![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Who wouldn't want to have a blast at Weybridge, after all?Ĭertainly HG Wells later claimed to have relished the prospect. Both because it's disconcerting to see poisonous gas and heat rays laying waste to that comfortable world – and because, it's fun. Indeed, it's precisely because he remains in what even now I'm tempted to describe as the "safety" of the Home Counties that The War of the Worlds is so effective. In all, he probably doesn't travel more than 50 miles, and he certainly doesn't leave the beaten path – but that isn't to detract from the profundity of his experience or the epic nature of his struggle. More specifically, I'm thinking of the journey the novel's narrator takes as he battles to survive the invasion. Yes, I'm talking about the path of destruction wreaked by the Martians in HG Wells's War of the Worlds. Showing them, in fact, in a green-tinged light. Its power comes in showing those familiar places in a new light. In fact, I would argue that one of the most powerful descriptions of a journey in literature works precisely because its narrator stays close to home. It doesn't even have to take you far from home. A journey doesn't have to be particularly long to change your view of the world. ![]()
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