Write at least 250 words that summarizes H.G. Wells’ “The Star” and our lecture notes from today’s class about proto-science fiction (or proto-SF). Remember to save your work some place safe and then copy-and-paste it into a comment on this blog post. This weeks’ after class writing assignments (today’s and Wednesday’s) are both due before class next Monday.
I have received questions about the upcoming exam. We will have a brief review session during the class before the exam, but you should be practicing how to spell writers’ names and what their birth/death dates are. Same is true for lists. Mnemonics and other memory-enhancing strategies such as these are recommended.
John Darius
ENG 2420
H.G. Wells “The Star” Summary:
H.G. Wells “The Star,” is about a star that is on the verge of having an impact on the planet Jupiter. In this story, the asteroid destroys the planet. Jupiter, and how the human race is faced with the reality that their very own lives and earth itself could possibly end at any moment. The apocalypse that happens on earth nearly ends civilization. Tidal waves poured over long coasts of Asia, across the plains of China, and many islands around the world. Cities were destroyed, and for a long time earthquakes continued to happen around the world. In this story, we are introduced to the Martians who were also known as Mars astronomers. The Martians looked at earth very differently than how the human race looked at earth. The Martians were shocked at how earth was able to sustain so much damage.
Our class lecture was mainly about the kind of message H.G. Wells was trying to give the readers. H.G. Wells wanted people to learn how to give up their selfish ways and that we should give up the things that cause us to have so much greed in our lives such as money. H.G. Wells wanted humanity to realize that some of the things we obsess over is not as important as we think they are. H.G. Wells wanted us to come with the realization that we as humans are very small compared to the entire universe, and that our lives could end at any moment, so we should instead try our best to perform less selfish acts and try to give back to one another and our planet, because we never know when our lives and our planet can end.
In H.G.Wells the star, just after the New Year three observatories have confirmed that the planet Neptune has change planetary orbit in a most erratic and abnormal way. Scientist found through this discovery that in the far reaches of the sky a luminous object was becoming transparent. As days go by the object become bigger in size and brightness.
The people finding this object as a spectacle, references the object as being a star. While the star get brighter people began to realize that the star is indeed getting nearer towards planet earth. Becoming a concern for astronomers, they realize the luminous object has erupted, into the solar system. As the object nears towards earth, it affects the planet Jupiter and its moon on it path, At this point, the studies of a mathematician are published throughout the world, which explains that both the intruding star and our Sun are exerting reciprocal gravitational attraction, and as a result it is being pulled deeper into the solar system. They predict that the star may either collide with earth or pass by close proximity, in result would leave devastating effects on the planet earth.
With the growing days, people begin to worry when the night become immensely illuminated due to the nearing star. As the star nears, the English winter begins to thaw, and as near and becomes one-third of the moon in the sky in size, all the ice on earth begins to melt. This causes terrible climate changes on earth, huge waves begin to swallow miles of the coastland, earthquake begins to destroy cities, and volcanoes begins to erupt and spew lava. The aftermath is devastating and leaves many dead. The ice on Greenland melts and become a green inhabitant for the remaining humans. Martian astronomers have witnessed the events, concluding that the Earth’s survival has been a miracle.
In todays lecture we talked more about the origin timeline of science fiction and about photo scientific writers, which are writers that are rooted with the early science of writing. We talked about Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Jules Verne, and H.G.Wells. We also analyzed Wells 5 themes, the first being ‘Evolution is almost all history’, the second ‘Invention’, the third ‘Prophecy of change’, the fourth ‘Social Extrapolation, and the fifth ‘Simultaneous caution and celebration’.
Mike Paar
After Class Summery
2/22/16
This week we begun our readings of the Wesleyan anthology with H.G. Wells short story, “The Star.” The story detailed the global events surrounding the passing of a foreign star through our solar system and the effects that it would have on our planet itself. It was a gradual build up of calamities, starting with a gravitational shift in the orbit of Neptune and eventually the star colliding and destroying the eighth planet, but these events were only observable by astronomers watching said events from here on Earth. The public worry of the star grew as it grew brighter in the sky, uncertain as to what it would bring. As it grew closer, the gravitational pull of the star caused mass destruction across the planet. Storms raged and violent earthquakes rocked the earth. Temperatures soared causing massive damage to the atmosphere and killing a majority of the population. Eventually the star passed by Earth and continued towards out sun, crashing into it and merging the two together. The remaining humans that survived, while surveying the damage, developed a new found brotherhood as they rebuilt the world. While from a distance of several million miles, martian astronomers witnessed the destruction caused on Earth by only citing the slight recession of arctic regions of the poles of the planet, unaware of the calamity that occurred to earthling population.
The lecture surrounding “The Star,” focused on the themes of our own isolation within the universe, largely centering on the work of Carl Sagan and his Voyager probes Pale Blue Dot photograph. The studies of Percival Lowell were briefly mentioned with his discovery of martian canals and seasons on the red planet and how that influenced H.G. Wells when introducing martian civilization into his SciFi writings.
The lecture then moved into discussing several themes surrounding the introduction of SciFi literature into popular culture. Themes such as the fantastic voyage, a Utopian society, philosophical tales, the Gothic and anticipation of technology all played a role throughout the 19th century in the development of the Science Fiction genre. Although these themes began with Marry Shelly’s Frankenstein, it continued with other proto-SciFi writers such as Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, all of whom contributed their own take on the advancement of science and technology and the possible outcomes it could’ve have on society in their time.
Herbert George Wells’ “The Star” brings one into the days before a cataclysmic catastrophe comes to pass on Earth. A small star has begun making a route through the solar system from neptune. As the star moves across the system, astronomers, mathematicians, and scientists are attempting to understand and predict the trajectory of the nearing celestial body. The world eventually is informed that it is on a direct course towards earth. Even with the end of the world seemingly approaching, much of humanity continued their daily routines. Stores opened at their regular hour and cities were still bustling with the foot traffic as usual. One of the researchers of the star however, realized that the star will most likely be his cause of death. A huge implication as to the theme in the story, he proclaims that, although the universe is massive and unstoppable, his little brain could understand it all.
When the star finally reaches Earth, icecaps melt, forests burn, and rivers evaporate under the intense heat. The gravity of the star causes volcanic eruptions as well as massive earthquakes. The world was heavily damaged but did survive. As humanity emerged from the rubble, they felt a new fondness for each other and the planet. A utopian society emerges after the violent change n the planet. However, as the narrator mentions, from the outside, most specifically Mars, the most disastrous event to ever occur on earth only melted the ice caps. The lives of those on it are too small to be seen from even the closest planet. The pettiness of the human existence is apparent.
The lecture focused on the works stemming after Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or a modern Prometheus though the introduction of “proto science fiction” writers such as Wells, Hawthorne, Poe, and Verne. Also discussed were the five prerequisites of sorts to science fiction that are; adventures or voyages, the idea of a utopia, ‘the philosophical tale’, the gothic, and technological anticipation.
Darius Freeman
Professor Ellis
ENG 2420
February 23, 2016
After Class Summary: The Star
H.G. Wells was one of the founding fathers of modern science fiction, making his The Star, one of the precursors to the science fiction today. In The Star, a star appears in our solar system and seems to be on an unstoppable beeline straight for Earth with collision sure to take place. Initially only the astronomers are concerned but due to the pressing, ever increasing danger, concern soon spreads to the public after the Stars run in with Neptune. The Star is being pulled by the Sun deeper into the Solar System.
Eventually the star makes it way to Earth. While The Star is in Earth’s orbit, its gravitation pull causes massive climate change and tectonic activity on Earth. The ice on Earth’s surface begins to melt which causes flooding, earthquakes; volcanic activity and tidal waves are some of the other calamities to strike Earth during The Star’s visit. The days seem grim until the moon knocks The Star out of its orbit around Earth and it continues on into the Sun. The Earth is later looked upon as superficially changed due to the event as witnessed by Martian astronomers.
In class we discussed H.G. Wells and his methods to his work. He believed in putting aside petty grievances with each other in order to work together for the greater good. We see this in The Star where at first it’s just the astronomer’s problem but surely enough it becomes everyone’s problem fairly quickly. We also discussed how science fiction largely deals with society and society’s reaction to technology and how it affects everyone as a whole, be it good or bad. We also discussed how Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein sets the groundwork for the ideas that will eventually give rise to the gene of science fiction we know today.
In H.G. Wells “ The Star”, we see there is a point to this story, in my opinion. The story starts with the discovery of this newly found being of light in the solar system. The gravitational orbit of Neptune seems to have changed with this “star” being in the solar system, and eventually the star collides with Neptune. The story does not focus on one protagonist, rather it focuses on many people’s experiences with the star coming closer and closer. A mathematician discovered that this star will be the death of mankind, and teaches one of his lectures to his students on why the Earth will die in vain. His students think he is joking. A couple gets married, and observes that the sky is extra blue and illuminated (due to the star getting bigger and closer) and they see the star as is comes closer to Earth, and they say that it is now their star. Astronomers in their observatories cry out “It is nearer, nearer!” As the star grows bigger; headed straight for Earth. The weather changes as the star grows in size and comes closer: the oceans begin to steam, the arctic and antarctic poles melt away, the Earth begins to shake (earthquakes), tsunamis wipe out islands and volcanoes emerge from the ground. Many people die from these events. The sky beings to change as you can no longer see the smaller stars; the moon, observed by onlookers, now looks a dull yellow compared to this bright star. As the suspense builds and the moment of truth reveals itself, the star just misses the Earth and plummets into the sun.
This story is full of suspense throughout the entirety of the story. I believe the reason it does not focus on one protagonist (also talked about in the lecture) is because this is a problem for humanity in itself, not one character. To see the reactions of many people rather than just one person in this apocalyptic time makes the story a bit more scary and suspenseful, and also adds a realism to the story. We see some people liking the star, others are fearful of the star; all things that we would see if such a thing would happen (a difference in views amongst humanity/different reactions). I did enjoy the very end with the martian astronomers looking at Earth. I believe that the story, especially including the martians watching this apocalyptic event, is supposed to teach us more about what it means to be human. We see that after all the death and destruction of Earth, after the star passes, now the human civilization has to come together to rebuild and reconnect life. The book actually uses the term “new brotherhood”. This story is teaching us to come together, in my opinion, and adding non-human beings watching us from another planet supports this.
In the lecture, we spoke about the star and also science fiction as a term and the works of science fiction. In regards to “The Star”, we talked about how the story is “devoid of a main character”. We also spoke about how science fiction has this effect of extrapolation on people; where it is up to the person to interpret their own experiences through the experiences in the pages of the story. Examples of terms from science fiction are fantastic voyage, utopia/ heterotopia, philosophical tale, reactions, and technological and sociological anticipation.
“The Star” by H.G. Wells is about story about a star astronomers notice that a star is ripping through the solar system causing havoc on the planets it passes by. As the star get closer to earth, the earth inhabitants experience drastic changes on earth. Also these disaster helps unify the human race in the process. As we get into the story the polar caps start melting causing massive floods and the earth begins to crack spewing larva onto the surface. Even though these disasters are horrific what they realize is that there is nothing that they can do to stop their doom which is even worst. As the star gets closer we see man finding hope in the notion that even though he can’t stop the events he can understand the star in the process. This gives the idea that somehow knowledge is greater than any force within the universe. At the end of the story we are introduced to the Martians who observes the happenings on earth and how much damage the earth was able to with stand.
In the class lecture we talk about the core themes of Wells stories. For example, there was evolution within his stories, the prophecy of change and the celebration and caution of science and technology.
We also learned about proto science and Edgar Allen Poe and the timeline of Science Fiction. Proto science which came before what we presently know as Science Fiction this included author like Poe who introduced the detective and horror story. The time line begins with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Poe, Hawthorne, and Verne and HG Wells which brings us to the here and now.
In H.G. Wells “The Star,” it’s a story about a star that’s being pulled by the Sun and Earth is in its path. In the beginning, observatories announced that the planet Neptune was behaving erratically and later discovered it was due to a star that is being dragged towards the Sun by the Sun. As the star flies through space, it hits Neptune and combines with it. They think that when the star passes by Earth, most life on Earth is going to be destroyed. As the star passes Earth, it causes the ice to melt and causing massive flooding. Earth survives at the end.
In the lecture we learned the important figures in SF history, beginning with Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley up to H. G. Wells. Herbert George Wells was born in 1866 and died in 1946. He wrote “The Stars,” that was published in 1897, the story was devoid of a main character. Thomas More came up with the term utopia when he wrote the book “Utopia,” that got translated to English from Latin in 1551. There is also another term “heterotopia,” which is a mix of utopia and dystopia. Edgar Allan Poe, considered the originator of horror genre, was born in 1809 and died in 1849. Poe wrote a story called “The Facts in the Case of Monsieur Valdemar,” which involved mesmerism experiments, seeing if someone can be hypnotized when they’re near death. Nathaniel Hawthorne, born 1804 and died 1864, used mesmerism and biology in his writings. Jules Verne, born in 1828 and died 1905, is one of the two founding fathers of SF. Verne was influenced by Poe’s writing and wrote “Voyages Extraordinaires”, “Twenty Thousands Leagues Under the Sea”, “Around the World in 80 Days.”
The Star by H.G Wells is an interesting story about what seemed to be the moments that lead to humanities destruction. Astronomers being the first to discover this star hurtling towards earth eventually leads to wide spread media attention. As the star travels closer to the earth its climate changes drastically, melting ice caps and causing lava to overflow the land. Ultimately the star manages to wipe out the majority of humanity, and in the aftermath the remaining humans begin anew rebuilding the earth. From a distance martians have witnessed the events that transpired and praise humanity for its will to move forward. A major idea from the short story is that knowledge holds tremendous value in the face of certain death and over any force that cannot be stopped. Maybe because having the knowledge of fate, one can understand the significance of their insignificance in a reality so large, making one appreciate what they have and see whats important. Some things that were discussed is the fact that the star was devoid of a main character. This was actually key in the stories message as we see the experiences of different characters. Some common themes in Wells’s stories are evolution, inventions of some kind, prophecies, social extrapolation, celebrations and cautions towards science and technology. We also discussed some proto science fiction authors. These include Edgar Allan Poe who’s considered the originator of the modern horror and detective stories, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Jules Verne who is a founding father of SF.
So in the story, Neptune is discovered and after some time it starts moving funny. Astronomers are losing their minds. Every one wants to know whats going on. Suddenly there’s a bright spot and everything makes sense. But there are still questions. They know its a star but they think its going to crash into Neptune. It does. Clearly everyone in this story is overjoyed at that. Well, the star is still coming, so now astronomers have to figure out where its coming to. So Astronomers team up with the mathematicians and scientists. All the smart minds they can get. they try to figure out what the star’s trajectory is. United in science, they figure it out and surprise, its coming to destroy Earth. The star gets closer and closer and it starts to cause dramatic changes on Earth. changes in weather, as well as tectonic and volcanic activity. Flooding from the heat of the star melting the ice at the poles. Humans unite to help one another among the catastrophes. Just as mankind feared the worst the moon saves them all by knocking the star out of orbit and forcing it to go on its way to the sun. Martian astronomers are introduced at this point and we are told they note the damage to the Earth alone. Marking that the poles ice was reduced. They do not notice or seem to care about humanity’s near annihilation.
“The Star” by H.G. Wells’s story opens with the unnamed first-person narrator musing that at one time he had believed that his travels in outer space could not alter his faith in God. The reader learns that he is a Jesuit as well as an astrophysicist. He is aboard a starship returning from a scientific mission three thousand light-years from Earth. Something he learned on this mission, as yet unknown to the rest of the scientists and crew, has caused him to question his faith. He thinks particularly of the ship’s doctor, Dr. Chandler, who sometimes professes himself willing to believe that “Something” created the infinite vastness of space and everything in it, but cannot accept that a being so powerful could possibly care about “us and our miserable little world.”The narrative goes on to reveal more details about the mission. The ship had been sent to examine the aftermath of a supernova—the explosion of a star, during which it burns with intensity and a luminosity that may be a billion times that of the Earth’s sun. These scientific details are imparted almost incidentally as the first-person narrative continues. When the ship reaches the solar system surrounding the white dwarf, they are surprised to find that the outermost planet survived the force of the supernova explosion. Soon all of the ice on Earth’s surface begins to melt, causing widespread flooding. The star then begins to overshadow the Sun, whose hours seem darker. The planet crust is affected too, with massive cracks forming and releasing lava on to the surface of the Earth. The narrator reports that his colleagues have asked him how to reconcile the destruction of an entire civilization with a merciful and loving God. His answer: that “God has no need to justify His actions to man,” is not accepted by the others, who say that the random destruction of worlds is further proof that there is no supreme being, that “the Universe has no purpose and no plan.” The narrator has learned, but not yet revealed, that the supernova was the Star of Bethlehem, which heralded the birth of Christ.
In today’s lecture we talked about some of the authors those who came up with different kind of category of the noble 18th and 19th century. In the beginning of the 18th Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) first came up with idea of horror story and dictator. Also he brought that psychological behaviorism in his story and describe by poetically. In the same time Thaniel Hawthorn (1804-1864) used biological and measursim in his story, one of the example is “Rappacinni’s Dauther” (1844). And then Jules Burge (1828-1905) is one of the two fathers of science fiction. He was influence by Poe and his most writing was voyages extraordionationary.
H.G. Wells “The Star,” is a short story about an upcoming doom aka the star or asteroid hence the title. In the story the star is sets on a soon to be collision course on planet Earth after destroying the planet Jupiter. The story has a great built up on fearfulness of the threats of the mathematical results and the descriptions of the growing potential threat that is the star and actions, of those people living on earth who think of the panic as silly. Though with the predictions of global effects of the star’s heat on the humans of earth will have makes sort of a confusion a mass of men and women running to the open sea. Then, as soon as the moon interferes between the burning star and the earth “the black disc” though there are soon to be days where darkness will come after, the danger does passed and a new brotherhood appears, to study the geological changes and having their main focus on what’s happening at that moment such as effects of rain and the burning upon earth t as it is coming or passing. Though when one of the Martian astronomers sees this star as not a doom to the earth with massive destruction but with little damage, far away from earth; the only difference appears to be a decrease of white marks aka frozen water round at both poles; here we see that of the Eastern Earth where folks have panicked, have terrible accidents, and died. The worriedness turns out to be nothing, the humans perspective here is over the top extracted because of the imposing misbeliefs are showed. in the ending quote of the story “human catastrophe” at “a distance of a few million miles,” certainly a perspective that points to man’s follies” truly reveals this. The story turns to science as a salvation and on pg.49 there’s insignificance of humanity compared to the earth. Martians are looking back at the star approaching earth and the Martians can only see the big parts of the earth so they have a better view on what’s is really going on with this so call star coming for Earth.
Joanna Wong
ENG 2420
H.G. Wells “The Star”
News of the star started when announcement was made from three observatories about Neptune’s erratic motion. As the star was observed, it grew larger and brighter for the people of earth to spot. It was brighter than any star in the sky. Neptune and the star collided, resulting in a merge of the two. People on Earth panicked as the star grew closer. Disaster spread across the plain of Earth; large storms, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods and the rising of temperature. All these caused a huge population to decline with the many deaths that occurred. One such location was China, where a large tsunami, fifty feet high, swept through.
After the many disasters, the star, which was a comet, continued its way towards the sun. Those that survived the catastrophe were brought together and formed a new brotherhood. Off in Mars, Martian astronomers watched with interest as Earth survived the near collision with the star. The only thing different to them was the shrinkage of the ice caps in both poles. To them, what the humans on earth faced seemed like nothing.
In lecture, we discussed of the beginnings of Science Fiction. The author of the story we read, H.G Wells, is one of the founding fathers of Science Fiction. Alongside him were other Proto Scientific Writers, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Jules Verne. The different kinds of Utopia were mentioned and finally, H.G Wells five points of S.F.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein is considered the beginning of Science Fiction in 1818. There are many elements of writing from different genres that contributed to Science Fiction. There is the Fantastic Voyage which includes Gilgamesh, The Odyssey and Gulliver’s Travel. There is also Utopia by Thomas Moore, a story about a perfect society, and in contrast stories of a dystopia and heterotopia. There is also the philosophical tale – a thought experiment using experimentation and philosophy. The Gothic was a literary reaction/response to enlightenment values and there were technological and sociological anticipation. Early writers of Science Fiction were known as proto-Science Fiction writers. This includes Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864), Jules Verne (1828-1905) and H.G. Wells (1866-1946). Edgar Allan Poe is known for his horror stories and introducing the world to the great detective story. Some of his works include The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1838) and The Fact in the Case of M. Valdemar (1845). His stories have elements of mesmerism and hypnosis. Jules Verne was influenced by Poe and mainly wrote Voyages Extraordinaire (Extraordinary Voyages in English), stories in which the voyage is enabled by technology. Two of his most well-known works are 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1870) and Around the World in 80 Days (1873). Many themes of H.G Wells’s include invention/innovation, prophecy of change – good things from bad things, social extrapolation and he celebrates and cautions us about science and technology. The story we read for class today was H.G Wells The Star.
The Star is about a star or a large celestial object that is traveling through space and towards the earth. Along its path is causes havoc on the nearby planets pulling them away from their natural rotation/alignment. At first only the astronomers on earth give any notice to the star but as it comes closers and closer towards the earth more and more of the population begin to take notice. It comes close enough that people can see it in daylight and it appears in the sky as the size of the moon. It eventually does pass earth but it causes massive destruction and only a small population remains. The remaining humans move towards the poles as the climates has become more temperate and there is more grassland. From afar the Martians have been monitoring the earth. They can only see the geographic features of the earth, the land borders have not changed and only the white portions on the poles seemed to have shrunken. They praise the earth for withstanding the event but do not know of the individuals on the planet. The humans are very small in the grand scheme of the universe.
Mathew Tackett
2.29.2016
In class today, we discussed “The Star” by H.G. Wells, a story with non-characters that describes the impending doom of the earth when a star flies through our solar system. The star changes our entire universe over the course of the book and destroys human civilization as we know it. The star melts our polar ice caps and terraforms the earth, obliterating most of the things we as a society valued. Cities crumbled, and the huge population our used to sustain plummeted. The survivors of the catastrophe we left to rebuilt the earth as a group working together. From the ashes Well’s main message through most of his books are unveiled. That as a society we are so self-concerned with our small unimportant lives that we can’t see the bigger picture in the universe when it comes to our place in it. At the end of the book Martians happen to oversee the destruction of Earth and comment that it wasn’t actually as bad as they thought it was going to be. Well’s themes like to include evolution, new technology, and prophecies of greatness. After the class discussion we began lecture in which we talked about early Science Fiction writers such as Edgar Allen Poe (the guy who basically created horror as we know it today and detective genre stories), Nathaniel Hawthorne and Jules Verne who are all credited with creating the world of Science Fiction. We touched on the foundry of Science Fiction and how it has deep roots with a lot of the authors in the 1900’s.
Herbert George Wells’ short story, “The Star” is an unique work. The story has no protagonist and no antagonist. H.G. Wells styled the story in the form of a record, with the climax occurring when Earth is ruined. The work starts with reports of a large star on a collision course with the center of the Solar System. This apocalyptic event was described in great detail. Neptune was absorbed by the gravitational pull of this new star, and the people of Earth sat in terror. A terror that increased as the star grew closer. Its effect were seen and felt by the people and the planet. Tidal forces pulled at the Earth like it was water, causing earthquakes. Storms raged across the land. Temperatures soared damaging the biosphere. Eventually the star passed and Earth itself was intact. The death toll was high, however there were some survivors. Meanwhile on another planet, Martians were observing this event with mere curiosity.
The lecture talked about how H.G. Wells wanted its reader to know how small humanity are in the great scheme of things. During a time when Europe thought of itself as the greatest power in the world, Wells introduced a new kind of terror. A terror akin to the terror of god, however this terror is based not on superstition but rather natural laws. I wonder if this terror can be described as sublime.
Themes such as the fantastic voyage, and the Utopian society were introduced in the lecture. Proto-SF writers were also discussed and their contribution to SF as we know it now. This set the pace for future lectures.
“The Star” starts off with the announcement of a planet sized comet is approaching earth. The comet was then described to be growing larger and brighter. This was more like a star. This information was astonishing to humans. People of every class, race, sex, etc. looked up at the sky to get a glimpse of the star. Businessmen stopped writing their contracts, students stopped taking tests, and African people ward off spirits. The beauty of such an astronomical significance had to be recorded. The mathematician professor went home to calculate how much time earth had until possible collision. Even though he could do the computations but stated that the occurrence of this event could never be lost in his mind. Which I thought he had come to terms that this would be the last of the human race. As the star got “near and nearer”, it affected the earth. All the volcanoes awoken from being dormant, the streets cracked and crumbled, and most significantly the polar ice caps melted. At this point the every person was fighting for human survival. The star did not collide with the earth but just passed by. The human race now started to rebuild from this tragedy. Martians/Aliens viewed all this from afar. It was interesting that the humans did not devise a plan to somehow destroy the star. Which possibly gave more meaning of the approaching star.
I thought the lack of a main character was a positive and negative aspect of the short story. Because of no main character, there isn’t a one on one connection with a human thought. On the contrary it contributed to the importance of the event (star).
While reading The Star by Arthur C. Clarke, I was very confused when reading it. I think the fact that there was an unnamed narrator telling the story was the most confusing and I didn’t want to continue reading because there wasn’t a character that I could connect to. I do know that the main character is said to be a Jesuit priest who is having a crisis of faith, but I do think that since I don’t really relate to the main character and I don’t know much about him it adds to how uninterested I am in the story. However, I do think it is interesting how Clarke brought outer space exploration into his story. As well as talking about another civilization being out there besides humans. I don’t have much to say about this story.
ENG 2420
Kevin A. Gaul
05/19/16
After-class Summary: The Star
“The Star”, written by proto-SF writer Herbert George Wells, is the story about the discovery of a star at the end of the solar system, which is on a collision course with the Earth, swallowing up planets on its way. The star was first discovered on New Year’s Day by observatories after noticing that Neptune’s orbit has been altered with. On the third day after its discovery, it has already been featured in newspapers and could be seen with the naked eye, outshining other distant stars. The star eventually engulfs Neptune and appears brighter to observers without visual aid, but closer to scientists at observatories, eventually outshining the moon. A mathematician calculates that the star and Jupiter will affect each other’s path of travel, with Jupiter obtaining a new elliptical orbit and the star’s trajectory being altered towards the Earth. Many people paid no mind to this prediction, and even assume that the star was just a simple comet. It wasn’t until the next morning that everyone noticed the star’s increased size, speed, and intensity after passing Jupiter. Natural disasters started to take place, with the polar ice caps melting, earthquakes, rising tides and flash floods, and volcanic eruptions. Eventually, the star passes by the Earth and heads for the Sun, followed by several weeks of a global rainstorm and residual earthquakes. Civilization lay in ruin and after the passing of the storm, survivors observed the smaller size of the moon and increased size of the sun, due to the passing star pulling the moon slightly farther away from the Earth, as well as colliding with the Sun. Martian astronomers have only noticed the change of the polar ice caps from their perspective as they observed the entire ordeal take place.
The lecture of February 22, 2016 dealt with the discussion of proto-SF writers, such as Edgar Allen Poe, the originator of the Horror and Great Detective stories, Nathaniel Hawthorne, who utilized mesmerism and biological science in his works, Jules Verne, French author, known as the founding father of Science Fiction along with H.G. wells, influenced by Poe, and whose well known works include “20,000 Leagues under the Sea” and “Around the World in 80 Days.” We also talked about the author of “The Star”, H.G. Wells, who was taught by “Darwin’s Bulldog” himself, T.H. Huxley. Wells, also incorporated evolution in his works, as well as other elements such as “Prophecy of Change”, Social Extrapolation, and the celebration/warning of science and technology.
The story ‘the star” was written by H.G Well he was born in 1866 and died in 1946. He was part of a working family and really smart kid, he obtained an scholarship for a science school. He used certain themes for his writing like 1. education is involved on all his stories 2. inventions 3. the prophesy of changes 4. social extrapolations and finally but not least the 5. science and technology.
The story the start was publish in 1897 it was basically about a start that was passing through Jupiter and was considered a danger phenomenon for planet earth. Do to this phenomenon planet earth was in danger to be destroy as well, it seems that the apocalypse had arrive into the planet. At fist people didn’t believe so much about it but as time passed and the seeded how the meteoric got closer to the planet and how the weather and other things started changing hey believe so. Natural disasters started occurring all around planet earth and that could be the end of human civilization. some of this were ice caps melting, earthquakes, rising tides and flash floods, and volcanic eruptions. Many of the specialist were surprise how could the planet earth was able to survive and sustain all the damage that all this different natural phenomenon had leave through their way