At the time Welles wrote the book, the pun was always 'the man in the moon' meaning the face seen from Earth on the moon. Who knows what the thought may have been as to what the moon could be?
Quite surprised there was no Doctor Who-ing going on and the bright moon seen up in the night sky wasn't actually a door way with the giant man in the other side looking out at us.
Despite gpoor's idiom being correct, it is actually this ^^
"The man in the moon" was a famous phrase at the time, I'm not sure why, Victorians just thought or joked that the moon had a man inside it that watched over us. The book title is in reference to that idea.
Ya Kirk-loving Spocksucker!
Despite what they have told us, in my 65 years, I've never seen "The man in the Moon".
Other than this movie.
how about the fact that one of them was a woman
suzycreamcheese RIP Heath Ledger 1979-2008
In the 19th century, "men" and "mankind" was inclusive, and included women (and children, although nobody seems to complain about that one!) as part of "mankind", unless there was some reason to separate them out as "men, women, and children". "Inclusive" language really didn't much exist before the 1970s, except in collective nouns and the like. So those people were definitely the first men in the moon. And besides, First Persons In the Moon doesn't quite have the same "man in the moon" ring to it, and First Two Men and a Woman In the Moon sounds like some kind of romantic comedy.
As a side note on inclusive terms: I'm always amused by how, in France, if you have twenty women on a bus, they are called passagères ("passengers", feminine). If ONE man gets on the bus, the whole lot are then called passagers ("passengers", masculine). If the man gets off the bus, the rest are again called passagères ("passengers", feminine). It works the same in Spanish, and is pretty difficult to avoid as there is no "it" gender in either language.
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Currently watching: 60 Minutes (1968)
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"Oh, well," said Zanoni, "to pour pure water in the muddy well does but disturb the mud!"
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Because the action does indeed take place within the moon!
Have you even seen the film?
Interestingly enough, the title screen for the movie places the word "in" inside of the moon to try and point out that they're going inside of the moon rather than remaining on top of it.
HG WELLS'
FIRST MEN((IN))THE MOON
It's kinda tacky, kinda clever. I gotta be honest, I wouldn't have noticed that it was "in" instead of "on" were it not for that particular gesture.
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Because they go into the moon.
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