The route to Woking, England, goes through Grovers Mill, New Jersey.
On a recent visit to my son, who lives near Grovers Mill, he took me to the place used by Orson Welles (not related to H.G.) as the setting for the 1938 radio play which caused a sensation at the time. The radio program was a dramatization of the science fiction novel, The War of the Worlds, with the Martians landing in this little New Jersey community instead of at Woking and Horsell in the Thames Valley near London. The drama was presented uninterrupted, in breaking-news style, so some people tuning in after the start of the program believed the invasion was real.
My son is involved with the restoration of the big red barn which proudly displays its location.
Nearby are the original mill, the mill owner’s house, the mill pond and a park with a plaque commemorating the Wells/Welles connection. Seeing the place reminded me that I had seen the movie — set in Los Angeles because Martians can land anywhere — but not read the book.
Published in 1898, the novel is a true time capsule, imagining the future while set in the high technology of the past. The participants signal by telegraph and heliograph (no radio or telephone), flee the on-coming Martians by horse and train (only a few early cars are seen) and, although the Martians have developed some wonderful machines, they are still attempting to make one that flies. Wells was writing in 1898 and the Wright Brothers made their first successful flight in 1903, just in time to develop a practical airplane for World War I. No computers exist.
Wells portrays the Martians as evolved far beyond the mental and technological capabilities of the human race. The Martians have come to exploit the resources of planet Earth, including its people, with no more pity than we have for the ants we crush under our feet.
It may be that in the larger design of the universe this invasion from Mars is not without its ultimate benefit for men; it has rubbed us of that serene confidence in the future which is the most fruitful source of decadence, the gifts to human science it has brought are enormous, and it has done much to promote the conception of the commonweal of mankind.
It is hard to know whether this is an optimistic or pessimistic conclusion.
Posted by SilverSeason 
