What would be motivation of Aliens?

[Truman]

So they just decided to set the dome over the city? Why would they do that, some kind of weird experiment?

[Pucker]

Some people step over bugs on the sidewalk, while others go out of their way to step on them . . . and even yet others don't even notice them at all.

Why?

Because if there were one -- and only one -- way to think, we'd end up killing each other out of boredom.

[omm poppa mow mow]

Emily wrote these lines, something like, parting is all we know of heaven, and all we need of hell. So, yeah, an experiment sounds like a reasonable explanation. What kind of thoughts....there's been a few threads about "thoughts" on the board of late...what kind of thoughts are trapped beneath your "dome"? Remember the Johnny Cash song: I fell in to a burning ring of fire, I fell down down down, and the flames went higher, and it burns burns burns, this burning fire.

Johnny is the man. The man in black. He never wore bright colors on his back.

When I was a little heathen I used to take black ants, and red ants, and place them in a jar. Budding serial killer that I was, I was fascinated that the ants seemed to mimic life as I knew it. We never get off the playground, friend, and the red and the black seems to be our lot in life. (The red whipped arse.)

How many have "thought" that one day they'll wake up and find out it was all some sort of cosmic joke? As if we're stuck under a dome and how far from reality is that? And why? And who? And so on and so forth.

[GNTLGNT]

Ever see kids collect bugs in a jar? Same concept...

[Sigmund]

Hello, Sir.

If I am not mistaken, the 'alien children' were simply playing. Like Earth children 'play' by stirring an anthill with a stick. Or catch fireflies.

(Again, this is just my take on it. We humans believe we are the highest evolved species in the world as we know it. In UtD we realize that there are other beings bigger and greater than us. And just as we take those that are smaller weaker or 'lesser' and 'play' with them, these aliens saw Earth as we do an anthill and just for giggles or just to see 'What happens if I do X?' they placed a dome over part of our world (anthill). When the alien child saw the people struggling to live and pleading for help the alien child felt compassion (remorse?) and removed the dome.)

I hope that made some kind of sense. It worked in my head.

Peace.

[Alexandra19]

Hi,

It seems that aliens, just like girls in Cindy Lauper's mind, just wanna have fun.
And well they had... And so did we !

[sknut70]

did you read the book? the motivation was explained.. and it was a central theme.


if not here it is in a nutshell: the EPA needs to contain the pollution of springfield! jk jk

[Lencho_of_the_Apes]

I can't remember if the quotation was referenced in UtD, but that whole scenario always reminds me of some lines from King Lear:

As flies to wanton boys are we to th' gods,
They kill us for their sport.

We all float down here.

[doowopgirl]

What everyone else said. Kids playing, nothing else. But I SO loved the vibe of American politics in microcosime.

[blunthead]

What I really love about the revelation of the Dome is it's specific, deliberate, nothing vague about it, nothing so other-worldly as to be no earthly good. sK makes it clear, but clever so it's an interesting surprise. That takes vision, guts, artistic know-how and confidence. He could've gotten too scientific, or he could've decided to leave it to the reader (he knew better, it would've been a cop-out in this case, imho). The ending fit: on Earth, mankind naturally doing our neverending warfare of good vs evil; somewhere else, children naturally playing their universal games.

[AndyDufresne]

This quote by Arthur C. Clarke is very poignant to the story too:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

The characters in the story (and we, the readers) think something supernatural and important is happening because we simply do not know what causes the Dome to appear. The reveal might be an anticlimax story wise (there's is no real big pay-off at the end) but when you take it in for a moment, it perfectly makes sense. Not everything happens for a reason, or: not everything that happens has a clearly defined meaning behind it. It's a human trait to seek more significance behind certain events because we sometimes cannot fathom that some things just happen. That's what I love about the novel the most, actually. The entire "community is isolated and goes to hell" has kinda been done to death (though it's still enjoyable in the way King writes his version), but the ending is what pays off the best, I think.

[J.T. Adams]

Ever see kids collect bugs in a jar? Same concept...

GG, that's it. Nail on the head.

[Truman]

Hello, Sir.

If I am not mistaken, the 'alien children' were simply playing. Like Earth children 'play' by stirring an anthill with a stick. Or catch fireflies.

(Again, this is just my take on it. We humans believe we are the highest evolved species in the world as we know it. In UtD we realize that there are other beings bigger and greater than us. And just as we take those that are smaller weaker or 'lesser' and 'play' with them, these aliens saw Earth as we do an anthill and just for giggles or just to see 'What happens if I do X?' they placed a dome over part of our world (anthill). When the alien child saw the people struggling to live and pleading for help the alien child felt compassion (remorse?) and removed the dome.)

I hope that made some kind of sense. It worked in my head.

Peace.

Hi, this definitely makes sense. Thank you.

[jcadams]

My thought was this. I can so see my kids doing this, and their reason would be, "It seemed like a good idea at the time."

[Se7inhand]

Seems like I remember the alien kids saying "You're not real.", implying that they considered it a video game of sorts.

[BoogieWoogie]

This is a great point, blunthead. And I'm glad I'm not alone on it. If King would have made the explanation of the dome vague I would have considered it a cop-out. And a cop-out is not what a 1000+ page book needs.

[heismyking]

Ah!..Someone turned the tables on us. How long have we put others under a dome and watched in amusement? The shoe was on the other foot here. That is what I thought.

[jparker1332]

Exactly. Little heathens. LOL.

[Chris1974100]

I am more afraid of humans than the aliens

[doowopgirl]

I love all these views. UTD I always considered a great read until the end. Now, I'm looking at the ending entirely differently. This what I love about the SKMB!

[GNTLGNT]

....plus, the aliens knew if they played this right...CBS would option at onset, a 13 episode network TV series....:laugh: