"And Before We Judge Of Them Too Harshly We Must Remember What Ruthless And Utter Destruction Our Own Species Has Wrought, Not Only Upon Animals, Such As The Vanished Bison And The Dodo, But Upon Its Own Inferior Races"

Well I guess it's fair to say I enjoy a book when I motor through it in 4 days. But man, did I just love War of the Worlds. Everything I knew about the book/story was only from the Tom Cruise movie and from the Orson Wells radio version that shared the bejeezus out of people (apparently, there have even been tv movies re-telling the panic that ordinary citizens experienced that night). So I didn't really know for sure what the real War of the Worlds story was and where artistic license for the other versions kicked in. 

I won't go into details about the plot because I'm sure most are at least somewhat familiar with the concept of aliens landing on earth and being bent only on complete annihilation of humans. But the book gives GOBS of details about what their "cylinders" look like, their activity once they arrive, what they look like, and a moment-by-moment description of what the townspeople are doing, and how things progress. The story is told through a narrator (whose name is not given) who lives in close proximity to the first cylinder that arrives, and chronicles his activities and movements to try to save his wife and his own life. 

First off, it's astonishing to me that this book was written in 1898. And there is unique benefit/insight to reading this book over 120 years later. Because there are so many very astute observations and predictions about the world and about humans that are achingly on point. For example, the quote making up the title of this post. In reading the Introduction that came with the book, I was fascinated to learn about the scientific and philosophical proclivities of H.G. Wells and how he would ascertain things from history to try to advise against repeating them in the future. One quote notes that "...Wells saw history as a 'race between education and catastrophe.'" Many of his works were warnings about the consequences of the actions of humans. And while at its core, the book is a simple story of "What If," it's hard not to let other themes creep in like, Why do humans feel that we are allowed to trounce all over other species/races? Or, We really are that foolish to think we're the greatest in the universe? I felt like these thoughts in the background, hinted at here and there, give the book a much weightier feel beyond just a scary alien attack. 

But don't get me wrong...alien attack there was! And every page is just chock full of suspense and devastation that to say it's a page turner doesn't do it justice. And really almost every alien anything in the last century is indebted to this book for inspiration...Independence Day, Cloverfield, A Quiet Place, etc etc. So way ahead of his time. There is also so much detail regarding the place to place activities, I was CONSTANTLY looking at a map of the London suburbs where the action was taking place to have a super accurate idea of what all of the movements were.

So yes, suffice it to say that I just loved this book. I do also have The Time Machine on my lists of books and that bad boy may have just creeped quite a bit higher up the list just because I enjoyed this one so much. I may even watch the movie again just to compare against the book (note: the narrator in the novel didn't have any kids so the addition of the obnoxiously screaming Dakota Fanning in the movie was an addition that I would have loved to have done without). 

Next up is The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy. I'm actually part way through the book already, and I'm sure I'll have a bunch to say about this one. 

One other thing that happened in the last couple weeks related to my reading is that I joined Goodreads. My sister has been bugging me to join for a while and I just never got around to it I already track my book lists painstakingly enough here that I wasn't all that eager to have yet another place to go to. HOWEVER, I am a big fan! In particular, I love the ability to have a place to track books I want to read (beyond my book lists of course); this was previously existing as a note on my phone that I would add to as books came up. I also love being able to set a yearly goal for yourself and track the progress. I've set my goal at 25 books, knowing that I'm currently at 9 books. Does that make me think I can't read 16 books in just over 5 months? Nope, it's just going to motivate me even more. I've had such a fire under my ass to read since my break between jobs, and this is just one additional motivator to keep going! 

203 to go!  

"The Grass Was Me, And The Air, The Distant Invisible Mountains Were Me, The Tired Oxen Were Me."

If I take away anything from reading Out of Africa, is how much I now want to go on a safari. I legit started looking at tours on the website of the travel company we've used before the moment that I finished reading the book. 

And I guess that's a testament to how much the book conveyed a feeling and how the descriptions gave the reader so much of a sense of place and environment. I feel like I could close my eyes and see the night air filled with stars on the grassy plains. Or that I could see the Ngong hills in the distance from the coffee plantation. 

But there's something interesting and a bit suspicious about the book. Isak Dinesen is the pen name used by Karen Blixen and her narrative in the book is largely a grouping of chapters of vignettes of situations that occurred during her time running a coffee plantation in Kenya, just outside of Nairobi. And while the vignettes are interesting and coupled with the lush, lovely descriptions of the people and landscapes, there is an impartiality of the way it is told and it felt like there was something that I wasn't understanding or something that was missing. When my boyfriend asked me if I had seen the movie and "if I knew what it was about," it made me even more suspicious. 

After doing some research about Karen Blixen, there sure was a lot that she tactfully omitted from the book. There is only mention of her husband once, briefly in passing, but no discussion of his role on the farm or the fact that he had many affairs and they ultimately got divorced. And she discusses often the character of Denys Finch Hatton as being a close friend who lived and guided safaris and who would often come stay with her at the farm, but she fails to mention that he was her love. She also doesn't mention any of the other salient details of these men in her life, like the fact that her husband gave her syphilis and that she travelled back to Europe for treatment (which sounds to be quite excruciating with long-term after-effects). 

So now thinking about the book, I don't quite know how to place it. I certainly get her desire to present the context of her life while living there in whatever way she wanted to, and if that included omitting some more scandalous details, then have at it sister. But it makes the rest of the book feel a little more contrived and makes me wonder what other kinds of liberties were taken to present herself and her experiences in the finest light possible. 

In spite of this, I did find the book to be so interesting - to have such a perspective of how life was in Africa in the early 1900s was delightful to read. Although I cannot help but read it with the disdain of colonization and how casually the "ownership" of the natives' land is treated. I know I have to acknowledge the time that this was written and hope that we have learned since then (but all it takes is to look around to see that white people certainly continue to think they're entitled to the land of natives throughout the world). 

I'm doing a complete shift in my next book choice, moving on to War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. I couldn't tell you the last time I read a science fiction book. And I'm hoping that any mention of children screaming doesn't evoke the feeling of wanting to punch Dakota Fanning in the face, because that's the main thing I can recall from the movie. 

204 to go!