![]() ![]() Thus, Wells’s classic plot is complemented by the equally established pop culture topos of alleged meetings with aliens, said to have taken place in the mid- and late 20th century in the US, from encounters between flying saucers and American aviation to the Roswell crash and reports of people being abducted, subjected to bizarre probes, and then released. Soon, the scene will be supplemented with further information– the purpose of the attack is not to murder but to abduct people, and the aliens are circling above in flying saucers. It is true that the scale is much smaller, and the cylinder that falls from the stars does not blaze with deadly heat or carry passengers, but the analogy still seems quite apparent. Wells’s classic War of the Worlds: the curious crowd gathered around the meteorite crater only to fall victim to sudden and incomprehensible aggression. It repeats almost word for word the scene of the first encounter with a strange civilization from H. ![]() The sequence described above, which opens the video game entitled XCOM: Enemy Unknown, references a classic topos of science fiction: an unprovoked and undeserved invasion from outer space. Suddenly, a green gas begins to escape from the holes in its hull, thickening into a kind of spider’s web, which grabs the nearest onlookers and begins to pull them in the direction of the capsule. From the falling smoke, there slowly emerges the metallic shape of the probe, apparently of extraterrestrial origin. Surrounded by a ring of fire, it falls into the centre of a European city, and curious passersby begin to congregate around the crater. Both are equally terrifying.” The tremulous blue letters resemble a hologram displayed in the night sky, cut across by a falling star. Clarke flashes in the darkness: “Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. An aphorism from English science-fiction writer Arthur C. ![]()
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