After reading The Time Machine,
what
strikes me as tremendously amazing is H.G. Wells' mental capacity to invent
such thoughts and at the time when he did so.
At the beginning
of the 20th century when the technological explosion hadn't even begun
to happen, this author was capable of creating books, and in particular
The
Time Machine, involving situations which are viable nowadays.
Comparing Wells with any author of today, on the threshold of the 21st century and experiencing the scientific and technological way of life, it makes it even more difficult for me to accept this man's range of imagination.
Apart from showing a reflection of his social and political ideas, the book tends to be a cruel satire, describing what he saw as the future of the industrial and capitalist civilization; the conflict between Morlocks and Elois reflect the distinction between the classes which was typical at the end of the 19th century. In the book, the distinction would be shown through the Elois as the capitalists living on ground level, and the Morlocks as the proletariats living in the subterraneous parts.
I think that this book is great, incredible... his imagination of inventing the time machine to travel to the future is, as I said before, hard to believe. Also, his descriptions and comparisons show a very wide scope of creativity of ideas, and of what he thought the future was going to be like.
One can be led to understand how humanity can reach such a deplorable state,
as Wells describes, due to the rat race that we are living in,
- where the majority
of people fight for their own capitalistic gains, not caring who they thrust
aside in the attempt.
It is even more deplorable
when we see the example of the Morlocks resorting to cannibalism,
as depicted by Wells.
Obviously there is
great exaggeration in the whole novel, even the date we are projected to
is year 802.701. I agree with him in part. I can not agree with such
total decadence of the human race, maybe because I do not want to. Yes,
there are extreme situations even now, the fossil fuels and natural resources
on this planet are depleting, but the way the ecological interests and
movements are fighting to save the earth, gives us all as individuals the
right and the obligation to do our bit now.
As I have been saying, I found the topic fantastic but extreme, as I also found the vocabulary, where I can honestly say I had great diffficulty ploughing through, especially at the beginning.
Finally, I would suggest that you do read the book and make your own conclusions,
which if you publish on a web page one day in the near future, not in the
year 802.000, (I might not be around then) I would be most interested to
see what you think, as I have been doing - navegating around Internet,
reading other people's opinions too.
This page is mantained by Carol Martinez Humphreys.
Here you can find more information about The Time Machine:
http://mural.uv.es/agoboy/
http://mural.uv.es/crisbapu/