The War of the Worlds (GP Hardcover Classics)

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So I guess we should start with the book written by the great H.G. Wells. It was the very first alien invasion story to hit the bookshelves.

And that's a pretty remarkable thing. It was a serialized thing at first in magazines and Pearsons in the UK and then Cosmo here in the US.

And then they finally slapped all those serialized versions together into a book and it sold pretty well.

Yeah, it's never been out of print since that first edition in 1898.

But in the book, H.G. Wells describes like this alien invasion. And part of the thing that was so scary about it, at least at the time, from what I can gather, is that it was about like the breakdown of society.

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It was the very first alien invasion story to hit the bookshelves. And that's a pretty remarkable thing.

It was a serialized thing at first in magazines and Pearsons in the UK and then Cosmo here in the US. And then they finally slapped all those serialized versions together into a book and it sold pretty well.

It's never been out of print since that first edition in 1898.

And that's when the book came out.

So the idea of that breaking down was scary on in and of itself.

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It was the very first alien invasion story to hit the bookshelves.

And that's a pretty remarkable thing.

It was a serialized thing at first in magazines and Pearsons in the UK and then Cosmo here in the U.S.

And then they finally slapped all those serialized versions together into a book and it sold pretty well.

Yeah, it's never been out of print since that first edition in 1898.

"

It was a serialized thing at first in magazines and Pearsons in the UK and then Cosmo here in the US.

And then they finally slapped all those serialized versions together into a book and it sold pretty well.

Yeah, it's never been out of print since that first edition in 1898.

So I guess we should start with the book written by the great H.G. Wells. It was the very first alien invasion story to hit the bookshelves.

That's a pretty remarkable thing.

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essentially the War of the Worlds is a visitation on London of what the British have visited on other parts of the world and he specifically the Tasmanians.

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For so it had come about, as indeed I and many men might have foreseen, had not terror and disaster blinded our minds.

These germs of disease have taken toll of humanity since the beginning of things, taken toll of our pre-human ancestors since life began here.

By virtue of this natural selection of our kind, we have developed resisting power.

To no germs do we succumb without a struggle.

And directly these invaders arrived. Directly they drank and fed. Our microscopic allies began to work their overthrow.

Already when I had watched them, they were irrevocably doomed, dying and rotting even as they went to and fro.

It was inevitable. By the toll of a billion deaths, man has bought his birthright of the earth.

And it is his against all comers.

It will still be his were the Martians ten times as mighty as they are.

For neither do men live nor die in vain.

Woo! Stillin'!

There's HG Wells for you.

Out of way with words.

Man.

Aliens from Mars attacked humans. They fell sick and died because they caught some microbe that we all had immunity to and it did not.

You know who narrated it?

Was it?

Wait, give me a second.

Oh God.

Morgan Freeman.

Okay. So.

I remember Andy Dufresne and his alien friend.

So generally, if you have to guess a narrator, it's 50% chance it's going to be Morgan Freeman.

In fact, it was him.

I'm not going to read his ending narration because it made some changes from the original.

Here's the original and this will take us out.

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Just to remind you, aliens from Mars attacked humans. They fell sick and died because they caught some microbe that we all had immunity to and it did not.

For so it had come about, as indeed I and many men might have foreseen, had not terror and disaster blinded our minds. These germs of disease have taken toll of humanity since the beginning of things, taken toll of our pre-human ancestors since life began here.

By virtue of this natural selection of our kind, we have developed resisting power. To no germs do we succumb without a struggle. And directly these invaders arrived. Directly they drank and fed. Our microscopic allies began to work their overthrow.

Already when I had watched them, they were irrevocably doomed, dying and rotting even as they went to and fro. It was inevitable. By the toll of a billion deaths, man has bought his birthright of the earth. And it is his against all comers.

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You can read War of the Worlds, which involves invading space. This is classic literature, written of course by H.G. Wells.

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By the way that's why it's good for you to have a talent that other people value That they can't just take from you Like your knowledge of how to do things

I thought you were gonna say comedy

I guess so The king's jester Right?

But if you're not funny Well yeah well the first time you're not funny that's the end of your career

No no it's the end of your hand Well true The end of your life right By the way this has been studied in The Walking Dead

What's that?

The- it's- so the danger is not the zombie, the zombies really Okay The danger is how people respond to each other Right so the interpersonal relationships become most important Most important and who do you value and why is someone overtaking the resources relative to other people or are some people power hungry that exploration became most of what made The Walking Dead interesting not all the innovative ways they would kill The Walking Dead because that's that gets redundant right after like the fifth episode Only so many ways you can kill a zombie You always kill a zombie right so so that exploration I think was the most intriguing part of it

That's yeah I'm gonna give it to you I have I didn't watch it that much but what I did watch that is that's what was most interesting it's like a soap opera believe it or not

It is exactly It's like a soap opera with zombies

Yeah zombie soap opera

Really?

Yes Okay They did not follow the script from the original HG Wells story Right This is the one 2004 Tom Cruise Tom Cruise Right Okay in that version The aliens lay dormant and buried underground

That's right Damn it I forgot about that part And then they found the right moment And then they all rose up Right Okay now that idea Which perhaps they thought was clever It undermines the entire plot of the movie

Which is?

Which is?

Alien invasion From another planet Right Who are overcome not by our weapons But by germs that they do not have immunity to Because they did not evolve on this planet Right So that premise means They had to be here a long time ago to put that stuff in the ground

Yes and now they're in the ground Now they're in the ground They can develop an immunity to our germs

Interesting That entire premise unraveled in the presence of this new idea They're gonna pre-bury the aliens

Gotcha Yeah So that pissed me off I'm just saying

Well I'm with you on that It was a crap movie So I mean you know don't get me wrong Love Tom Cruise Okay love him You know that movie had a narrator

Wait no Yes it did No Yes it did How?

Yes it did I've seen it twice I don't remember a narrator Okay just take a guess and there's a 50% chance you'll get the right narrator Tim Robbins Morgan Freeman

What?

Yes That's right it did He's oh my god and he comes on at the end At the end and I got the end quote right here

That's right I carry it with me All right here we go I carry this narration with me All right All right The end of the 2005 War of the Worlds From the moment the invaders arrived Breathed our air Ate and drank They were doomed They were undone Destroyed After all of man's weapons and devices had failed By the tiniest creatures that God in his wisdom put upon this earth By the toll of a billion deaths Man had earned his immunity His right to survive among this planet's infinite organisms And that right is ours against all challenges For neither do men live nor die in vain

Nice Translation Whose house? My house Anyway That wouldn't happen if they were here for millions of years Right And by the way I just find it so ironic that One of the most recognizable voices on the planet Is doing a reading of the most recognizable voice on the planet So weird How meta is that?

Neil deGrasse Tyson does Morgan Freeman You know that's cool But did you like mine?

I did I liked it And by the way that's a great little quote Okay I got a fast one and a quick aside Okay Okay a quick aside All right When I read when I heard it I said it's beautiful Right Now the novel was a 19th century Victorian era novel And I said that's beautiful language I bet it was verbatim from the story Okay because nobody today writes like that Nope For neither do men live nor die No that's not coming out of anybody in Hollywood today No So I said let me find the original But I had another little issue I said this makes very strong mention of God And I said well H.G. Wells was highly scientifically literate Did he make mention of God? I went back and found the passage No he does not make mention of God Here is H.G. Wells' original passage

Oh snap Covering that part of what was used for the movie Okay You ready?

Go ahead For so it had come about as indeed I and many men might have foreseen Had not terror and disaster blinded our minds These germs of disease have taken their toll of humanity Since the beginning of things Taken toll of our pre-human ancestors Since life began here But by virtue of this natural selection of our kind We have developed resisting power To no germs do we succumb without a struggle Indirectly these invaders arrived Directly they drank and fed Our microscopic allies began to work their overthrow Already when I watched them They were irrevocably doomed Dying and rotting Even as they went to and fro It was inevitable By the toll of a billion deaths Man has bought his birthright of this earth And it is his against all comers It would still be his Were the Martians ten times as mighty as they are For neither do men live nor die in vain

Woo! Hashtag Darwin rocks He's got pre-human ancestor He's got natural selection of things No mention of God These are two different things I think Hollywood was afraid to get real on it

Oh yeah There you go

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For so it had come about as indeed I and many men might have foreseen Had not terror and disaster blinded our minds These germs of disease have taken toll of humanity since the beginning of things Taken toll of our pre-human ancestors since life began here But by virtue of this natural selection of our kind we have developed resisting power To no germs do we succumb without a struggle and to many those that cause Putrefaction in dead matter for instance, our living forms are altogether immune but there are no bacteria on Mars and Directly these invaders arrived directly. They drank and fed our microscopic allies began to work their overthrow Already when I watched them they were irrevocably doomed Dying and rotting even as they went to and fro it was inevitable by the toll of a billion deaths Man has bought his birthright of this earth and it is his against all comers It would still be his with a Martians ten times as mighty as they are for neither do men live nor die in vain Oh

Funny you mentioned War of the Worlds. I keep with me a quote from the original book That summarizes the entire story and if you with your permission, I will read it

Wait, wait funny you mentioned War of the Worlds. I keep with me a quote from the original book That summarizes the entire story and if you with your permission, I will read it Please do as we take out this first segment of StarTalk cosmic queries. Let's make America smart again

The premise was what saved the world Was that the invader got infected by an earthly virus exactly Exactly Creepy turn in fact,

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Within a few years of this, H.G. Wells wrote War of the Worlds inspired by those observations.

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The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells.

Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater on the air in The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells.

this Orson Welles retelling in 1938 of the classic turn-of-the-century Martian invasion fiction originally by H.G. Wells, side note, no relation, is probably one of the most famous examples of mass hysteria, or at least reported mass hysteria, in U.S. history.

War of the Worlds is script written by Howard Koch and based on the novel H.G. Wells.