The War of the Worlds - Chapter 2

Chapter 2 – The Falling Star

Overall: Oh this is cool. Also, some notes on style.

TW: for discussion of imperialistic themes (probably going to be a recurring trend in this book)

Our narrator is in an interesting scenario here. Like in The Time Machine, he begins to narrate someone else’s story. But given what I know of how this story is to proceed, I wonder if some of this is embellishment post-invasion or if it’s all true. After the night of the lights on mars, a strange object is seen falling to Earth. The narrator does not see it, but describes a friend of his, Ogilvy, who does.

The narrative then shifts to Ogilvy as he searches a part of the English countryside to find the object that fell. Eventually, he manages to come across it and can’t make head nor tails of the strange cylinder. However, he manages to enlist the help of nearby townsfolk in trying to excavate the object, as it’s apparent to him that there are living things inside.

I like how fast this is building up in the story. The newspaper has already reported on the strange object and our narrator ends the chapter heading to the sand pits near Ottershaw to try to see it.

So from what all I know of this book, and its adaptations in particular, I’m wondering if an adaptation more true to Wells’s time has been made. By which I mean, it’s one thing to see giant mechanical aliens tromping around a modern city while Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning interact amidst all the comforts of the modern world. However, the contrast between this turn of the 20th century England and the martians, I think, is meant to comment on England’s perception of itself in colonialism. A particularly harrowing example of what I mean can be found in this rhyme that was used by the British during their colonial fights against various peoples in Africa.

“No matter what happens we have got
The maxim gun and they have not”

I think that’s what Wells is probably trying to highlight with what’ll probably be a huge disparity of tech between the Martians and humans. I know that the aliens take over-ish but I don’t know how this book ends, but if it ends with a triumph for the humans, I think it makes a lot of difference if the gap in power is that much wider.