Celebrity under the microscope
Author and lecturer James McCreet revisits a great novel opening from one of the sci-fi pioneers
Now seen as one of the fathers of the genre, HG Wells blended elements of his academic background in science and social studies in his science fiction, creating several of its most enduring and influential books, including The Time Machine, TheInvisible Man and The Island of Dr Moreau. Although outpaced by contemporary knowledge, The War of the Worlds incorporated the latest scientific thinking when it was first published in 1897, and popularised our use of the word ‘martian’.
The War of the Worlds by HG Wells
No one would have believed1 in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s2 and yet as mortal as his own;3 that as men busied themselves about their various concerns4 they were scrutinised and studied,5 perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise6 the transient creatures7 that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.8 With infinite complacency9 men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs,10 serene in their assurance of their empire over matter.11 It is possible that the infusoria12 under the microscope do the same.13 No one gave a thought to the older worlds of space14 as sources of human danger15, or thought of them only to dismiss the idea of life upon them as impossible or improbable.16 It is curious to recall some of the mental habits of those departed days.17 At most terrestrial men fancied there might be other men upon Mars, perhaps inferior to themselves and ready to welcome a missionary enterprise.18 Yet across the gulf of space,19 minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish,20 intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic,21 regarded this earth with envious eyes,22 and slowly and surely23 drew their plans against us.24 And early in the twentieth century came the great disillusionment.25