Timeline for Kurd Lasswitz — a war between Earth and Mars published a year before Wells' — any indication of influence?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
12 events
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| Jan 1, 2023 at 20:38 | comment | added | Eike Pierstorff | @Hypnosifl the Critical Edition is traded at 50 Euro for a used copy at Amazon, which is a bit stiff just as material for an SE answer, but it turns out that my own pre-internet copy of WotW contains as least a little info on Wells' motivation, which I have added to the answer. | |
| Jan 1, 2023 at 20:36 | history | edited | Eike Pierstorff | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Dec 31, 2022 at 1:50 | comment | added | Hypnosifl | The wikipedia article on The War of the Worlds says it was "Written between 1895 and 1897", citing p. 1 of the book A Critical Edition of The War of the Worlds: H.G. Wells's Scientific Romance edited by David Y. Hughes and Harry M. Geduld. If anyone owns the book they could check if it mentions there (or in a footnote) what evidence we have about the chronology of the writing process. | |
| Dec 30, 2022 at 13:03 | comment | added | releseabe | @user14111: Good point so sort of a coincidence although maybe some event, like something astronomers discovered, inspired them both at the same time. In 1894, not too long before this time and novels can take a while. Lowell "confirmed" the canals. | |
| Dec 30, 2022 at 12:00 | comment | added | user14111 | @releseabe What about the timing? The fact that The War of the Worlds and Auf zwei Planeten were published almost simultaneously would seem to make it unlikely that one influenced the other. (Books take some time to write, and then take some time to get published.) The magazine serialization of The War of the Worlds began around April of 1897 according to the ISFDB. | |
| Dec 30, 2022 at 9:10 | comment | added | releseabe | Thanks, we might change the characters somewhat for a film. Could, for example, the Bavarian goat herder be instead from Saxony? I think Americans would eat that up -- I am sure this is obvious to everyone. | |
| Dec 30, 2022 at 8:55 | comment | added | Eike Pierstorff | No, he is not well known. To fully appreciate Laßwitz you would need be both a fan of SciFi and Kantian philosophy, which would make you a nerd amongst nerds. The most prestigious German SF award is named after him, but that is still pretty niche. And unlike War of the Worlds, a book in which one of the principal characters is a Bavarian goat herder and the other a Prussian professor who discusses with Martians at length the juxtaposition of personal freedom and duty to society would not make a good movie. | |
| Dec 30, 2022 at 8:52 | comment | added | releseabe | It seems to me that perhaps his Martian book was inspired also by tensions that preceded WWI? | |
| Dec 30, 2022 at 8:49 | comment | added | releseabe | BTW, is he well-known in German-speaking countries today? My guess is not or more of his works would have made it into English although many German writers of great ability remain almost unread in the USA. So if you can compare him to some popular or not so popular American or English writer, that would be interesting. I suspect Wells is better known in Germany and almost any German writer is known in the English-speaking world -- WotW movies, many of them, almost make that certain. | |
| Dec 30, 2022 at 8:49 | comment | added | Eike Pierstorff | That both books can be reasonably viewed as parables on colonialism might have contributed to the timing. After all, that was quite heavily discussed in both countries. | |
| Dec 30, 2022 at 8:44 | comment | added | releseabe | Thanks. The timing is to me suspect, but certainly any Wells fan would assert that HG had plenty of his own ideas, some I think that had his family had the means would have meant he could have been another Faraday perhaps. AFAIK, he was the first to describe time as the 4th dimension, although I am not sure. His atomic energy ideas are remarkable for their time, and the great physicist Szilard was inspired by Wells in more than one way. | |
| Dec 30, 2022 at 8:37 | history | answered | Eike Pierstorff | CC BY-SA 4.0 |