MASARYK UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE The Development of the Portrayal of Extraterrestrials in the Invasion Science-fiction Literature over the Past Century: From H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds and Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End to Stephenie Meyer's The Host Diploma Thesis Brno 2014 Supervisor: Written by: Ing. Mgr. Věra Eliášová, Ph.D. Bc. Jan Svoboda Annotation The diploma thesis explores the development of the portrayal of extraterrestrials in Anglo-Saxon literature over the past century, focusing especially on the depiction of this phenomenon in the science fiction invasion literature. The work is divided into two main parts: theoretical and practical. The theoretical part deals with biographies of H. G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke and Stephenie Meyer and with the plot summaries of their novels examined the thesis. The practical part consists of three sections, each analyzing the portrayal of aliens in The War of the Worlds , Childhood's End and The Host . The first section examines the invasion of the extraterrestrials in terms of colonization with the aim to link the period of the origin of the novels with the intentions and objectives of the aliens coming to the Earth. In the second section attention is drawn to the physical appearance of the aliens as well as their characteristic features that are significant for understanding this genre. The last section of the work aims at the outcomes of the different invasions presented in the novels pointing out similarities and differences the novels share, and suggesting relevant connections to the eras the novels were written in. Anotace Tato závěrečná diplomová práce zkoumá vývoj ztvárnění mimozemšťanů v anglické a americké literatuře za období minulého století. Práce se zaměřuje zejména na ztvárnění tohoto jevu v invazní vědecko-fantastické literatuře. Dílo je rozděleno do dvou hlavních částí; teoretické a praktické. Teoretická část se zabývá životopisy H. G. Wellse, Arthura C. Clarka a Stephenie Meyerové a shrnutím dějů jejich novel, které jsou zkoumány v této diplomové práci. Praktická část sestává ze tří celků, každý se zaměřuje na ztvárnění mimozemšťanů v románech The War of the Worlds , Childhood's End a The Host z jiného úhlu pohledu. První kapitola praktické části zkoumá invazi vetřelců ve smyslu kolonizace a spojení, mezi jejich záměry a úmysly a příchodem na Zemi, a dobou, kdy jednotlivá díla vznikla. Druhý z celků se zabývá fyzickým vzezřením mimozemšťanů a jejich charakterem se záměrem poukázat na důvody, které autoři měli při tvorbě těchto vetřelců. Poslední kapitola praktické části se věnuje výsledkům tří různých invazí popsaných ve zkoumaných dílech a poukazuje na podobnosti a rozdíly v těchto románech se záměrem je propojit s obdobími ve kterých byla díla napsána. Bibliographical description: SVOBODA, Jan. The Development of the Portrayal of Extraterrestrials in the Invasion Science-fiction Literature over the past Century: From H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds and Arthur C. Clark's Childhood's End to Stephenie Meyer's The Host: diploma thesis. Brno : Masaryk University, Faculty of Education, Department of English Language and Literature, 2011. 78 p. Supervisor Ing. Mgr. Věra Eliášová, Ph.D. Klíčová slova: vědecko-fantastická literatura, invaze, mimozemšťané, kolonizace, vývoj ztvárnění mimozemšťanů v literatuře, vetřelci, vzezření mimozemšťanů Key words: science fiction literature, invasion, extraterrestrials, colonization, development of the portrayal of extraterrestrials in literature, aliens, appearance of extraterrestrials Prohlášení „Prohlašuji, že jsem závěrečnou bakalářskou práci vypracoval/a samostatně, s využitím pouze citovaných literárních pramenů, dalších informací a zdrojů v souladu s Disciplinárním řádem pro studenty Pedagogické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity a se zákonem č. 121/2000 Sb., o právu autorském, o právech souvisejících s právem autorským a o změně některých zákonů (autorský zákon), ve znění pozdějších předpisů.” Declaration “I declare that I have compiled this bachelor thesis by myself and that I have used only the sources listed in the bibliography.” Brno 19 April 2014 Jan Svoboda ............................... Acknowledgements I would like to express great gratitude and thanks to the supervisor of my diploma thesis, Ing. Mgr. Věra Eliášová, PhD. who was always supportive to me and did not get scared off by the nature of my work. She has always provided me with general and specific hints and advice, without which I would not be able to complete my diploma thesis. At last, but not least, I would like to thank her for letting me work independently, accepting my last time arrangements and meetings. Obsah Foreword .......................................................................................................................... 7 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 8 1. Biographies and plot summaries ............................................................................. 11 1. 1 Biographies of the authors ................................................................................. 11 1. 1. 1 H. G. Wells ................................................................................................... 11 1. 1. 2 Arthur C. Clarke ........................................................................................... 12 1. 1. 3 Stephenie Meyer ........................................................................................... 13 1. 2 Plot summaries of the novels ............................................................................. 14 1. 2. 1 The War of the Worlds ................................................................................. 14 1. 2. 2 Childhood’s End ........................................................................................... 16 1. 2. 3 The Host ....................................................................................................... 17 2. Analysis of the development of the invasion science fiction literature ................. 19 2. 1 Invasion ................................................................................................................ 19 2.2 The character and appearance of the alien races in Wells, Clarke and Meyer ...... 39 3. Who wins: concluding the invasions ....................................................................... 60 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 73 Afterword ...................................................................................................................... 76 Bibliography .................................................................................................................. 77 Foreword The night sky prompts an ultimate Question; looking at the millions of stars that shine for millennia above heads of whole civilizations, people always ask if there is another life in the universe apart from the one we know on Earth. For ultimate Question there used to be an ultimate answer and for the most of the history of mankind people believed that gods dwell in the sky; if only one or many varied among different cultures and periods of human development. Religions have been part of the history since the first men saw the light of day enduring even in times when science seems to move the world. However, its importance has rapidly decreased over the past couple of centuries mainly owing to the technological as well as cultural advancement modern civilization has witnessed. Science seems to be the new religion of our time and truly it has already showed and provided the humankind with many of its wonders. Media, industry, medicine, biology and other fields have undergone marvelous changes in relatively recent time. What has been discovered over the past two hundred years can be counted as tremendous comparing to what has been revealed in centuries before. With many terminal illnesses extinct, transportation that can get people to the other side of the planet in terms of hours and with men stepping onto the surface of Moon human race finds itself indeed in the age of technology. There is, however, still one thing that even modern day science has not been able to discover yet; the persistent ultimate Question that origins in times long lost in history: "Are we alone or is there another life in the universe?". With all its powers scientists are these days working on the answer to this Question. Telescopes are searching the night sky for evidence of life on distant worlds from the surface of the Earth and on its orbit there are another ones with the same task. Probes are being sent to search other planets beginning with our closest neighbor, planet Mars and even further on, behind the borders of our Solar system. Still nothing! Suffering from the lack of knowledge on the scientists' side gives space to writers on the other side. Being offered this opportunity a great number of authors has taken the advantage of the situation and exploited their imagination presenting in their works of fiction. The fact that there is still no proof of life beyond the borders of our own world holds the door wide open for novelists who truly have not held back their minds in developing interpretations of extraterrestrials in literature of fiction. 7 Introduction Depicting aliens in fiction seems to be a kind of a virus spreading among the authors considering the last century