H. G. Wells Inhumane

H.G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds was undeniably the first of its kind, but after more than a century of science fiction authors drawing “inspiration” from his style, readers are left with a mere “alien story.” When aberrance is burglarized by contemporary writers, all that remains are flaws, which evince in a disappointing lucidity. Wells’s conceptions are now such a commonality that they are deprecated, and his pitfalls are exploited. Structure and audience are the primary defects of the book. Wells’s scientifically inclined audience justifies the structure, which resembles a scientific journal more than a piece of fictional prose. However, this approach leaves the narrator and his brother unnamed, making them difficult to discuss in conversation.

In recent years, the US military has been developing laser weaponry, and plan to equip vehicles and bombers with the technology (Mizokami). Wells portrays the Heat-Ray as alien and inhumane, yet it will be used on human soil, against other humans. This brings readers to question the morality of the human race. Are humans any better than the Martians? Wells made another shocking augury by means of an equivocating metaphor. He prognosticates the rise of dictatorial governments by noting that the Martians’ goals are “complete demoralization and the destruction of any opposition” (Wells 293). These are the methods by which dictators come into power and maintain their influence, as shown by the rise of Communism in Russia and Fascism in Italy and Germany. In a sense, the Martians represented the tyranny that was soon to invade Europe and

What makes the book worth reading, however, is not to revel in the action, nor to mock the seemingly haughty narrator, but to analyze the author’s portrayals of human nature. Wells riddled the plot with examples of the moralistic slump that may occur in the worst of circumstances. To think that “life is an incessant struggle for existence,” is void of all morals and emotion, a raw notion that reveals our most basic purpose in life, simply existing, rather than feeling (Wells 208). His startling displays lead me to wonder whether he is pessimistic or realistic about the human race. This aspect of the text is the only reason the book managed to keep my