Dec 22, 2009

The War of the Worlds | Techniques

In his autobiography, Wells declares that "I am journalist all the time and what I write goes now — and presently will die." He is mistaken about how long his work would live in the imaginations of readers, but his emphasis on topicality accounts in part for the success of his novels. When The War of the Worlds was written, Mars was the object of intense public interest. About twenty years before, astronomers had reported seeing "canals" on Mars. Canals implied canal-builders, which implied intelligent life. In addition, science had become the subject of much public debate, because the...