I'd been just farting around the house all afternoon when I noticed a special on the Science Channel about science fiction writers being prophetic (
Prophets of Science Fiction). I'm a bit of a science fiction nerd, so I sat back with some pasta and enjoyed myself. The special had just finished with Jules Verne when it got to H.G. Wells. Yada, yada, time machine, yada, 4th dimension... War of the Worlds.
I love War of the Worlds, it's probably on my top 15 works of science fiction. I was always enchanted by the idea that despite all the power we think we have, we should always be humble. I loved the idea that even a superior species could be undone by the most simple of miscalculations. Sure, there are plenty of things you can take away from such a wonderful work of fiction.
The special went on, providing a context for Wells' writing of War of the Worlds, and they start to talk about Wells following the colonization of Tanzania and the extermination of the aboriginals by the British. Apparently, Wells was inspired by this atrocity to turn the tables on Britain and Europe by having some beings come down from the cosmos and lay about the Europeans the way that the Europeans were laying about Africa and Australia. I'd always understood that the Martians were coming to Earth for our resources, but for some reason I never put 2 and 2 together and realized that it was a metaphor for the colonization that Wells was seeing.
It was like getting punched in the face, but not in a bad way.
Have you ever taken a lot of time to figure out something interesting about a favorite movie, tv show, article, or book? Tell us about your experience!