War of the Worlds - A Review

The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I read this out loud to the family in the last couple months, as our youngest hadn’t read it yet. I thought of it near the beginning of pandemic lockdown, because of the virus connection!

A convinced Darwinian, Wells rivets one page and languishes the next, ending with uncertainty about man’s fate in a new technological world.


The riveting element

You know what’s coming, but Wells’ pacing is so careful. It’s psychologically brilliant. The book is really about the human response of fear and shock to trauma and change. The Martians are mentioned fairly infrequently, but the danger looms constantly.


The languishing element

Having read this 8 years ago, I’d forgotten how many local place names the author includes. It’s almost encyclopedic, a la Hugo about Paris, or Melville about whales. I think to the original reader familiar with his locale, this added to the riveting quality. It’s like seeing the small town next door in the national newspaper, like I saw just yesterday. God Himself uses this literary device in the prophets, when warning Israel of the coming military invasion (Isaiah 10:28-32). But when you don’t know any of those places it loses the emotional affect, and you have to mentally understand the message: “this is real – it’s just 4 blocks from where you’re sitting. 3 blocks. 2 blocks…”


Darwin’s natural selection

Besides the “man is an animal” view, Wells also depicts religion as mentally weak and inferior. The main character does wind up praying, and the less astute might see this as a partial vindication of theism. But Wells is actually trying to say that human strength, found in reason, can be broken and resort to pitiful prayer, given enough trauma. Man may be naturally selected out of existence.


Conclusion

Wells’ outlook fascinates. Most of his writings are infused with bold confidence in man’s progressing evolution. But he also lets the dark underside emerge: what if there are terrors too big for us to handle? What if progress takes us someplace we don’t want to go? He ends with less confidence in the human modern project, building a bridge toward current post-modern thought, even though that was decades away.



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