Roswell and the aliens invading since

[gabriel alexander]

We all heard about Roswell. A weather blob fell off the sky and the locals, after seeing materials unknown to them until then and the army surrounding the place, they thought that aliens landed in their peaceful town. Some people still believe that. And it's no surprise that ever since then, aliens keep invading us, in books like Puppet Masters by Robert Heinlein and movies like Independence day. While it's true that HG Wells wrote War of The Worlds way before that, the subgenre had lift-off after Roswell. What say you? Am I right or not?

 

[Klystron]

Mostly correct, Gabriel. In the USA between WWI and WWII popular actor/writer/director Orson Welles produced an amazing audio play broadcast on popular radio based on "War of the Worlds", so convincing that some listeners actually believed New Jersey was under attack from Mars. Many alien invasion SF movies followed, then popular SF television shows in later decades.

Roswell remains an icon of the alien invasion sub-genre not least because several military veterans were associated with the original incidents and later stories, lending rueful credence to the rumors and speculation. Military members and veterans can be as credulous as civilians.

Consider also the story of the Hill abduction. Barney and Betty Hill related their story -- curiously similar to then contemporary SF teleplays and print fiction -- in such a straightforward low-key manner as to capture the imaginations of many believers and launch the sub-sub-genre of alien abductions.

[Edit 20200222: Corrected spelling of Orson Welles. AFAIK no relation to H.G. Wells ]

 

[member 656954]

Alien invasion tropes were probably more a sign of the times in late 1940s onwards, with post-WWII kicking almost straight into the Cold War with the threat of nuclear annihilation as well as Communism. In that regard, Roswell played into the theme, rather than starting the theme.

 

[Ibix]

The SF author David Brin noted that "alien encounters" have a lot in common with older stories of elves and fairies. They come from just beyond where we've traveled and are associated with strange lights in the dark. They aren't evil, really, but their motives and ethics don't necessarily take your wellbeing into account. They sometimes offer knowledge, and they frequently do things that are vaguely or explicitly sexual. They're often associated with stories of lost time.

I think Brin has a point.

 

[Ibix]

Orson Welles produced an amazing audio play broadcast on popular radio based on "War of the Worlds", so convincing that some listeners actually believed New Jersey was under attack from Mars.

I read somewhere (excellent citation, I know) that it worried older listeners more than younger ones, because a lot of the younger ones asked themselves why The Shadow was reading the news.

 

[profbuxton]

If aliens are so smart why do they abduct stupid people?
Any aliens out there (or here) have no need for any abduction or interaction with us since they can get all the info the need from Google or Wikipedia.
I have my own theory re aliens, fairies, UFOs and any other such phenomenon which involves parallel universes but that's another story

 

[Keith Mackie]

Many years ago Analog Magazine published a spoof on Roswell. Not only was it extremely funny, it was so good it was almost believable. The core of the plot involved an airforce base somewhere near Roswell where they were testing the then new Viking rocket - a sort of Americanised V2. It wasn't big enough to put a man in the nose so they decided to send up a chimp instead. When the time came they couldn't get it into its space suit so they shaved and greased it first. When the rocket came down near Roswell the locals were treated to the sight of a very irate, shaven chimp scampering across the desert. The rest is history.

 

[DEvens]

If aliens are so smart why do they abduct stupid people?

Lack of choice.

 

[phinds]

If aliens are so smart why do they abduct stupid people?

They don't want attention. You'll notice that they always manage to land in the South pasture of a pig farmer who doesn't own a camera. You think that's an accident?

 

[Klystron]

I read an interesting book shelved in the Statistics section of the library written by a retired Midwest math teacher. The book correlated crop circles and cattle mutilations with local human demographics; the latter always matched with teen aged males in the household. Not unlike poltergeist and teen girls; alien mutilators seem to favor cutting cattle owned by ranchers with disgruntled teen boys.

The considerate aliens also wait until after harvest before cutting crop circles in the stalks.

 

[Ibix]

One of Iain Banks' books has a minor plot point being that Earth does have one feature that's likely to be rare - a moon that's almost exactly the same angular size as its star when viewed from the surface. It suggests that total solar eclipses might be a tourist attraction for aliens...

 

[DennisN]

The SF author David Brin noted that "alien encounters" have a lot in common with older stories of elves and fairies.

I've heard similar things from other sources, but I don't remember from where at the moment (it could very well be from some psychology sources). I'll have a look on the net and see if I can find something about it.

 

[DennisN]

I'll have a look on the net and see if I can find something about it.

I didn't find any direct comparison to elves and fairies, but I found an interesting article about the psychology of "close encounters" with many references. The first part of the article describes the various degrees of encounters (1-4), and I didn't read that part thoroughly, but further down is a psychological discussion with many references. It starts with the following quote:

Although many psychologists and psychiatrists would disagree with Mack’s conclusions, there is little doubt that alien abduction claims constitute an intriguing phenomenon in need of explanation. It is certainly the case that speculation on this topic far outweighs actual empirical evidence, yet there is enough of the latter to support plausible psychological explanations for the majority of alien abduction and contact claims without any need to involve ET. We should be very wary, however, of proposing any kind of ‘one size fits all’ blanket explanation for such a rich and multifaceted phenomenon: for the interested reader there are numerous detailed reviews covering a wide range of psychological factors (e.g. Appelle, 1996; Appelle et al., 2014; Baker, 1992; Bartholomew & Howard, 1998; Blackmore, 1994; Brookesmith, 1998; Devereux & Brookesmith, 1997; French, 2001; Holden & French, 2002; Newman & Baumeister, 1996, 1998; Randle et al., 1999; Rutkowski, 2000; Showalter, 1997; Spanos, 1996).

Article: https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-28/october-2015/close-encounters-psychological-kind (by Christopher C. French, published 2015 in The Psychologist, The British Psychological Society)

 

[Whipley Snidelash]

I think you would be wrong. I think there was a lot of science fiction written before then. Roswell probably helped proliferate flying saucer stories and movies but I don’t think it propelled science fiction much

 

[Whipley Snidelash]

Every one of the 35 Science Fiction stories in a book I mentioned in another thread in this forum is from before 47. Aliens in alien invasion’s were common in science fiction before 47. Campbells Black Star series, Smith’s Lensman series, both about aliens trying to take over our civilization. The Thing (Who Goes There), before 47. The day the Earth stood still (Farewell to the Master) also before 47.