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Post by Bayne on Oct 9, 2003 1:34:15 GMT
[glow=red,2,300]What is everyone's favourite line or passage from the book?[/glow]
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Post by Thunder Child on Oct 9, 2003 21:02:49 GMT
As all of you can see on the bottom of my messages it's:
By ten o'clock the police organisation, and by midday even the railway organisations, were losing coherency, losing shape and efficiency, guttering, softening, running at last in that swift liquefaction of the social body."
In my opinion it shows how Wells saw society in his times and how easy it would collapse.
Greetings, Johan
PS I'm even thinking about tattooing this line on my arm, with a pictures of wells to accompany it....
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Post by Thunder Child on Oct 9, 2003 21:17:19 GMT
It is also a very good line to bring the message Wells intended. I mean, just read it. The build up of the line is just terrific in my opinion. A very smooth line to show how easy human society can collapse. It’s just a short line, but this line says it all....
Just terrific!!!!!
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Post by Thunder Child on Oct 9, 2003 21:21:43 GMT
Hey Dave, My arms are always long enough for Wells ;D This is the author I give a warm hart to, and I really like to have a tattoo of Wells himself and that tiny peace of text from the novel. It doesn't have to cover my entire arm of course Greetings, Johan
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Post by Killraven on Oct 10, 2003 12:07:55 GMT
Well, this is a hard one as there's so many to choose from!! ;D Narrowing it down - in terms of a passage which really had an effect on me and brought the story and the martians into vivid colour, it would have to be the one which relays the narrator's first encounter with the fighting machine at the bottom of Maybury Hill in the storm - the loss of his horse and his encounter with the body of the landlord of the "Spotted Dog" (which may be based on the College Arms, still a working pub, as it is rumoured Wells had a run-in with the publican at some point during his stay at Woking). That section really disturbed me - brilliant! In terms of the choice of words, then my favourite has to be that one describing the exodus from london, you know, the "a million people driving headlong" "never before had so many people suffered" etc. etc. (sorry I can't type it word for word as I don't have the book in front of me... JJ
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Post by Earthrise on Oct 12, 2003 23:26:14 GMT
I'm with jazzyjeff, and I have the Ebook in front of me.
"And this was no disciplined march; it was a stampede--a stampede gigantic and terrible--without order and without a goal, six million people unarmed and unprovisioned, driving headlong. It was the beginning of the rout of civilisation, of the massacre of mankind."
Little like Thunderchild's line, it speaks of a collapse of civilisation that dwells in dark recesses of our consciousness. When events like Bali and S11 happen, you realise how tenuous our hold really is on progress and how one event could turn the clock back. Or stop it all together.
"Cities, nations, civilisation, progress--it's all over. That game's up. We're beat." The Artilleryman.
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Post by Killraven on Oct 13, 2003 12:09:24 GMT
While we're on the subject of 9/11, Iraq etc. - anyone see a similarity between the 'prison' at Guantanamo Bay and the events in 'Behind The Wire' JJ
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Post by Charles on Oct 13, 2003 14:23:14 GMT
While we're on the subject of 9/11, Iraq etc. - anyone see a similarity between the 'prison' at Guantanamo Bay and the events in 'Behind The Wire' JJ What is "Behind the Wire?"
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Post by Killraven on Oct 14, 2003 12:56:35 GMT
It's the name of Paul Sharpe's latest WOTW short story in the 'Fan Fiction'...
Have a read, it's rather good ;D
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Post by Earthrise on Oct 21, 2003 6:21:48 GMT
jazzyjeff, Thank you so much for you feedback and approval, I am new to creative fiction and feeling a little vulnerable. Like most art, people see things the author never overtly intended. Hard to know whether it was an unconscious act for the artist or just plain luck.
When I finish the second half, more of my intent will be disclosed. Very much like the line I chose above, Behind the Wire should end up being a look at society after it has collapsed, hopefully highlighting what is valuable about our civilisation and remind people what we have to lose. One of those times we can't wait to say "you don't know what you have till it's gone". After civilisation has passed away, it will be too late.
How Guantanamo Bay will fit into my final draft, I can't say. If you see Guantanamo Bay as a step backwards, then it could be seen as a signal of the end of civilisation. Wait and see, I guess.
As the Chinese say, May you live in interesting times. Not the blessing I once believed, but actually a curse. I now live in interesting times, I wish I could go back to the simpler days of the Cold War and mutually assured destruction.
Earthrise, still the optimist.
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Overlord_Kell
Full Member
The Earth belonged to the Martians. Ulla !
Posts: 137
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Post by Overlord_Kell on Oct 21, 2003 14:17:11 GMT
Hi ! First words from a new registered one.... ;D One of my favourite lines in the book is : " To carry warfare sunward is, indeed, their only escape from the destruction that generation after generation creeps upon them". I´ll write more later.I´m at work now......... Grüße Monika
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Post by Thunder Child on Oct 21, 2003 19:19:40 GMT
Hello Monika,
Welcome to this great and active forum!!
Looks like we're neighbours, I'm from Holland ;D
Greetings, Johan
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Post by David Faltskog on Oct 21, 2003 21:43:35 GMT
Greetings Monika,welcome to world at war forum. Fav Line...Erm..."The three Martians atop their fighting machines laughed their socks off,as they watched the outdoor crapper collapsed around the seated bare-assed figure of the red faced town mayor". Ahem...B-B. Much thanks and kudos to Thunderchild for sending me the Orson Welles WotW radio broadcast on cd.
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Overlord_Kell
Full Member
The Earth belonged to the Martians. Ulla !
Posts: 137
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Post by Overlord_Kell on Oct 24, 2003 22:02:19 GMT
@ ThunderChild : Hi Johan ! Yes, we´re neighbours ! I live in Northrhine-Westphalia and I´m " stationed" in the city of Essen - that´s relatively near to Holland . ;D @ Brit-Brat: Hi, you do have a very interesting fav line ! I´d love it to read YOUR version of the book !!!
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Post by Thunder Child on Oct 29, 2003 20:12:38 GMT
Hi Monika, I'm staying a little off-topic ;D Info and some MP3's from Oxymoron can be found here: www.oxys.deI especially like "Pigs", both musically and lyrical Greetings, Johan
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Post by Thunder Child on Oct 29, 2003 20:14:15 GMT
OOOOPPSSS!!!!!!!!! posted this my last message at the wrong place
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Post by Thunder Child on Oct 29, 2003 20:16:10 GMT
OOOOPPSSS!!!!!!!!! posted my last message at the wrong place
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Post by Tripod on Nov 8, 2003 22:31:38 GMT
Somebody of Germany! I didn't know that ther are so much WOTW-fans in the world! I thought that the chances of other WOTW-fans in the the world wher a million to one!
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Post by Tripod on Nov 9, 2003 20:05:51 GMT
My favorite WOTW line=
'No one mould have believed in the last years of the nineteent century human affairs wher being watched from the timeless worlds of space.'
It motivates you to read the book, at least it worked for me.
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Overlord_Kell
Full Member
The Earth belonged to the Martians. Ulla !
Posts: 137
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Post by Overlord_Kell on Nov 9, 2003 20:22:09 GMT
Right, Tripod ! But I guess I´m the only german fan..... The chances are a million to one - but still they come !
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