Cultural References
In literature, Woking (or, more precisely, its suburb Horsell Common) is where the Martians first land in the science fiction novel The War of the Worlds. The novel's author H. G. Wells was living in Woking when he wrote the book, and much of the early story is set in the area. The novel, which centres around an alien invasion of Earth, is notable insomuch as its 1938 radio broadcast in the United States caused mass hysteria when many listeners believed that an actual Martian invasion was in progress.
Douglas Adams describes Woking in The Deeper Meaning of Liff (ptcbl. vb.) as:
- Standing in the kitchen wondering what you came in here for.
In music, "Town Called Malice" was written about Woking by Paul Weller and recorded by his band The Jam. The song reached No. 1 in the UK Charts.
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Famous quotes containing the word cultural:
“They’re semiotic phantoms, bits of deep cultural imagery that have split off and taken on a life of their own, like those Jules Verne airships that those old Kansas farmers were always seeing.... Semiotic ghosts. Fragments of the Mass Dream, whirling past in the wind of my passage.”
—William Gibson (b. 1948)