Darkness

“Don’t be afraid, the darkness you’re in is no greater than the darkness inside your own body, they are two darknesses separated by a skin, I bet you’ve never thought of that, you carry a darkness about with you all the time and that doesn’t frighten you…my dear chap, you have to learn to live with the darkness outside just as you learned to live with the darkness inside” José Saramago from All the Names

Consumati by Adriano Benocci

Panic

Orson Welles and Mercury Theatre ON THE AIR read “The War of the Worlds” by H. G. Wells

Click above to listen

“Good heavens, something’s wriggling out of the shadow like a gray snake. Now it’s another one, and another. They look like tentacles to me. There, I can see the thing’s body. It’s large, large as a bear and it glistens like wet leather. But that face, it . . . Ladies and gentlemen, it’s indescribable. I can hardly force myself to keep looking at it. The eyes are black and gleam like a serpent. The mouth is V-shaped with saliva dripping from its rimless lips that seem to quiver and pulsate. The monster or whatever it is can hardly move. It seems weighed down by . . . possibly gravity or something. The thing’s raising up. The crowd falls back now. They’ve seen plenty. This is the most extraordinary experience. I can’t find words . . . I’ll pull this microphone with me as I talk. I’ll have to stop the description until I can take a new position. Hold on, will you please, I’ll be right back in a minute.”

In October 30th,1938, the 73rd Anniversary of The Mercury Theatre, the Columbia Broadcasting System radio network aired The War of the Worlds, the dramatization of H. G. Wells’s science fiction novel. Narrated by famed Hollywood icon Orson Welles, the broadcast sent thousands of people into a frenzied panic, as they truly believed marauding Martians had landed at Grover’s Mill, New Jersey and were advancing on New York City.