Woking Walker

August 9, 2008 6:24 PM

"Once the tripods start to move, no more news comes out of that area..." Fortunately Michael Condron's tribute to The War of the Worlds, put up on its centenary, will continue to remain in place....

But just in case, Mr. Condron has some microbes at the ready to help take the thing out....

posted by Kronos_to_Earth (21 comments total)

Oh, wow. That's great!
posted by brundlefly at 6:28 PM on August 9, 2008

it’s a fucking tripod from the war of the worlds

No, Fucking's in Austria. The tripod's in Surrey.
posted by Smart Dalek at 6:43 PM on August 9, 2008

I love this, but my favorite three-legged war machine is still the strider, new-fangled as it may be.
posted by OverlappingElvis at 7:23 PM on August 9, 2008

There are no human words to describe how much I want that in my front yard.
posted by billypilgrim at 7:25 PM on August 9, 2008

Has anyone read H.G. Wells' WotW, as an adult, with a critical eye? It's pretty bad. But Orson Welles' 1938 radio broadcast adaptation is brilliant. That's mainly why it's so popular.
posted by stbalbach at 7:45 PM on August 9, 2008

Here's another one in Chicago.
posted by stavrogin at 7:46 PM on August 9, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

A truly awesome sculpture, but I can't help thinking that the leg joints should be motorized; unable to walk, but able to continually shift position- solar powered of course. Definitely doable, but the hydraulic animatronics would not be cheap. (Sigh) Where's my @#$% Jet Pack?!! (grumble)
posted by vurnt22 at 7:48 PM on August 9, 2008

Has anyone read H.G. Wells' WotW, as an adult, with a critical eye? It's pretty bad.

I haven't, but I've noticed that "badness" is a trait of a lot of scifi written before a certain time - very pulpy. A lot of fascinating stories were written by people who had mindbogglingly unique ideas but not very great literary skills. Part of the charm.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 8:38 PM on August 9, 2008

Has anyone read H.G. Wells' WotW, as an adult, with a critical eye? It's pretty bad.

The worst part is it's so derivative.
posted by dhartung at 8:43 PM on August 9, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

unique ideas

The core of WotW is right out of the Invasion Literature genre which was popular in the period between the Franco-Prussian and WWI. I thought WotW reads like an imitation of the 1871 Battle of Dorking, except instead of Martians it's Germans. And Dorking is more enjoyable and more influential, but few read it anymore.
posted by stbalbach at 8:44 PM on August 9, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

Pff. Pitiful fools all, WotW is awesome.

Especially when drawn by D'Israeli.
posted by Artw at 8:50 PM on August 9, 2008

Kevin O'Neill does a not-bad tripod as well...
posted by Artw at 9:08 PM on August 9, 2008

I saved this dramatic depiction (and this one too) a while back for occasional use to decorate the desktop.
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 10:10 PM on August 9, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

Has anyone read H.G. Wells' WotW, as an adult, with a critical eye?

Yeah. Nice set pieces, but some of it is tediously didactic (especially the long lecture from the artilleryman near the end), plus the ending is a huge deus ex machina. I didn't know until recently about the 2005 Paragon Pictures movie version that went straight to DVD. It's maybe a curiosity, but looks worth checking out as the only version so far to retain the original setting.
posted by raygirvan at 6:58 AM on August 10, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Heh, I was just there last week. Just a bit further along the street they also have a fighter plane. The local Weatherspoon pub is H.G. Well's themed.
posted by sebas at 8:56 AM on August 10, 2008

I'm already a tripod.

Right, ladies?
posted by turgid dahlia at 2:56 PM on August 10, 2008

raygirvan - seriously, that version makes anything Ed Wood ever made look like the greatest films ever made. Its astonishingly bad, check out the IMDB page. It is utterly unwatchable, believe me I've tried.

As regards the book - I finished it today funnily enough. I'm no literary critic but I enjoyed it. I know the story because of the Jeff Wayne musical which actually encompasses most of the story elements. It was much better than the Spielberg film, but then so is the Jeff Wayne version.

What I fail to understand is why someone doesn't film it as per the book, but with a decent budget and a professional crew! Sure it needs a bit of tidying, and no fucking Americanisation or Dakota Fanning, set it in Woking and the original locations, could be fantastic.
posted by daveyt at 3:59 PM on August 10, 2008

I think I remember the team behind it trying to pull of somekind of online review stacking scam, and failing badly.
posted by Artw at 4:04 PM on August 10, 2008

I came to the comments wondering if Metafilter would be able to turn an incredible urban art installation into pretentious, pedantic whining, and stbalbach, dhartung, and raygirvan did not disappoint.

But thanks, Kronos_to_Earth, for posting this. I want to go to Woking now just to see this.
posted by ducksauce at 7:21 PM on August 10, 2008

I'm in a bad mood tonight, so I'm going to chastise you, ducksauce.

Ready?

Okay, here we go - fuck you and your preconceived prejudices. Besides, stbalbach was making an ironic observation regarding the fact that so much of science fiction is derivative of Wells' work (irony - it's not just for spoons and knives any more) instead of a pedantic whine. Unlike you.

You jerk.
posted by yhbc at 7:35 PM on August 10, 2008

Seconded. Plenty of other people praised the art installation, so there was little point in another "me too", and I've recommended it elsewhere along with the Metafilter post. As to the book, just because it's iconic doesn't make it immune to critique. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Book II vastly improved the ending.
posted by raygirvan at 7:20 AM on August 11, 2008