"Liw, Liw, Liw, Liw, Liw Liw, Liw
You look - a real keen
Even though you are green
With those big large heads
Something off of the movie screen
Liw, Liw, Liw, Liw, Liw Liw, Liw"
Little Green Men
lyrics [rap?] by Steve Vai
"Before them stood a little man about the same size as the
Munchkins. He was clothed all in green, from his head to his
feet, and even his skin was of a greenish tint. At his side was a
large green box."
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
by L. Frank Baum
How do we know that the aliens, or martians,
are little green men?
Some clorophyll (or mint green) on their skin?
The tradition of green Martian skin seems to have been started
by Edgar Rice Burroughs in his Barsoom series, which began
with A Princess of Mars in 1912 and continued over the next 30 years.
In these books, the protagonist fights numerous Martians of various
skin colours, one of which was indeed green.
Prior to Burroughs, and even long afterwards, there was no tradition
within written science fiction that Martians were of any specific colour.
H. G. Wells, in his seminal The War of the Worlds (1898), describes
the Martian skin as "oily-brown" and Edwin Lester Arnold,
in his classic Lieutenant Gulliver Jones: His vacation (1905),
assumes Martians to be completely human-like.
The popularisation of the greenness of all sorts of aliens,
not just Martians, can probably be put down to the imaginations
of the creators of early science fiction film posters.
Given black and white film to work from, they could come up
with whatever colours they liked. Often they picked green as
the most alien--and, presumably, by its association with death
and decay, the most horrifying-- of skin colours.
This was reinforced in Britain at least by the Dan Dare strip in
the Eagle comic, which ran from 1950 to 1969.
The hero's most frequent opponent was the green-skinned Mekon.
The Mekon was, of course, from Venus.
STEWART LLOYD
Brigg, North Lincolnshire
The answer lies in what Martians represent and the emotional
reactions they evoke.
Since Martians are portrayed as radically different forms of life,
it is important to make them visually distinctive and quite different
from anything familiar. The easiest way to do this, while still crafting
them as humanoid in shape and intelligence, is to change the colour
of their skin.
Green is also a colour associated with phosphorescence,
a magical quality suitable for creatures that we hold in wonder,
awe and fear. It is also associated with things that have decayed,
evoking disgust and wariness.
These emotional associations are quite important. The glow-in-the-dark
association evokes curiosity and strong fear. How many films show
scientists in protective suits approaching a captured Martian who
emits light in a radioactive manner?
MAGDALENE ADDICOAT
North Adelaide, South Australia
The anatomy of a green man
http://www.freeweb.pdq.net/tangor/erbmania/anatomy/gmanatomy.html
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