Reading:
I started this on May 27, 2005. I have read this long ago -
probably when I was in High School. I finished it on May 28, 2005.
Specs:
Wells, H.G, The Time Machine,
Written 1898. This is the Gutenberg Project
version, and there is no printed book.
Overview:
The book is devoid of names for the most part. The protagonist is
called "the time traveler" and it is written in the first person,
first a friend who attends a telling of the story by the time
traveler, then the time traveler himself.
The time traveler talks about time as the fourth dimension. He
builds a time machine, but no one will believe it will work. He does
a trial run of a few hours, then goes forward to date 802701. There
he finds a peaceful people, the eloi, and at first thinks this is the
end of man - to lose intelligence, but to live in peace and
harmony. However, he discovers that they are afraid of the dark. In
the dark a second species descendant from
man comes out, the Morlocks. The morlocks are, it appears, eat eloi,
and the eloi have, as the book suggests, the peace of cattle on a
peaceful hillside.
At first, the time traveler runs around with the eloi. But his
time machine is stolen, and from the tracks he can see it has been
drug into a huge statue. The rest of the story is about his attempt
to recover his machine.
He meets Weena, who he saves from drowning, and she starts to
follow him around. Later he investigates a huge building that turns
out to be an abandoned (apparently) museum. This is about 18 miles
from where he starts, and he is able to find some things that are
familiar there, such as dinosaur bones. Unfortunately, on the trip
back he is attacked by Morlocks, and Weena is lost. (I suspect this
was not intended as a love interest.)
Upon returning, he discovers the statue is open, and his machine
is there, so he goes to it. The door closes while he is still trying
to replace the parts he took off to prevent others from using it. He
is attacked by Morlocks, and in the struggle finishes replacing the
parts, and he takes off, and the Morlocks, of course, disappear.
He goes far into the future, noting how the sun goes into a red
giant (although he doesn't call it that). The moon disappears, and
the Earth looses its rotation. There is some life, but not much.
Earth is loosing its atmosphere.
At this point, he returns to his laboratory, and stumbles into the
supper he had planned. He had left at 10 AM, and returned at 8:00
PM, but had had eight days worth of experience in that time. Of
course, no one believes him, but "I" return the next day. The
time traveler is making ready for a trip, this time with a camera and
a backpack, and promises to return in a matter of half an hour, but
"it has been three years now" and I don't know whether he will or
not.
Quotes and comments:
Just starting this, I can really appreciate H.G. Wells. He kept
up to day on his physics. He refers to time as the fourth dimension,
which wasn't common in Physics until about 1920. In addition, he
talks about Communism before the communist revolution. He talks
about genetic engineering, but he doesn't
understand how this will be done. Remember that Mendelson's work
was not "discovered" until about 1900. That is, the research was
done in the 1830's, and the results published, but the scientists
didn't understand or appreciate his work until 1900. (These comments
are in the first four chapters.)
Quote: "Very simple was my explanation, and plausible enough--as
most wrong theories are!" which is how he ends chapter four, after
giving an explanation of why people had become so gentle, etc.
Finally, even the idea that the sun will eventually grow into a
red giant is ahead of its time.
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