The Martians are coming! Run for your life!
The War of the Worlds (1898) by H.G. Wells is one the most famous alien invasion stories in history. The science fiction novel is a first person narrative of
a Martian invasion of Earth set in late 17th century England. Two book is split into two parts after a significant introduction, Book One: The Coming of the Martians and Book Two: The Earth under the Martians.
The book has been adapted into a motion picture twice. The first time in
1953 (LINK+) and the second time in 2005 (starring Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning). Both films are fairly loose adaptations of the novels. They use some themes from the book, but veer very far from the source material on many of the main plot points.
The War of the Worlds (1898) by H.G. Wells is one the most famous alien invasion stories in history. The science fiction novel is a first person narrative of
a Martian invasion of Earth set in late 17th century England. Two book is split into two parts after a significant introduction, Book One: The Coming of the Martians and Book Two: The Earth under the Martians. The book has been adapted into a motion picture twice. The first time in
1953 (LINK+) and the second time in 2005 (starring Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning). Both films are fairly loose adaptations of the novels. They use some themes from the book, but veer very far from the source material on many of the main plot points.The most famous adaptation of the novel was as a radio play for CBS Radio which aired on October 30, 1938. Howard Koch, co-writer of the famous film Casablanca, and Anne Froelich adapted Wells' novel for radio as part of the Mercury Theatre On Air program series. Wells narrated and directed the radio drama.
The radio play caused a huge uproar during and after it's broadcast, because a good number of people who listened to the program thought it was either a real attack by aliens or a attack by German soldiers due to the US involvement in World War II. The radio drama was designed to tell the story by emulating new bulletins frequently put on the during the war. It was enough to send some of the public into a panic.
Despite having been an internationally known event, repeated performances by radio stations in Equador (1949) and New York (1968) also produced panic among the public. To hear more about the original broadcast, as well as subsequent broadcasts, and the public reaction consider listening NPR's Radiolab broadcast on The War of the Worlds below.
Despite having been an internationally known event, repeated performances by radio stations in Equador (1949) and New York (1968) also produced panic among the public. To hear more about the original broadcast, as well as subsequent broadcasts, and the public reaction consider listening NPR's Radiolab broadcast on The War of the Worlds below.
Radiolab: Season 4 Episode 3
I'm just now reading Maureen Corrigan's "Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading" about the impact of books and reading. H.G. Well's "The War of the Worlds" is certainly a great example of the impact of a book! (And thanks for the links to the radio broadcast!)
ReplyDelete