The End of the World

I recently caught a trailer for the soon to be released 2012, another "edge of your seat" end of the world, catastrophe driven, mega-movie. Starring John Cusack, Amanda, Peet, Oliver Platt, Thandie Newtown, Danny Glover, and Woody Harrelson we have yet another film showcasing the end of the world. Aliens will not arrive from another galaxy to use what little is left of Earth's resources, zombies will not take over following a massive vaccination protocol, nor will a giant comet or asteroid hurl towards Earth with the force of a million Hiroshima bombs. No folks, in this movie, the world will battle the evil and catastrophic Mayan calendar. To make a long story short, the Mayan calendar ends on either December 21 or 23, 2012. Depending on who you believe the world will A) continue about in its' merry way, CO2 emissions and health care reform be damned, B) end in a worldwide apocalypse from which even Will Smith will not be able to save us (this includes theories of planetary collision, black hole existence, and polar reverse) or C) bring about an age of new consciousness (It truly is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius). It should be noted that most Mayan historians do not believe in the extinction of mankind based upon the calendar the Mayans created and that most of the hype and doomsday phenomena were created by numerous television series/documentaries based upon science fiction writings.

So, I thought it would be best to go back to the beginning to the named "Father of Science Fiction," H.G. Wells. Englishman Herbert George Wells was an English author best known for his works in the science fiction genre. He was a socialist, pacifist, and an ardent supporter of technocracy (an administration of scientists and engineers, in essence, a government run by experts in their perspective fields). Apparently Wells was quite the ladies man, first marrying his cousin in 1891, but leaving her for one of his students in 1894. He fathered four children, but only two with his wife, who remained married to him despite his liaisons until her death. I chose Wells for his most famous work entitled The War of the Worlds (WOTW). I came upon WOTW because I was scouring the shelves on our local library. They front portion of the library was filled with books that, at one time or another, were banned. WOTW was banned due to the amount of violence that it contained for the time. The narrator is unnamed and there is very little dialogue in the book. The story details an invasion of the Earth by martians and the very little, we, as humans are able to do to stop them once they arrive. The book ends as quickly as the invasion began with the martians succumbing to Earthly bacteria (perhaps H1N1?).

As a footnote, I began this post on October 25, a day before my husband left for two weeks to Fort Myers, Florida. It seemed that as soon as he returned, we left for a week in Williamsburg, Virginia for Thanksgiving. I tried, I honestly tried, to remember to return to the blog. However, still waking once a night with a 2.5 month old did not make the two weeks very pleasant. It is now December 8/9 and I finish this blog while The Colbert Report plays in the background. Therefore, I'll admit, it is not my best work. I promise and guarantee better prose the next time, when I will highlight a family favorite- The Brooklyn Brewery.