Lies from Outer Space: The Martians’ Famous Invasion of New Jersey

Over the course of time, people have been told many lies concerning the Red Planet. Maybe the most renowned one dates back to the late 1880s, when, owing to an error in translation, scientists were led to believe in the existence of canals on its surface – canals instead of channels – which meant th...

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Autor principal:	Alessandra Calanchi
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN ES FR IT
Publicado:	LED - Edizioni Universitarie di Lettere Economia Diritto 2021
Materias:	martians orson welles radio america lying. Philology. Linguistics P1-1091
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/726d1424ed0b422089c9a32c771813e5
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id	oai:doaj.org-article:726d1424ed0b422089c9a32c771813e5
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:726d1424ed0b422089c9a32c771813e52021-11-16T14:54:33ZLies from Outer Space: The Martians’ Famous Invasion of New Jersey2281-89521724-869810.7358/ling-2021-002-calahttps://doaj.org/article/726d1424ed0b422089c9a32c771813e52021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ledonline.it/index.php/linguae/article/view/2414https://doaj.org/toc/2281-8952https://doaj.org/toc/1724-8698Over the course of time, people have been told many lies concerning the Red Planet. Maybe the most renowned one dates back to the late 1880s, when, owing to an error in translation, scientists were led to believe in the existence of canals on its surface – canals instead of channels – which meant that Mars must be inhabited. More recently, in 1976, a lively discussion arose about the “face on Mars”, something that was spotted by the Viking 2 spacecraft in the region of Cydonia and was later dismissed as a mesa whose unusual shadows had cheated the eye. But the biggest lie of all was told in 1938, when a young actor (Orson Welles) decided to play a Halloween trick with the help of the then-rising medium – the radio. It was not really a lie in the strictest sense of the term. It was not a hoax or a fake, either – it was, in narratological terms, what is commonly called the suspension of disbelief pushed to its extreme. In this essay I am going to reconsider this event mainly in the light of two main conditions concerning lying, namely untruthfulness and the intention to deceive. Our specific case is further complicated by a third factor, that is the fact that somebody lies to someone who is believed to be listening in but who is not being addressed. I will also highlight the aftermath of this mass deception which, despite being followed by a number of disclaimers, actually overturned the utopian portrait of Martians, initiating a long literary and filmic theory of alien invasions.Alessandra CalanchiLED - Edizioni Universitarie di Lettere Economia Diritto articlemartiansorson wellesradioamericalying.Philology. LinguisticsP1-1091ENESFRITLinguae &. Rivista di Lingue e Culture Moderne, Vol 20, Iss 2, Pp 49-62 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN ES FR IT
topic	martians orson welles radio america lying. Philology. Linguistics P1-1091
spellingShingle	martians orson welles radio america lying. Philology. Linguistics P1-1091 Alessandra Calanchi Lies from Outer Space: The Martians’ Famous Invasion of New Jersey
description	Over the course of time, people have been told many lies concerning the Red Planet. Maybe the most renowned one dates back to the late 1880s, when, owing to an error in translation, scientists were led to believe in the existence of canals on its surface – canals instead of channels – which meant that Mars must be inhabited. More recently, in 1976, a lively discussion arose about the “face on Mars”, something that was spotted by the Viking 2 spacecraft in the region of Cydonia and was later dismissed as a mesa whose unusual shadows had cheated the eye. But the biggest lie of all was told in 1938, when a young actor (Orson Welles) decided to play a Halloween trick with the help of the then-rising medium – the radio. It was not really a lie in the strictest sense of the term. It was not a hoax or a fake, either – it was, in narratological terms, what is commonly called the suspension of disbelief pushed to its extreme. In this essay I am going to reconsider this event mainly in the light of two main conditions concerning lying, namely untruthfulness and the intention to deceive. Our specific case is further complicated by a third factor, that is the fact that somebody lies to someone who is believed to be listening in but who is not being addressed. I will also highlight the aftermath of this mass deception which, despite being followed by a number of disclaimers, actually overturned the utopian portrait of Martians, initiating a long literary and filmic theory of alien invasions.
format	article
author	Alessandra Calanchi
author_facet	Alessandra Calanchi
author_sort	Alessandra Calanchi
title	Lies from Outer Space: The Martians’ Famous Invasion of New Jersey
title_short	Lies from Outer Space: The Martians’ Famous Invasion of New Jersey
title_full	Lies from Outer Space: The Martians’ Famous Invasion of New Jersey
title_fullStr	Lies from Outer Space: The Martians’ Famous Invasion of New Jersey
title_full_unstemmed	Lies from Outer Space: The Martians’ Famous Invasion of New Jersey
title_sort	lies from outer space: the martians’ famous invasion of new jersey
publisher	LED - Edizioni Universitarie di Lettere Economia Diritto
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/726d1424ed0b422089c9a32c771813e5
work_keys_str_mv	AT alessandracalanchi liesfromouterspacethemartiansfamousinvasionofnewjersey
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Lies from Outer Space: The Martians’ Famous Invasion of New Jersey

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