:headphones: Books & Music Entry

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.:;’ : , . H.G. Wells . , : ’;:.

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.:;’ : , . Son Lux . , : ’;:.

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This post is for the Books & Music Challenge. I’ll be facilitating the crossover of a song from one of my favorite albums and one of the first unabridged classics I read as a kid!

Psst! Please forgive me if there are any inconsistencies in my paraphrasing of the book. I haven’t read it in years.

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The Book

”The War of the Worlds”

by H.G. Wells

The Song

”Enough of Our Machines”

by Son Lux

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:bust_in_silhouette:

., :; ’ First, let’s talk about feelings. ’ ;: ,.

The song begins with a slow, grand, eerie, and almost longing melody on a piano. This portrays the scientific and doubtful beginning of the book, in which there are questions of life on Mars after there are sightings of light flashes on the planet. Unfortunately, they pretty much shrug off the idea.

At around 0:30, the song quiets and nearly falls silent. This signifies an end to the foreshadowing at the start of the book. Right before the 0:40 mark in the song, we are introduced to a plucky, inquisitive, hopeful, yet slightly urgent change in the music as new instruments emerge. It helps us relive the nervous excitement and curiosity that the narrator and others felt the first time they saw a Martian pod—I believe the author called it a “cylinder”—crash to the earth.

At 1:15, a high-pitched stringed instrument cries a sad, unsettling melody at medium speed, mimicking the disgust and surprise the narrator felt seeing a lethargic Martian emerge from the pod. At 1:36, the slower piano from the start of the song chimes in with the same melody, creating an unsynchronized dissonance between itself and the stringed instrument.

That dies down at 1:52, and the piano, now a solo again, takes up the prettier melody of the stringed instrument. Here, the song creates a sense of hope, much like the narrator must have felt when he sent his wife and some belongings to another town, away from Martian war machines that had emerged from the pod and begun to lay siege on his town. Little did he know, all would be downhill—much further downhill!—from there.

At 2:08, the plucky sounds grow slow and anxious, then lead into a series of explosive, monotonous, electronic tones at 2:13. Much of the rest of the song is a conglomerate of instrument groups flowing betwixt one another as they take on their own versions of the familiar melodies we’ve already heard. All the while, the presence of the electronic tones remains strong. This is reminiscent of the book, as society crumbles to the relentless Martians and the main character (and his brother, too, I think, whose story gets told by the narrator at some point) holds fast to his sanity as he faces a primitive struggle for survival. Like the changing instruments in the song, side characters in the book come and go and reappear, and the Martians continue to introduce unpleasant, deadly surprises.

Everything besides the electronic tones comes together at 3:27, creating a grand and longing sound. This represents the climax of emotions and moral dilemma in the book as the narrator finds himself surviving alone, having rejected another character’s proposal to build an underground society. The narrator can’t leave behind the beloved, dying world in which he once found comfort and stability.

The electronic tones in the song end abruptly at 3:44 and finally allow the listener to relax more, in the same way that the Martians’ reign comes to a shocking but highly relieving halt. They’ve died of a completely unexpected cause: bacteria.

From 4:00 to 4:05, the music almost comes to a stop, similarly to how it had done in the beginning. This time, the music is repetitive, tranquil, and solemn in a new melody we haven’t yet heard (it is familiar if you’ve listened to other Son Lux songs, but that’s beside the point here) before it finally fades to the end. Although the world in the book is safe and the narrator reunites with his wife, he says in the epilogue, “I must confess the stress and danger of the time have left an abiding sense of doubt and insecurity in my mind.” He goes on to explain symptoms of PTSD, living with constant reminders of the Martian horrors he witnessed. Like the song’s end, the narrator is finally stable again but not joyful.

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., :; ’ Second, let’s talk about lyrics. ’ ;: ,.

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I've had enough

of our machines

I'm giving up

and I am letting down

I've had enough

of our machines

I'm giving up

and I am letting down

I've had enough

of our disease

I'm picking up

and I will walk away

I've had enough

of our disease

I'm picking up

and I will walk away

I'm asking you to take

To take

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For starters, I typically don’t pay attention to lyrics in Son Lux songs as much as I enjoy the sound experience that the band creates. But I find the words in “Enough of Our Machines” all too indicative of “The War of the Worlds” to omit them from this post.

I imagine two POVs from which the lyrics are being vocalized: one is a godlike being that oversees humanity or Earth, and one is the narrator. Needless to say, some of the following analyses are my surreal fantasies as a fan of the book, rather than strictly canon ideas.

The first stanza is the godlike being, exhausted of humanity’s technological advancements. I believe that “The War of the Worlds” occurs in the late 1800s, after the industrial revolution. The godlike being would have been seeing mass amounts of pollution for the first time, which would likely upset it if its pleasure came from seeing Earth thrive. So the godlike being spitefully chooses to stop protecting humanity from the forces of foreign planets, allowing for the Martians to invade.

The second stanza is the narrator, who has “had enough of our machines,” in the sense that he has been terrorized by the technology-driven war between the Martians and humans. He is also considering giving up on life, doubtful that the apocalypse will cease.

The third stanza is the godlike being coldly watching humanity fall to the Martians. It is sick of humanity’s pride in its advancements, modern comforts, and fading primitive instincts, and “disease” refers to the mindset and lifestyle of the new modern human civilization. “Picking up” and walking away is the godlike being standing back and allowing humankind to get desecrated by the Martians.

The fourth stanza is after the narrator has discovered that the Martians are all dead, brought down by literal disease. He has “had enough of our disease” with a positive connotation, in that there was enough Earthly disease to eradicate the foreign enemy. He is “picking up” the habits and interests of his old life again, but he’ll “walk away” from a sense of pride in the human race and adopt a slightly more pessimistic and distant, rather than inquisitive, outlook.

The final lyrics, “I’m asking you to take,” begs the listener—or reader, depending on the way you look at it—to “take” to heart some humility and to heed the narrator’s warning. After he entertains the idea of human advancement into outer space, he adds, “It may be, on the other hand, that the destruction of the Martians is only a reprieve. To them, and not to us, perhaps, is the future ordained.” Moreover, ordainment has a divine connotation, furthering the idea that the fate of the species is up to godlike beings, such as the one that I propose nearly allowed the destruction of humankind.

:eyes:

., :; ’ See any typos? Please LMK! ’ ;: ,.

That’s all I got! Thanks for reading all of that. I’m impressed that you had the patience! I hope it was interesting. Here’s a link to the song, if you are interested.

#LitTunes