The story is about several scientists in the Amazon. They discover alien lifeforms, which they eventually determine to be from Mercury. These lifeforms thrive in a dry climate, and since it is the dry season, they are able to spread. There are several battles between the humans and aliens, and eventually the aliens seem destined for victory. Then it starts to rain. The aliens are driven back, and severely injured. Finally, when the rain stops, the scientists are able to cleverly communicate to them just exactly how wet Earth is, and convince them to leave for Mars. A clever story, and while it doesn't quite hold up to modern SF, for 1931 it is very impressive. However, the last line ruins it for me.
Water and Earth seemed to be synonymous, and we were perfectly at ease in that dangerous element. For all that, they, the tetrahedra of Mercury, could "kill" it, which by inference, we could not. They weren't going to admit defat, by Man of water, but this was a big Solar System. We could have our soggy Earth! They were going to Mars!
Up from behind the wall of "killed" water rose two great, glorious pearls, marvelously opalescent in the rays of the setting sun - up and up, smaller and smaller, until they vanished into the deepening blue above the Andes. Ironically, it began to rain.
Now, had they ended with, "It began to rain", "Fittingly, it began to rain", "and as they vanished into the deepening blue above the Andes, the Earth began to weep", "seemingly on cue, it began to rain". He could have left the last sentence off entirely, and it would have been a better ending.
4 comments:
I recall an extremely similar story as a radio play... X minus one most likely. In this case the hero builds a radio that operates on super-high-frequencies no one else has managed. He befriends aliens who desire to meet, but they tell him water is deadly. He invites them to his house as there is no water nearby, but they turn out to be tiny and their saucer-sized (and shaped, one presumes) spacecraft lands in a puddle in his front lawn and they all die. THE IRONY!
While this use of "ironically" may not be exact, it's better than "fittingly." The point is that the rain that could have destroyed the tetrahedra starts up only after the tetrahedra are leaving.
I would say then that the author could really pick any adverb to make whatever point that are trying to make. I think the point of "ironically" is that if the rain had started earlier, the plot would have been greatly simplified. However, I think this was a lazy choice. The author had the full range of English adverbs to choose from, maybe not "fittingly", but pick something poetic and relevant and make a point of it.
Thanks for this summary. I saw an illustration of this story on the net, from Wonder Stories and I was curious to know what was the story.
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