The War of the Worlds
Saturday, June 18, 2005 | 19:33
In preparation for Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds movie I have been reading the novel. When I first learned that Spielberg was going to make a movie based on Wells' novel I decided that I had to read it before I saw the movie.
Even though the book was written in 1898, much of it still feels current. There is a deeper meaning to be found in the book's multi-layered story as it describes what may happen if humankind is threatened by something far greater than themselves. In fact, the main point of the book is—at least in my opinion—not the alien invasion. Wells gives a piercing analysis of society and technology, of how humankind might react if faced with seemingly unavoidable destruction, what consequences it might have, and what people would do to survive if they had been deprived of all but the most basic of things.
I think this is the reason The War of the Worlds has survived the passage of time: even though some of the details of the story may seem ridiculous or weird today, the underlying message is still as strong now as it was when Wells wrote the book more than 100 years ago. The book contains some very interesting observations, and a number of times while I was reading it I found myself amazed at how far ahead of his time Wells was.
The War of the Worlds is available online at, for example, Project Gutenberg and Wikisource.
Swedish title: Världarnas krig.