My father has a record collection and Jeff Wayne’s Musical version of the war of the worlds, (accompanied by the sketchbook and the copies of illustrations that have been drawn by artists who were inspired by H.G. Wells) is among his favorites. As a child I would go through my father’s record collection of Supertramp, Beeges and Saturday Night Fever OST, (all with pretty, shiny covers) until I'd came across this one record cover, showing some huge machine destroying a large ship. I had numerous nightmares in which I witnessed the end of the world, and my parents ended up hiding the record away to stop me from having those nightmares. I was 8 or 9 years old at the time...and I found myself slipping into thoughts about big machines taking over the world. Of course, I had no concept of what the War of the Worlds could be in a metaphorical sense, so the illustrations in the book sticked in my mind for a long time.
Twelve years after listening to musical version of the War of the Worlds, I finally read the book. What stood out most between my two encounters with the story was the role of religion, church and God. Story is full of bold statements for the time it was written. The Enlightenment ideals are reflected in the ending of the book when the narrator and the artilleryman decide to go underground and make plans for a new start where the word of science will be respected. Jeff Wayne does not bring this in his musical with such emphasis, when we composes the score for "brave new world." Another thing that stood for me was the role of narator's wife throughout the story. What makes us believe that she is actually
real?
Artwork used in the cover booklet of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds
On another note, I do not think aliens are acting without their morals. I think this is obvious from the anatomy of the Martians described since the Martians have a brain is sufficient grounds for me to argue that they have emotions (emotions are created by the brain). And since they have emotions, I would say they definitely have a certain level of morality as well. It is just that, they are in a war...and in a war, they cannot let their morality to get in the way of their purpose.
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I can sympathize with your childhood story. In my youth I watched the film Predator and months afterwards I reflexively glanced up at the treeline whenever an unexpected branch cracked. Never did I reflect on the Predator's honor system in killing civillians. The only thing that I registered was that Arnold was a relatable human protagonist fighting against a scary and aesthetically unappealing bad guy. I wonder if such films will have a negative impact in a first contact scenario. Will we fire on aliens simply because they look like a Predator or a xenomorph from Aliens? Do this films which we watch throughout our lifetime indoctrinate us to be trigger happy and paranoid when it comes to other life forms? I surely hope not, but we are greatly socialized by the media we watch. Either way, I think I will yell at my mom for letting me watch Predator when I was 8.I think ET would have sufficed.
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