Classics Club (The Time Machine)

Finally got around to reading *and finishing* the H.G. Wells novella "The Time Machine." It's always a lot of fun reading precursors to my favorites and to popular concepts. Like Dracula, modern references and allusions are illuminated in a much more meaningful way. This scene from Big Bang Theory, for example:

I read this book to pay my respects to Wells as the "grandfather to modern science fiction" (also, I loved The Island of Dr. Moreau). I wish I had read The Time Machine earlier in my literary exploits since I have been spoiled with modern concepts of time travel (Asimov) and dystopian societies. Thus, reading The Time Machine felt almost like reading a children's book. His prose was engaging and his narrative skill was exceptional but the ideas were simple and easy to understand.... Still, the only reason the ideas seemed so simple was because they have been floating around for more than a century. For example, his first chapter introduces the fourth dimension as time and as a basis for time travel--an idea once undelivered to Victorian England but somewhat antiquated to the 21st century.

Aside from science fiction ideas, Wells also illustrated an idea of "devolved" humanity in 800,000 A.D. against The Time Traveller's whimsical notions of human progress. Wells' sociopolitical views were well-represented: that we as a society aim towards progress and comfort, which eliminates the needs for intelligence and physicality. As a result, humanity is in danger of propelling towards an unintentional suicide. It was all very Darwinian and hinted towards the proliferation of the 'natural selection' concept among Wells' contemporaries.

I hold a lot of similar ideas I would want to incorporate into my future writing--and these thoughts are of course descendants of early sci-fi.... but I have yet to develop a knack for conveyance of these ideas. I have much to learn from these early storytellers.

Final thoughts: I marathoned a couple episodes of Bones yesterday. The show has excellent use of an FBI psychologist to drive forward the emotional and psychological aspects of this show. But my favorite part is that Sweets (the psychologist) has his own depth of character. It is said of Sweets and his book, 'like most writing, his book reflects more upon the writer than the content he is writing about.' I thought that was very true and I thought about more, if and when I ever embarked on my own writing, what would be reflected...

Currently Reading: The Time Machine (H.G. Wells, 1895)
Currently Listening: Bad Blood (Taylor Swift ft. Kendrick Lamar)
Vocab Recap: recondite