LAB Science Fiction - file 01
The Future of Humankind – H. G. Wells (1) [Related Post]
“The Time Machine” (Oxford World's Classics) (1895) by H. G. Wells
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Surprisingly, H. G. Wells (1866–1946) wrote this monumental, very impressive science fiction at the end of the 19th century (1895). It's yet a decade earlier than Albert Einstein (1879–1955) published the special relativity in 1905, and then the general relativity in 1915.
Read the full article on Brainwashed!
“I am afraid I cannot convey the peculiar sensations of time travelling. They are excessively unpleasant. There is a feeling exactly like that one has upon a switchback — of a helpless headlong motion! I felt the same horrible anticipation, too, of an imminent smash. As I put on pace, night followed day like the flapping of a black wing. The dim suggestion of the laboratory seemed presently to fall away from me, and I saw the sun hopping swiftly across the sky, leaping it every minute, and every minute marking a day. I supposed the laboratory had been destroyed and I had come into the open air. I had a dim impression of scaffolding, but I was already going too fast to be conscious of any moving things. The slowest snail that ever crawled dashed by too fast for me. The twinkling succession of darkness and light was excessively painful to the eye. Then, in the intermittent darknesses, I saw the moon spinning swiftly through her quarters from new to full, and had a faint glimpse of the circling stars. Presently, as I went on, still gaining velocity, the palpitation of night and day merged into one continuous greyness; the sky took on a wonderful deepness of blue, a splendid luminous color like that of early twilight; the jerking sun became a streak of fire, a brilliant arch, in space; the moon a fainter fluctuating band; and I could see nothing of the stars, save now and then a brighter circle flickering in the blue.” (Chapter 3, The Time Machine)
“Really this is what is meant by the Fourth Dimension, though some people who talk about the Fourth Dimension do not know they mean it. It is only another way of looking at Time. There is no difference between Time and any of the three dimensions of Space except that our consciousness moves along it.” (Chapter 1, The Time Machine)
Fourth Dimension
Block Universe – Eternalism
Mechanisms of Time Machine
Evolution of Humankind – Eloi and Morlocks
“It was not for some time that I could succeed in persuading myself that the thing I had seen was human. But, gradually, the truth dawned on me: that Man had not remained one species, but had differentiated into two distinct animals: that my graceful children of the Upper-world were not the sole descendants of our generation, but that this bleached, obscene, nocturnal Thing, which had flashed before me, was also heir to all the ages.” (Chapter 5, The Time Machine)
● The Eloi
● The Morlocks
Relationship – Perverted Symbiosis
“Then I thought of the Great Fear that was between the two species, and for the first time, with a sudden shiver, came the clear knowledge of what the meat I had seen might be. Yet it was too horrible!” (Chapter 7, The Time Machine)
Weena’s Death – the Last Ray of Humanity
“I walked slowly, for I was almost exhausted, as well as lame, and I felt the intensest wretchedness for the horrible death of little Weena. It seemed an overwhelming calamity. Now, in this old familiar room, it is more like the sorrow of a dream than an actual loss. But that morning it left me absolutely lonely again — terribly alone. I began to think of this house of mine, of this fireside, of some of you, and with such thoughts came a longing that was pain.” (Chapter 9, The Time Machine)
Read the full article on Brainwashed!
Further reading (sponsored by Amazon):
● Claire Tomalin (2021). The Young H. G. Wells: Changing the World. 269 pages. Penguin Press.
● Claire Tomalin (2021). The Young H. G. Wells: Changing the World. 269 pages. Penguin Press.
