How could 2 crossed fields polarize and deflect EM radiation

[Harry Klein]

In the 1953 science fiction novel Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke, characters use two crossed fields in outer space to block some of the solar radiation traveling towards earth: “Somehow, out in space, the light of the Sun had been polarized by two crossed fields so that no radiation could pass” (page 12, here's the link: https://books.google.com/books?id=d...ce=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false) I was wondering what is meant when Clarke writes that the radiation was “polarized by two crossed fields.” What are the ways that this effect could be achieved in theory (not necessarily in practice)? Also, I am studying first year college physics, and I am asking this question out of my own curiosity. Thank you very much.

 

[Vanadium 50]

This is pure fiction. This doesn't happen in reality.