H.G.Wells

[Morlocks]

Hello all,
I'm new to this site so I am just going to introduce myself.....Hi!!!
My favourite author of classic Sci Fi is H.G.Wells,although to be fair Wells termed them Scientific Romances.
I will not refer to the Wells classics,of which we all know( or should),but would like peoples opinions on some of the lesser know works,which in my opinion deserve to be more widely read.
My favourites OF these lesser works are as follows:
1.The Wonderful Visit
2.When The Sleeper Awakes( or revised version The Sleeper Awakes)(Dystopian novel)
3.The Food of The Gods(genetics)
4.The Dream(Utopian)
5.Men Like Gods(Utopian)
6.In The Days Of The Comet(Utopian)
7.The Shape of Things To Come(Alt.future History)
8.The World Set Free ( Atomic Warfare)
9.Star Begotten ( Mind altering Ray's...a sort of War of The Worlds follow up).

These are just a handful to start off with,please feel free to share your thoughts on the above or Wells in general.

 

[hitmouse]

Welcome to Chrons.

If you do a search you will find a few HG Wells-related discussions, to which you can contribute, even if they have been dormant for a while.

 

[CupofJoe]

In the Days of the Comet is one of my favourite tales.
& Hello!!!

 

[BAYLOR]

Things to Come the Movie directed by Alex Korda screen play by H G Wells is a favorite of mine. I always assumed that the book The Shape of things toCome was a regular novel . But , I was rather disappointed to find out it wasn't.

 

[BigBadBob141]

Welcome Morlocks, have fun and try not to eat too many Eloi!
Some of his short stories are pretty good.
"The Crystal Egg" a forerunner to War of the Worlds maybe using quantum entenglement!
"The Flowering Of The Strange Orchid", good horror!
" The Country Of The Blind", don't take things for granted!
"The Land Ironclads" predicting tanks and written well before WW1!
And of course his block buster that invented a whole new branch of SF,
"The Time Machine"!

 

[KGeo777]

I just finished re-reading The Time Machine and The Island of Dr. Moreau (that's such a disturbing story).
I have a few more novellas in a collected works book. I have never seen his shorter work though.
I recall a radio show based on "The Country of the Blind" though.

 

[BAYLOR]

I just finished re-reading The Time Machine and The Island of Dr. Moreau (that's such a disturbing story).
I have a few more novellas in a collected works book. I have never seen his shorter work though.
I recall a radio show based on "The Country of the Blind" though.

Empire of the Ants is an interesting story.

 

[Toby Frost]

Moreau is definitely disturbing. It packs so many ideas into such a short book, many of them very surprising and subversive for the time it was written. I think it's one of the best pieces of science fiction I've ever read.

 

[JunkMonkey]

I generally like Wells' SF. I read my daughter War of the Worlds as a bedtime read when she was about 10. The Food of the Gods I reread a few years ago after having read it as a kid back in the 1970s. and found it incredibly turgid stuff as an adult. Lots of sermonising instead of letting metaphor come through. The class divide/struggle metaphor apparent in the Time Machine for example didn't need the relentless bludgeoning that he gives it in the Food of the Gods.

 

[KGeo777]

The Invisible Man is another genius work.
But also the emphasis on isolation and paranoia--being invisible. He explores all sorts of avenues with the idea instead of just going with the most basic approach.
I am intrigued that there was a 19th century equivalent of Walmart for the Invisible Man to shop in.

The ending has a nice irony to it--that thanks to writing it in code, the formula for his experiment is invisible.

 

[Guttersnipe]

From first to last, I've read

The Time Machine (1895)
The War of the Worlds (1898)
The Invisible Man (1897)

I recall owning a big book containing: The War of the Worlds; the script of, and recording for, the Orwell radio play; and information on Mars Attacks! cards (on which it's based) as well as info on the Great Moon Hoax of 1835, which was really interesting. Then I sold it.

The Time Machine is one of my favorite novels. I don't think I could stand watching a new film based on it, because I'll just keep asserting that I alone could make an adaptation that I'd like.

It's a bit difficult to say why I liked The Invisible Man, but it may be because it's a cozy mystery and it's a bit more imaginable (imo) than the other two.

I would like to read

The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896)
The First Men in the Moon (1901)
The Wonderful Visit (1895)
The Sea Lady (1902)

 

[Toby Frost]

I always liked the practicality of The Invisible Man, and the suggestion that being invisible isn't really all that good after all.

 

[KGeo777]

I finished re-reading War of the Worlds. There were a few things I forgot--one was that the Martians were not completely destroyed.
I assumed they were extinct by the end of the story. They went to Venus. Maybe it is due to the movie versions but there's an assumption they be utterly destroyed by Nature or God for daring to attack the Earth or some kind of Divine retribution or Darwinian "survival of the fittest" concept--but that's not it at all. Another thing--while he does talk about colonial wars in the early part of the story he also mentions a comparison to ants or rabbits. He's not merely making a parable about colonialism--it is more philosophical and profound than that.


It's a basic theme of "different strokes for different folks but big surprises come in little packages!"

 

[JunkMonkey]

I finished re-reading War of the Worlds. There were a few things I forgot--one was that the Martians were not completely destroyed.
I assumed they were extinct by the end of the story. They went to Venus. Maybe it is due to the movie versions but there's an assumption they be utterly destroyed by Nature or God for daring to attack the Earth or some kind of Divine retribution or Darwinian "survival of the fittest" concept--but that's not it at all. Another thing--while he does talk about colonial wars in the early part of the story he also mentions a comparison to ants or rabbits. He's not merely making a parable about colonialism--it is more philosophical and profound than that.


It's a basic theme of "different strokes for different folks but big surprises come in little packages!"

He was also tapping into a then prevalent undercurrent of fear of invasion (of Britain) by foreign ( mostly German) powers. There was a lot of this 'Invasion Literature' around. Wells' book was particularly good and introduced (invented!) the SF element and applied it to what was - if not a mainstream then certainly a popular - trope.

 

[Don]

"The Crystal Egg" a forerunner to War of the Worlds maybe using quantum entenglement!

A 2001 television series called The Infinite Worlds of H. G. Wells adapted (among others) "The Crystal Egg" and "The New Accelerator" (my own nomination for this thread). "The New Accelerator"' uses a hypophosphite preparation to stimulate a subject's nervous system. The participant then moves about at an accelerated pace while everything else in the the world appears almost stationary. (The world actually moves at a much slower pace.)

 

[BigBadBob141]

"The New Accelerator" sounds like the forerunner to "The Flash" comic strip, wonder if anyone else had this idea before H.G.!

 

[KGeo777]

He was also tapping into a then prevalent undercurrent of fear of invasion (of Britain) by foreign ( mostly German) powers. There was a lot of this 'Invasion Literature' around. Wells' book was particularly good and introduced (invented!) the SF element and applied it to what was - if not a mainstream then certainly a popular - trope.

But fear of invasion is not a finite concern.
It still exists today more than ever.
It is probably a biological reaction or instinct of some kind. Your home turf being disturbed or the dangers of conflict and change.

What is the plot of Beowulf? A village under threat of invasion.
What is the Iliad about? A city under threat of invasion.

I think classic literature usually has an idea within it about exceeding one's limits--the dangers of going beyond your limits or too much passion.
Moby Dick is about someone who lets his passions go to extremes and the dangers of going outside your turf.

"Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature
will allow." Frankenstein

 

[JunkMonkey]

But fear of invasion is not a finite concern.
It still exists today more than ever.

Definitely not a finite concern - and whether it exists more now than it did at any other time is debatable. You may feel threatened by some 'other' group of humans but not everyone does. How do you measure that kind of 'threat?' by possibly looking at the popular culture - or the culture that is popular - of the time. Sometimes the fear of invasion is more part of the zeitgeist and differently directed than at others. The 'enemy' changes. And the popularity of fiction dealing with it changes. Sometimes it's more sellable than others - whether by populist politicians or mass market paperback writers. In the 1950s, in America, it was 'Reds under the Bed' that were the threat. Joe McCarthy rode that pony as hard as he could and so did Hollywood as it churned out no end of thinly-disguised Alien (Commie!) Invasion films in which the invaders took over 'real' (ie White American) people and looked 'just like us' while sapping our vital bodily fluids.

Then the fuss died down, fashions changed, and we all got obsessed by some other threat to our collective psyche. (Next up: Nuclear War!) These days I would suggest the threat that is uppermost in the collective minds is not invasion from outside but from the entrenched power structures already in place. The unaccountable Multi-Billionaires and their politician puppets using 5G vaccine nano-technology to turn us all into drones. (Total bollocks but a LOT of people believe it.) That's the fear driving people at the moment. Michael Crichton fuelled fear of tech. People used to trust their own governments and scientists and mistrust other people's. Now they don't seem to trust their own either.

My (badly made) point was that Wells was riding a tide.

 

[KGeo777]

Definitely not a finite concern - and whether it exists more now than it did at any other time is debatable.

I think art most definitely has a biological component--in the creation and the reaction to it.
So fear of invasion--and it's not fear of being eaten by Germans--it's a fear more basic and primitive. An animal biological competition.

Dracula was about an invasion-and I think the popular concept of Dracula is still that of a scary invader and he's attacking the vulnerable in the society.

That despite decades of romantic Draculas and attempts to make it a theme of "the misunderstood Other."
The trouble with that is that it leaves out the side of those who are negatively impacted by the Other.
Wells did not leave that out.


Star Trek is all about seeking relationships with the Other, and not being afraid of going outside of your home territory. But, what is considered the scariest Star Trek adversary? The Borg. And what do they do? They invade, they destroy the identities of the societies they invade--they absorb them--all distinctiveness and independence is removed.
You end up as a genderless automaton with no emotions or concerns. Your existence is to serve the collective.
Whether intentional or not, the Borg tap into that primordial uneasiness about invasions and lack of control and loss of self-determination.

Even if the media focuses on the exotic--Doctor Who is an example--he's the benign alien who will save humanity--just as Superman was the benign alien who will save humanity--and I can think of a couple of religious figures in history who come from a foreign land and are set up as the savior of everybody in neighboring nations and tribes.
Michelangelo had to give them a face-lift so they resembled someone in the neighborhood but it's not that far removed from how, when Superman comes to Earth, he doesn't have green skin.

It's also reflected in the difference between say, The Thing From Another World and the Day the Earth Stood Still. The latter suggests the alien is the savior--while the former had the alien as a danger. The latter suggests putting faith in machines is a good idea--while the former suggests that trusting science too much is not a good thing.
Two different philosophies, and yet they co-exist in the culture.
I think the latter is harder to find in pre-20th century art.

 

[JunkMonkey]

I think art most definitely has a biological component--in the creation and the reaction to it.
So fear of invasion--and it's not fear of being eaten by Germans--it's a fear more basic and primitive. An animal biological competition.

Dracula was about an invasion-and I think the popular concept of Dracula is still that of a scary invader and he's attacking the vulnerable in the society.

My point exactly. Dracula was first published in 1897 - the same year as War of the Worlds. Both were tapping into the same zeitgeist.

With the Borg. They're not scary because they are invaders per se. They are scary because they 'assimilate'. That scariness would work whether they came from without or within. But the mechanics of setting up an authoritarian threat to self-determination and lack of control coming from within the Trekverse is beyond the capabilities Star Trek's writers. Not their fault. They were constrained by the formula. They didn't have the room to construct long story arcs to deal with the complexities of have such a threat come from within the idealized world Gene Roddenberry spent so long creating. The threat had to come from outside so the tedious perfection of Star Fleet could be preserved and the Enterprise could be threatened by something new next week.

It's scarier when it comes from inside - Babylon 5 did it well and took the time to do it.