was that Queen Victoria

[marciano]

In spite of the tripods, the commies must win!!!

[Thunder Child]

I really find it a shame that Tim Hines never talked to us on this forum. I applaud David Latt for the fact that he takes the fans seriously and takes the time to respond on this forum. Cheers!

Johan

[bradhig]

Why did the martians rip the top of her dress off?

[Commandingtripod]

Did they?

[Thunder Child]

This guy was controling the Handling Machine

[marciano]

a smart martian lol

[bradhig]

I haven't read the novel in a while but did it suggest the martians stripped people before sucking their blood out?

[Thunder Child]

No, not as far as I know...

[Thunder Child]

The writer does talk about the skeletons outside, from the victims of the Martians in the pit. He nevers says that they wear clothes, but I guess it is difficult to make out that the dead have turned into skeletons if they still wear their clothes... So this could mean that the Martians, indeed, did strip their victims...

[Commandingtripod]

Well after being trapped in the house for as long as he was, perhaps the clothes just simply ripped and flew away with the breeze?

I don't think that the Martians would have stripped their victims some how, it just doesn't make sense.....

[Poyks]

The thought of the victims being stripped is a horrible thought, and gives a bit of weight to the Artillery Man's theory's during the latter part of the story.

[Tripod Bait]

thunderchild3 said:

The writer does talk about the skeletons outside, from the victims of the Martians in the pit. He nevers says that they wear clothes, but I guess it is difficult to make out that the dead have turned into skeletons if they still wear their clothes... So this could mean that the Martians, indeed, did strip their victims...

I suppose the Martians could have stripped their victims in an attempt to emphasize the stripping of humanity, dignity, and individuality from their victims. But I don't really think so. This idea personifies the martians a little too much... they were not human, and their thinking and motives for action would have been inherently alien. Whether we were clothed or not I don't think made a difference. I think the ripping of the woman's dress in the film is a weak attempt at showing skin and does nothing more than show the adolescent cravings of Tim Hines' uncreative mind. I honestly see no reason for the Martians to do that.

...As for the skeletons outside the house in the novel: I always took the author's description with a grain of salt. From a certain point of view an ensanguinated body would be nothing more than a mere skeleton of its former self - combine that with scavenging birds, dogs, vermin, and decay and the bodies would be nothing more than a gruesome display of tattered clothes, rotting flesh and entrails, and exposed bone. And the narrator was only in the house for two weeks - not long enough for the bodies to degenerate into being nothing more than skeletons.

[Thunder Child]

If the Martians stripped the humans, I think it was for practical reasons: to be able to find a good vein to extract the human blood.

I agree with you that 2 weeks is a little short for dead bodies to turn into skeletons, but in chapter "The Works Of Fifteen Days" we can read this:

"Near Roehampton I had seen two human skeletons--not bodies, but skeletons, picked clean--and in the wood by me I found the crushed and scattered bones of several cats and rabbits and the skull of a sheep. But though I gnawed parts of these in my mouth, there was nothing to be got from them."

So they are indeed skeletons. And he says nothing about clothes... Clean skeletons....

[Luperis]

thunderchild3 said:

I agree with you that 2 weeks is a little short for dead bodies to turn into skeletons, but in chapter "The Works Of Fifteen Days" we can read this:

"Near Roehampton I had seen two human skeletons--not bodies, but skeletons, picked clean--and in the wood by me I found the crushed and scattered bones of several cats and rabbits and the skull of a sheep. But though I gnawed parts of these in my mouth, there was nothing to be got from them."

So they are indeed skeletons. And he says nothing about clothes... Clean skeletons....

I alwayys thought this was because of scavinging animals - and possibly even humans - desperate to find food, thus the description 'picked clean'. The clothes would have been torn off to get to the meat. A disturbing thought.

[Tripod Bait]

thunderchild3 said:

"Near Roehampton I had seen two human skeletons--not bodies, but skeletons, picked clean--and in the wood by me I found the crushed and scattered bones of several cats and rabbits and the skull of a sheep. But though I gnawed parts of these in my mouth, there was nothing to be got from them."

So they are indeed skeletons. And he says nothing about clothes... Clean skeletons....

Good call, thunderchild. I forgot about that passage. So this, then raises the question of what picked the bones so clean?

Mmmmm... rabbit skull. *crunch*

Mewonders if this passage isn't what inspired Hines' God-awful depiction of the heat ray in pit and it's dancing skeletons.

[Thunder Child]

Mewonders if this passage isn't what inspired Hines' God-awful depiction of the heat ray in pit and it's dancing skeletons.

;D ;D ;D

I wouln't be surprised if it did!

[Commandingtripod]

Good call guys.
Perhaps Hines got to that page and thought:
"Perfect, the crowd (both those watching and those who are going to get fried) will love it!"

Well, if he did think that, he was wrong there........

[Lensman]

Oh c'mon guys, there's only *one* reason in *any* horror movie (or any cover illustration) for a non-human monster/ alien/ whatever to rip off a woman's clothes, and it has *nothing* to do with the monster's motives and *everything* to do with selling tickets/ videos/ books/ magazines.

<Lensman shakes his head in sorrow that it should be necessary to explain this to any male over the age of 12...>

[Thunder Child]