- On to battle commentary.
A couple of problems here:
1. The main character of the story demonstrates his weakness, as well as his selfishness by constantly working for self-preservation. Once so near to the martians as he was when trapped in the house, and armed with a hatchet, he ought to have sprung upon the martians and killed as many as possible before losing his own life. Fate placed him in an ideal situation, and he blew it. It would have been for the good of humanity (one wonders if Wells believes in the good of humanity). Without the fighting machines, the martians are relatively weak, and I believe he could have had much more success than anyone else yet in the story. What about the heat ray, you ask? Indeed, he was so close, he would have been inside the pit before it could have been fired (probably even before it could be set up. If it was fired from the fighting machine, it would have also killed the martians around him.
2. I have a battle plan which would have proved beneficial. Though I would not normally recommend this plan, it would certainly work here. Human volunteers loaded with explosives must allow themselves to be caught, and put in the compartments behind the hoods of the fighting machines. Once there, they would blow themselves up, taking the fighing machines down with them. A coordinated effort of this type could bring down 3-5 of the fighting machines, before the martians would learn the trick and find a way to counter it.
3. On the biggest scale, though, I feel the War of the Worlds was initially lost because of a tactical error on the part of the humans. After the chance shot that killed the first of the fighting machines, the martians retreated to the pit, vacated the tripods, and set upon repair work. Any thinking human should know that if the martians can build one, they can repair one too. But at this moment, the martians left themselves open to destruction. If batteries were moved forward during this night, completely surrounding the pit, and opened fire simultaneously, they could have destroyed all the fighting machines, and all the martians at once! Possible? Yes. The martians abandoned the machines. The only weapon they had was the heat ray. If stationed behind a hill or mound of earth, artillery would be impervious to this line of attack. All the martian equipment was within a 1 mile radius (probably within a few hundred yards), and it would have been easy to take it out with a mass of shells. The delay before they could re-man the machines would allow for at least 2 volleys. The rest of the cylinders could have been blown up before they opened, or the martians could be shot before the exited. But no, confident of their power, they set up and sat, waiting, all night.
I do commend the HMS Thunder Child for an attack perfectly executed.
I'm done. :) If you have read the book, I would appreciate your thoughts on it as well. (especially if you have also read Chesterton's Heretics or C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy).
Plenty.
I just finished The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells tonight. (If you have not read the book, this won't make much sense, and it also contains spoilers)
You may read it here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=-9QfOx1BrBgC&dq=%22war+of+the+worlds%22&pg=PP1&ots=5VA0uMAU78&source=bn&sig=7T-AufxaGzBv1sokzuGg8NvFBms&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result
I can certainly see why his contemporary, GK Chesterton, took him to task.
(http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Gilbert_K_Chesterton/Heretics/Mr_H_G_Wells_and_the_Giants_p1.html)
He has infused the book with philosophy -- nay, the book is moreso born of philosophy. He finds space to ridicule Christianity and religion in general, with the depiction of the curate, the ravings of the artilleryman, and the comments of the narrator. I did find it interesting that he seems to turn religion back into a positive light at the end, though I hardly think it undoes much damage already caused.
More strange to me was his assault on humanism. What? Yes, it was shocking to me, living in a secular humanistic society, to hear such blatant denial of the human species. Wells is certainly not a humanist.
I give him a lot of credit though, for a pure presentation of evolution. My secular humanistic society has progressed to the place where they really don't believe evolution anymore. Wells presents it pure and rational. If it happened, it could happen anywhere, probably did, they could be more intelligent than us, they could attack us, and we could be like ants to them. Humans are not the highest lifeform, we just happen to be right now. Please notice that Natural Selection was the key component in the War of the Worlds.
Back to W.A.L.-E. Why on earth do I say these two have something in common? Ahh, precisely because of earth. There has been an idea for years that humans will eventually wear the earth out. We will need to progress in space, because we need to leave this planet. After using up the earth, we will move to another planet, and begin to use it up too. (see C.S. Lewis, The Space Trilogy for a strong reaction to these ideas.) Now, this idea is very humanistic, for it assumes humans to be "it". Both C.S. Lewis and H.G. Wells counter the idea, funny enough. From War of the Worlds to W.A.L.-E so much later, this idea is seen.
Ok, enough philosophy --
--One literary comment: The cliched "happy ending" of this book is almost revolting. Sure, victory is good, but then all of a sudden, his wife is there ... What? Did he run out of paper, or out of inspiration? That was a little too easy in comparison with the rest of the book, lol.--
-- On to battle commentary.
A couple of problems here:
1. The main character of the story demonstrates his weakness, as well as his selfishness by constantly working for self-preservation. Once so near to the martians as he was when trapped in the house, and armed with a hatchet, he ought to have sprung upon the martians and killed as many as possible before losing his own life. Fate placed him in an ideal situation, and he blew it. It would have been for the good of humanity (one wonders if Wells believes in the good of humanity). Without the fighting machines, the martians are relatively weak, and I believe he could have had much more success than anyone else yet in the story. What about the heat ray, you ask? Indeed, he was so close, he would have been inside the pit before it could have been fired (probably even before it could be set up. If it was fired from the fighting machine, it would have also killed the martians around him.
2. I have a battle plan which would have proved beneficial. Though I would not normally recommend this plan, it would certainly work here. Human volunteers loaded with explosives must allow themselves to be caught, and put in the compartments behind the hoods of the fighting machines. Once there, they would blow themselves up, taking the fighing machines down with them. A coordinated effort of this type could bring down 3-5 of the fighting machines, before the martians would learn the trick and find a way to counter it.
3. On the biggest scale, though, I feel the War of the Worlds was initially lost because of a tactical error on the part of the humans. After the chance shot that killed the first of the fighting machines, the martians retreated to the pit, vacated the tripods, and set upon repair work. Any thinking human should know that if the martians can build one, they can repair one too. But at this moment, the martians left themselves open to destruction. If batteries were moved forward during this night, completely surrounding the pit, and opened fire simultaneously, they could have destroyed all the fighting machines, and all the martians at once! Possible? Yes. The martians abandoned the machines. The only weapon they had was the heat ray. If stationed behind a hill or mound of earth, artillery would be impervious to this line of attack. All the martian equipment was within a 1 mile radius (probably within a few hundred yards), and it would have been easy to take it out with a mass of shells. The delay before they could re-man the machines would allow for at least 2 volleys. The rest of the cylinders could have been blown up before they opened, or the martians could be shot before the exited. But no, confident of their power, they set up and sat, waiting, all night.
I do commend the HMS Thunder Child for an attack perfectly executed.
I'm done. :) If you have read the book, I would appreciate your thoughts on it as well. (especially if you have also read Chesterton's Heretics or C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy).
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