Spooked: Chapters 3–4

by Gail Jarrow
In 1938, Orson Welles performed a radio version of H.G. Wells's science fiction novel The War of the Worlds — and inadvertently sparked panic among listeners who believed they were tuned in to a real news broadcast about an alien invasion. This award-winning book tells the story behind the broadcast and explores the effects of false information in the media.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Chapters 1–2, Chapters 3–4, Chapters 5–7, Chapters 8–11, Dear Mr. Welles–Chapter 12, Dear FCC–Hoaxes
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. condense
    make more concise
    The men soon discovered how difficult it was to condense a novel into sixty pages, the average script length for a one-hour program.
  2. spellbinding
    attracting and holding interest
    From his years performing on radio dramas, Welles understood that the actors’ voices and their words must be spellbinding.
  3. simulate
    give a false appearance of
    For the first show, Dracula, Welles simulated the sound of a stake being driven through the vampire’s heart by cracking open a watermelon with a hammer.
  4. guillotine
    instrument of execution used for beheading people
    In A Tale of Two Cities, when the guillotine chops off a head, the sound effects team hacked a cabbage with a cleaver.
  5. ventriloquist
    a performer who projects the voice into a wooden dummy
    The Mercury’s radio dramas weren’t as popular as the programs featuring comedian Jack Benny, ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his dummy Charlie McCarthy, or Major Bowes and his Amateur Hour performers.
  6. preliminary
    preceding or in preparation for something more important
    Each week, he directed the broadcast’s preliminary rehearsals.
  7. monotonous
    tediously repetitious or lacking in variety
    But Koch hated the dreary, monotonous work.
  8. competent
    properly or sufficiently qualified, capable, or efficient
    To give him a hand, Houseman loaned Koch his competent secretary, twenty-four-year-old Anne Froelick.
  9. fateful
    having momentous consequences; of decisive importance
    It turned out to be a fateful decision.
  10. grave
    causing fear or anxiety by threatening great harm
    “The world went in ignorance of one of the gravest dangers that ever threatened the human race.”
    —H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds
  11. serial
    a periodical that appears at scheduled times
    He wrote a friend: “I’m doing the dearest little serial for Pearson’s new magazine, in which I completely wreck and destroy Woking—killing my neighbours in painful and eccentric ways.”
  12. eccentric
    conspicuously or grossly unconventional or unusual
    He wrote a friend: “I’m doing the dearest little serial for Pearson’s new magazine, in which I completely wreck and destroy Woking—killing my neighbours in painful and eccentric ways.”
  13. abreast
    being up to date in knowledge
    Throughout his writing career, he stayed abreast of new ideas and discoveries by corresponding with researchers and reading scientific papers.
  14. telepathic
    communicating without apparent physical signals
    The creatures communicated with each other telepathically.
  15. annihilate
    kill in large numbers
    The invaders annihilated anyone who got in their way with a deadly Black Smoke and incinerating Heat-Rays.
  16. incinerate
    become reduced to ashes
    The invaders annihilated anyone who got in their way with a deadly Black Smoke and incinerating Heat-Rays.
  17. cultivate
    adapt something wild to the environment
    They cultivated a Red Weed that obliterated the landscape.
  18. obliterate
    do away with completely, without leaving a trace
    They cultivated a Red Weed that obliterated the landscape.
  19. torrent
    an overwhelming number or amount
    "The main road was a boiling stream of people,” Wells wrote, “a torrent of human beings rushing northward, one pressing on another.”
  20. writhing
    moving in a twisting or snake-like or wormlike fashion
    The lethal Black Smoke that left "men choking and writhing on the ground” portended the poison gases used two decades later during World War I.
  21. portend
    indicate by signs
    The lethal Black Smoke that left "men choking and writhing on the ground” portended the poison gases used two decades later during World War I.
  22. forerunner
    something that precedes something or someone
    The fighting machines ("boilers on stilts”) looked like taller forerunners of NASA’s Apollo 11 lunar module from the 1969 Moon landing.
  23. module
    detachable compartment of a spacecraft
    The fighting machines ("boilers on stilts”) looked like taller forerunners of NASA’s Apollo 11 lunar module from the 1969 Moon landing.
  24. eon
    an interminable period of time
    The fourth planet from the Sun has stirred the imagination of humans for eons.
  25. notion
    a vague idea in which some confidence is placed
    The notion of canals sparked the imagination of American amateur astronomer Percival Lowell (1855-1916), who claimed to have seen the lines through his telescope.
  26. deduce
    conclude by reasoning
    Lowell deduced that when the planet’s oceans dried up, the Martians built a system of canals thousands of miles long to move water from the polar ice caps to dry areas.
  27. conceive
    have the idea for
    "Certainly what we see hints at the existence of beings who are in advance of, not behind us, in the journey of life,” Lowell wrote in his 1895 book. "What manner of beings they may be we lack the data even to conceive.”
  28. skeptical
    marked by or given to doubt
    Most professional astronomers of the day were skeptical, believing the “canal lines” were optical illusions.
  29. fervor
    the state of being emotionally aroused and worked up
    But the vivid descriptions in the popular books by Lowell and his fervor in public lectures convinced millions of people for years to come that Mars was home to intelligent life.
  30. premise
    a statement that is held to be true
    He didn’t believe in brainy Martians, though he recognized the premise of a winning story.
Created on Wed May 01 13:25:58 EDT 2019 (updated Wed May 01 13:47:36 EDT 2019)

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