Post by Topaz on Jan 26, 2005 7:44:16 GMT
I know there was another thread that examined this elsewhere, but since I can't find it, I'll start my own! ;D
A discussion I was having with Tomahawk over in 'General' got me thinking about this issue again. His (quite correct) point was that it wouldn't take much of a machine gun on much of an airplane to take out an FM if the hood was an open design. Tomahawk, I have to agree with you there.
Now the consensus in the previous thread seemed to be that the FM's did have open hoods. The text doesn't say definitively one way or the other, but obviously the Martians were visible from the outside, at least from close range. The passage from "What We Saw From The Ruined House" says that the Narrator could not only see the Martian's eyes, but some significant portion of its' skin as well. Therefore this isn't a slit viewport, but rather a fairly significant opening, either open to the air or covered by a transparent material.
The following sentence: "At the sound of a cawing overhead I looked up at the huge fighting-machine that would fight no more for ever, at the tattered red shreds of flesh that dripped down upon the overturned seats on the summit of Primrose Hill," certainly implies an open hood, unless the Martian, confused with disease, had somehow opened the door to the thing.
But here's the part that hit me tonight: If the hood design was open and that opening was significant, why didn't the small-arms and machine-gun fire kill that first machine to crawl out of the first pit?
"...At that time firing was going on across the common, and it was said the first party of Martians were crawling slowly towards their second cylinder under cover of a metal shield. Later this shield staggered up on tripod legs and became the first of the fighting-machines I had seen. "
"Under cover" suggests that they were being fired upon, or at least observed and thus vulnerable to being fired upon. They were certainly fired upon at some point, since the text mentions there "was firing going on," and I doubt the infantry would be shooting at the trees under such circumstances.
This makes me think that perhaps the FM's had an enclosed hood after all. Otherwise, the first couple of machines were extremely vulnerable to the small-arms and Maxim fire that began when they emerged, and yet the Martians were not killed. An FM 'on the ground' before standing up would move very slowly indeed, and the opening of the hood wouldn't be a difficult target.
Your thoughts?
A discussion I was having with Tomahawk over in 'General' got me thinking about this issue again. His (quite correct) point was that it wouldn't take much of a machine gun on much of an airplane to take out an FM if the hood was an open design. Tomahawk, I have to agree with you there.
Now the consensus in the previous thread seemed to be that the FM's did have open hoods. The text doesn't say definitively one way or the other, but obviously the Martians were visible from the outside, at least from close range. The passage from "What We Saw From The Ruined House" says that the Narrator could not only see the Martian's eyes, but some significant portion of its' skin as well. Therefore this isn't a slit viewport, but rather a fairly significant opening, either open to the air or covered by a transparent material.
The following sentence: "At the sound of a cawing overhead I looked up at the huge fighting-machine that would fight no more for ever, at the tattered red shreds of flesh that dripped down upon the overturned seats on the summit of Primrose Hill," certainly implies an open hood, unless the Martian, confused with disease, had somehow opened the door to the thing.
But here's the part that hit me tonight: If the hood design was open and that opening was significant, why didn't the small-arms and machine-gun fire kill that first machine to crawl out of the first pit?
"...At that time firing was going on across the common, and it was said the first party of Martians were crawling slowly towards their second cylinder under cover of a metal shield. Later this shield staggered up on tripod legs and became the first of the fighting-machines I had seen. "
"Under cover" suggests that they were being fired upon, or at least observed and thus vulnerable to being fired upon. They were certainly fired upon at some point, since the text mentions there "was firing going on," and I doubt the infantry would be shooting at the trees under such circumstances.
This makes me think that perhaps the FM's had an enclosed hood after all. Otherwise, the first couple of machines were extremely vulnerable to the small-arms and Maxim fire that began when they emerged, and yet the Martians were not killed. An FM 'on the ground' before standing up would move very slowly indeed, and the opening of the hood wouldn't be a difficult target.
Your thoughts?
