{"id":5451,"date":"2015-01-04T07:00:59","date_gmt":"2015-01-04T07:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=5451"},"modified":"2015-01-04T07:00:59","modified_gmt":"2015-01-04T07:00:59","slug":"war-of-the-worlds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=5451","title":{"rendered":"War of the Worlds"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"My<\/a>
My leather bound HG Wells compendium – which features original illustrations.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Everyone has heard of this classic HG Wells book – but not necessarily because of the book itself.<\/p>\n

This early sci fi tale is one of my favourites. It has stood the test of time – and of adaptation. Since its publication in 1897, it has never been out of print.<\/p>\n

I recently saw it again -as a\u00a0rock opera spectacular at the huge O2 stadium… with giant Martians and\u00a0pyrotechnics – and the lovely Liam Neeson. The staging was awesome…<\/p>\n

But\u00a0I think the reason War of the World lives on is the strength of the tale – and\u00a0it’s emotional impact.<\/p>\n

War of the Worlds was part of a\u00a0wave of ‘invasion literature’\u00a0written in the late 1800 and early 1900s. Scholars says these books were inspired by rising tensions between Britain and Europe – leading in the end to World War 1. Not all the fictional invaders were aliens – but whether they were German or Martian – the books\u00a0played on our deepest fears. Over generations, the Martians can be replaced by the invaders of your choice – but still, they come.<\/p>\n

Famously, in 1968 – a radio play directed and narrated by Orson Welles caused panic in the US, when listeners thought it was a real newscast.<\/p>\n

There have, of course, been many movie adaptations – of, shall I say, varying quality.<\/p>\n

I was happy with the book, and even watched some of the movies, but in 1974 came THAT album – a prog rock concept album by Jeff Wayne.<\/p>\n

\"I<\/a>
I have to wonder why Wells made the machines tripods – tripods are not good at walking.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I loved it! Richard Burton’s wonderful voice during the narration. Justin Haywood gave\u00a0a “Moody Blues” feeling to the love song. And Phil Lynott was a totally deranged Parson Nathanial.<\/p>\n

A few years ago, Jeff Wayne re-envisioned at as a stage spectacle – and took it on a stadium tour of the world. It’s taken me a while to find myself in the right place and time – but finally I have seen it!<\/p>\n

Wow…. loved it still!<\/p>\n

\"machine\"<\/a>
There was a real giant Martian machine, complete with flame-throwing heat ray – that was wonderfully faithful to the album artwork that I loved in 1974<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Liam Neeson did a wonderful job of the narration. Sadly he wasn’t live on stage – his role was via a series of very clever projections, and on the huge video screen that covered the back of the stage. I was surprised by the brilliance of Jason Donovan as Parson Nathanial – he’s a long way from Neighbours now. There was an orchestra, an actual Martian and…. everything. Even paper Autumn leaves falling softly from the ceiling (which did cause me a moment’s concern – there being flame throwers also involved).<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The world underground had a steam-punk feel that was just right for the Victorian setting.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was a brilliant adaptation – and despite my tendency to sing-a-long (sorry to the folks in front of me) the story does still reach deep inside our emotions on many levels…<\/p>\n

It’s not just the fear.. although that’s certainly there… the last line of the book shows us what it is also about….hope.<\/p>\n

”\u00a0… to hold my wife’s hand again, and to think that I have counted her, as she has counted me, among the dead.”<\/p>\n

That man knew how to tell a story!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everyone has heard of this classic HG Wells book – but not necessarily because of the book itself. This early sci fi tale is one of my favourites. It has stood the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7g6jm-1pV","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5451\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}