Mars Fever - Dr Williams

Question 1

What prompted the fever?

Answer 1

-discoveries made by more powerful generation of telescopes

Question 2

What was discovered in 1877 and by who?

Answer 2

-Italian astronomer Schiaparelli 1877 discovered geometric network of ‘canali’ on mars surface

Question 3

What did Schiaparelli’s discovery bolster?

Answer 3

-bolstered theories of fellow astronomers might be alien intelligence on mars

Question 4

What did the discovery lead to?

Answer 4

-people misunderstood ‘canali’ (lines) as canals
-believed intelligent life on mars which escalated with publication TWOTW

Question 5

Who was Lowell and what did he suggest in his writings?

Answer 5

-1894 astronomer Percival Lowell wrote for popular astronomers magazines
-captured public attention with arg Martian canals meant intelligent life on mars

Question 6

What did Lowell believe humans should do with this information?

Answer 6

-believed humans embrace newfound consciousness of immaturity as opportunity for change
-life on mars place us in new external perspective of cosmic humanism

Question 7

What would Lowell’s theory administer if proven correct?

Answer 7

-a cosmic shock - second copernican rev that would decanter humanity place in universe
-promote humans to among primitives of universe

Question 8

What happened with ‘space travellers’ in sci-fi novels from 1894?

Answer 8

-conformed vic imperial adventure stereotype
-emerge from encounter with extraterrestrials with sense superiority triumphantly confirmed

Question 9

How is this different in TWOTW?

Answer 9

-Martians came as conquerors of space + threaten the imperial subject
-alien colonial intervention irrevocably change evolutionary conditions on earth