painkiller64
Avoid A Void
Those who have never seen a living Martian can scarcely imagine the strange
horror of their appearance. The peculiar V-shaped mouth with its pointed
upper lip, the absence of brow ridges, the absence of a chin beneath the
wedge-like lower lip, the incessant quivering of this mouth, the Gorgon
groups of tentacles, the tumultuous breathing of the lungs in a strange
atmosphere, the evident heaviness and painfulness of movement, due to
the greater gravitational energy of the earth—above all, the extraordinary
intensity of the immense eyes—culminated in an effect akin to nausea. There
was something fungoid in the oily brown skin, something in the clumsy
deliberation of their tedious movements unspeakably terrible. Even at this
first encounter, this first glimpse, I was overcome with disgust and dread.
—H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds (1898)
horror of their appearance. The peculiar V-shaped mouth with its pointed
upper lip, the absence of brow ridges, the absence of a chin beneath the
wedge-like lower lip, the incessant quivering of this mouth, the Gorgon
groups of tentacles, the tumultuous breathing of the lungs in a strange
atmosphere, the evident heaviness and painfulness of movement, due to
the greater gravitational energy of the earth—above all, the extraordinary
intensity of the immense eyes—culminated in an effect akin to nausea. There
was something fungoid in the oily brown skin, something in the clumsy
deliberation of their tedious movements unspeakably terrible. Even at this
first encounter, this first glimpse, I was overcome with disgust and dread.
—H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds (1898)
