Scary scene

[TOMAHAWK]

After re-reading the book i came across a passage which I had forgot

Geezers in London get the lights working (cannot remember were) get blind drunk, start dancing and when they sober up a little ... see a FM stood over them looking at them, as Wells wrote .. "they didn't know how long it had been there".

jeez talk about a scary image .. FM silently watches the geezers having a party and they don't know

[BrutalDeluxe]

I'm with you Tomahawk! It is a very creepy scene. You can imagine the Fighting Machine standing there only metres away, stock still, coldly observing them. Then once they realise the Martian is there, it simply strides out and picks them up one by one.
Imagine the terror of stirring from your drunken haze to see the vague, colossal shape of a FM standing near you and that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach as you realise your time is up.

[BrutalDeluxe]

As an aside, I can't wait to see how (or if) Tim Hines approaches this in his film. Will he have the artillery man simply telling the story, or will he flash to the scene being played out before our eyes?

[quaderni]

I love Corrêa's image of that scene. IT was the first picture of a fighting machine I ever saw, when I was in 2nd grade, in a children's book on Mars.

drzeus.best.vwh.net/wotw/illus/alvim-correa.1.jpg

drzeus.best.vwh.net/wotw/illus/alvim-correa.1.jpg

[kingofthemorlocks]

I reread WOTW last week, and when that scene came up, I almost laughed out loud. My reaction was, "Ha! You get what you deserve, you drunks, attracting the Martians' attention with all your lights and carousing!"

But did the martians get soused after drinking all that alcohol-loaded blood?

[Topaz]

Thanks, quaderni, for posting that pic.

That very picture (and one other of the Correa renderings) was also MY first exposure to TWOTW, at about the age of six! I remember it to this day, it made such an impression. Perhaps we saw the same children's book, as the one I saw was about Mars in general as well. This was the other image:



I was so enthralled by these two pictures and the accompanying description of Wells' book that my father went out and purchased a copy and read it to me as a bedtime story over the next couple of weeks. I can't tell you how many Correa-esque drawings I made after that.

Ahhh, memories.

[HTT]

I remember this scene, and I liked the fact that it was tucked away, but one you can imagine happening.

Was it an actual party, or a gang of looters? I also thought the FM waited till the passed out before collecting them...which made it more scary. To be able to flee something is bad, but the thought that you can be snatched away and not even know about it...

Another pint, lads?

[quaderni]

Topaz said:

Thanks, quaderni, for posting that pic.

That very picture (and one other of the Correa renderings) was also MY first exposure to TWOTW, at about the age of six! I remember it to this day, it made such an impression. Perhaps we saw the same children's book, as the one I saw was about Mars in general as well. This was the other image:

www.members.cox.net/marcmcn/alvim-correa.2.jpg

I was so enthralled by these two pictures and the accompanying description of Wells' book that my father went out and purchased a copy and read it to me as a bedtime story over the next couple of weeks. I can't tell you how many Correa-esque drawings I made after that.

Ahhh, memories.

You have to be kidding me -- you and I read the same darned book!!! That's totally HILARIOUS!!!!!! It's nice to know that other people experienced the same thing. Sometimes I think these memories are all somehow constructed or fictional.

Here's my story: Funny, I had just seen Pals's _War of the Worlds_ - they re-released it the same summer that _Star Wars_ came out (I was 8 years old). So I went to the elementary school library and checked out a book on Mars. There, I saw the Corrêa images and then promptly rode my bike back to get Wells - but they only had the Goble' version and thus I was very disappointed! Like you, I drew so many Corrêa fighting machines I don't know how many trees were lost. I saw a third Corrêa picture once -- believe it in or not, in _Newsweek_ -- this one, with the cylinder opening and the man who had fallen into the pit...

Incidentally, I was castigated my the other kids in my neighborhood because I liked War of the Worlds better than Star Wars and Close Encounters (combined, I would say). Here, no doubt, was the genesis of my Spielberg loathing - which I now ascribe simply to good taste.

Returning to Correa - is there a modernised version with his pictures in it? There's only three extent copies in the US. It was a limited edition of 500 copies, so go figure. I'm hoping to see the full text in Paris this summer at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

[Topaz]

TOO funny! Yeah, must've been the very same book. I recall them being on the left-hand page? I must've found it a bit earlier (or I'm a bit older than you), as Star Wars was just a gleam in Lucas' eye at the time. Still, a very small world it is!!!! ;D

Obviously, everyone seems to prefer the version to which they're first exposed - aside from the 'eyes' I still like Correa's tripods best.

I'm mixed on Spielburg as well - I've enjoyed a lot of his movies, but whoever posted on another thread about his penchant for kids and warm-fuzzy endings struck a big chord with me!

As for finding more Correa scans, I haven't been able to find a single collection of them all, online. The 'Dr. Zeus' site referenced often in the 'worst tripod' thread has the best collection I've come across, but they're all so small/low-res as to be useless for print reproduction. I'd love to be able to print out the series on nice art-repro paper and hang them on the wall. Such wonderful feeling and mood in those images!

[quaderni]

Yep, same book there! Well, good to know that someone read those things and they had an impact.

I always waivered on the Correa 'eyes'. I'd love them, I'd hate them, I'd love them; it was all confusion. When I was in elementary school, I did a lot of mixed drawings of them - either with eyes or with a visor-like thing (the usual model was the robot Maximillian from Disney's _The Black Hole_ - how's that for a reference). In any case, I'd work intensely with charcoal pencils and then I'd show them to my parents or sisters and their eyes would glaze up in that same way they do now when I talk about my dissertation research. Oh well.

[Topaz]

quaderni said:

I always waivered on the Correa 'eyes'. I'd love them, I'd hate them, I'd love them; it was all confusion.

Yes, it's the same for me. I suppose he did them for the same reasons I -somewhat- like them from time to time: It certainly allows the FM's to 'emote' a bit in a still-life drawing. The image of the machine standing over the drunken revelers wouldn't have had a tenth of the impact without those eyes looking down upon them...

Still, it's not in the book and I'm such a purist about some things (the FM's in particular) that it still irks, somewhere in the background.

quaderni said:

...then I'd show them to my parents or sisters and their eyes would glaze up in that same way they do now when I talk about my dissertation research.

LOL ;D

Yes, I do know that look! I'm working on a bit of fan-fiction and every time I mention it to my girlfriend, she gets that 'patient' look on her face.

[quaderni]

Topaz said:

Thanks, quaderni, for posting that pic.

I still want to know what's going in this picture. When I first saw it, I thought they were supposed to be the wrecked fighting machines around the London pit. Now, I guess this is the FM 'hit' by the shell. Yet, is the standing machine actually _running_? It looks like me after I've jogged a couple of miles: dishelleved, panting, cranky (or, like the other FM, falling flat on its face). In any case, when you look at the church steeple, the heat ray is clearly on. But what's that screw-like thing sticking out below the eye, almost like Pinocchio's nose? Is the 'nose' holding the black smoke tube, or is that a cocaine spoon? (That would explain the frantic run.) And, what happened to his left eye? Are we to conclude that this FM has a disability of sorts? Were the Martians AA/EOE?

Again: love it, hate it, love it again; it's all confusion.

[Topaz]

quaderni said:

I still want to know what's going in this picture. When I first saw it, I thought they were supposed to be the wrecked fighting machines around the London pit. Now, I guess this is the FM 'hit' by the shell. Yet, is the standing machine actually _running_? It looks like me after I've jogged a couple of miles: dishelleved, panting, cranky (or, like the other FM, falling flat on its face). In any case, when you look at the church steeple, the heat ray is clearly on. But what's that screw-like thing sticking out below the eye, almost like Pinocchio's nose? Is the 'nose' holding the black smoke tube, or is that a cocaine sthingy? (That would explain the frantic run.) And, what happened to his left eye? Are we to conclude that this FM has a disability of sorts? Were the Martians AA/EOE?

Again: love it, hate it, love it again; it's all confusion.

If I had to guess, I'd say this is the St. George's Hill scene (one FM gets hit in the leg). I think the 'nose' is an outstretched tentacle holding an uprooted tree, blocking the other eye. He has another rendering like that elsewhere. Something that's odd is that this FM is holding the Heat-Ray at the end of 'a kind of arm' as described by the text, whilst almost all the other Correa drawings I've seen show the HR being held by a tentacle.

The one sure seems to be moving at quite a good clip, though!

Oh, and "AA/EOE"? *look of confusion*

[quaderni]

Topaz said:

Oh, and "AA/EOE"? *look of confusion*

Affirmative action/equal opportunity employer...

[BrutalDeluxe]

The eyes on Correa's tripod have always been what has detracted, in my mind, from his illustrations. They are a little too cutesy. I prefer the cold, pupilless (I think I made up a word) eyes of the JW martians. Maybe because it makes it easier to hate them ;D

[Topaz]

quaderni said:

Affirmative action/equal opportunity employer...

Ah yes. Thanks.

[nervouspete]

quaderni said:

Incidentally, I was castigated my the other kids in my neighborhood because I liked War of the Worlds better than Star Wars and Close Encounters (combined, I would say). Here, no doubt, was the genesis of my Spielberg loathing - which I now ascribe simply to good taste.

Cool story! I remember buying my first copy when I was about nine, at the church jumble sale. It had a browny cover, a martian in the foreground, red weed and a dead figure in the tangles, and behind him two striding tripds. I think it's the closest the covers have come to how its written. Then again, it was the first illustrated exposure I had so I may just be saying that.

But did you have a superhero statement of intent scene when you made your descision, Quaderni?

"Star Wars is but shallow, and Spielberg childishly whimsical! Yet the world thinks I the fool, for my belief that War of the Worlds rules all! Let the world know, that I hold this book and film over all others. Let the world TREMBLE, for QUADERNI IS BORN!"

etc.

But now I know why you shun and mistrust Spielberg's version, whilst I loved CE3K, Indianna Jones and Jaws as a kid. (Born 1980) Let us have warm, firm, manly handshakes on this, the purity of the novel board!

Pete

[quaderni]

nervouspete said:

But did you have a superhero statement of intent scene when you made your descision, Quaderni?
{...}

Let us have warm, firm, manly handshakes on this, the purity of the novel board!

Well, cheers all around there on the purity of literature and art.

But just to clarify (like you care, right?) - it wasn't that I didn't like Star Wars as a child - which I did, and loved it - I just had the temerity to say that I still preferred other things.

[HTT]

ANOTHER SCARY SCENE

I always forget about the poor junior shopman, who gets pushed onto the top of the cylinder 'screw'. Trying to keep his balance as it unscrews, then being toppled into the pit. Imagine his terror as the martian comes out and falls into the pit with him!!

Even scarier is that no-one helps him get out. He gets one leg onto the rim of the pit and then the martians drag him into the pit back for a feast... and no one does nothing to help.

[I own a cylinder]

I have always thought the junior shopman falling into the pit as one of the true moments of terror in the book.

Imagine this.

He is in the pit as the screw comes out and the lid of the cylinder falls off right in front of him. Then he watches in horror as this thing that resembles an octpus pulls itself slowly and painfully from the cylinder mouth and falls over the edge to land on the dirt of the pit floor panting heavily trying to catch some breath. Then it manages to heave itself upright (not standing) and then it turns itself slwoly to stare at the shopman who starts to struggle from the pit as the Martian creature drags itself along the ground, heading for its little snack. Just as the shopman is struggling to get from the pit, he is siezed in a icy cold, slimy tenticle and in the words of Wells...'he vanished, and i could have fancied a faint shriek reached me through the stillness of the evening air.'

Scary.