3-7-00 -- THE WAR OF THE WORLDS

Objectives: Today in class we will listen to the first half of the 1938 radio broadcast of "The War of the Worlds." We will discuss the entire radio script, along with Hadley Cantril's and Edward Oxford's scholarly perspectives on the broadcast. As we will discuss, the 1938 broadcast of "The War of the Worlds" reflects the immense cultural impact of radio in the period 1921-1945. Moreover, the script itself depicts relationships between humanity, machinery, science, and aliens in fascinating ways.

Discussion Questions:

1) How is radio represented in "The War of the Worlds"? How does that representation compare to current understandings of broadcast media?

2) In the play, how do human science and technology compare to those of the alien intruders?

3) How are the Martians described? How is their technology described? Which is more menacing in the text, the Martians themselves or their machinery?

4) How are human scientists, and particularly astronomers, represented in the text?

5) How are the Martians ultimately conquered? What is the significance of their demise?

6) If the text upsets Americans' faith in their own scientific and technological prowress, then what sort of belief system does it offer in its place?

7) How might we read the play as a commentary on war in general, and on the imminence of World War II in particular?

Passages:

We know now that as human beings busied themselves with their various concerns, they were scrutinized and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. (4)

Phillips: Curious spectators are now pressing close to the object in spite of the efforts of the police to keep them back. They're getting in front of my line of vision. Would you mind standing to one side, please?

Policeman: One side, there, one side.

Phillips: While the policemen are pushing the crowd back, here's Mr. Wilmuth, owner of the farm here. He may have some interesting facts to add. . . . (12)

Phillips: . . . Good heavens, something's wriggling out of the shadow like a grey snake. Now it's another one, and another. They look like tentacles to me. There, I can see the thing's body. It's large as a bear and it glistens like wet leather. But that face. It . . . it's indescribable. I can hardly force myself to keep looking at it. The eyes are black and gleam like a serpent. The mouth is V-shaped with saliva dripping from its rimless lips that seem to quiver and pulsate. The monster or whatever it is can hardly move . . . (16)

Announcer Two: . . .Professor Indelkoffer, speaking at a dinner of the California Astronomical Society, expressed the opinion that the explosions on Mars are undoubtedly nothing more than severe volcanic disturbances on the surface of the planet. (18)

Pierson: . . . For want of a better term, I shall refer to the mysterious weapon as a heat-ray. It's all too evident that these creatures have scientific knowledge far in advance of our own. . . (20)

McDonald: We have received a request from the militia at Trenton to place at their disposal our entire broadcasting facilities. In view of the gravity of the situation, and believing that radio has a definite responsibility to serve in the public interest at all times, we are turning over our facilities to the State Militia at Trenton. (21)

Announcer Two: . . .[S]even thousand men armed with rifles and machine guns pitted against a single fighting machine of the invaders from Mars. One hundred and twenty known survivors. The rest strewn over the battle area from Grovers Mill to Plainsboro crushed and trampled to death under the metal feet of the monster, or burned to cinders by its heat-ray. . . Communication lines are down from Pennsylvania to the Atlantic Ocean. Railroad tracks are torn and service from New York to Philadelphia discontinued . . . . (23)

Announcer: . . All communications with Jersey shore closed ten minutes ago. No more defenses. Our army wiped out . . . artillery, air force, everyhting wiped out. This may be the last broadcast. We'll stay here to the end. . . . People are holding services below us . . . in the cathedral.

(VOICES SINGING HYMN) . . . (30)

Announcer: . . .Martian cylinders are falling all over the country. . . Now the first machine reaches the shore. He stands watching, looking over the city. His steel, cowlish head is even with the skyscapers. He waits for the others. They rise like a line of new towers on the city's west side. . . . Now they're lifting their metal hands. This is the end now. Smoke comes out. . . black smoke, drifting over the city. . . (31)

Pierson: . . . Later when their bodies were examined in laboratories, it was found that they were killed by the putrefactive and disease bacteria against which their systems were unprepared. . . slain after all man's defenses failed, by the humblest thing that God in His wisdom put upon this earth. (41)