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A review by dracoaestas
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
4.0
This book was assigned for a lit class, so I'll be a bit analytical in my review, and there will be some spoilers.
First, I thought this was much better than the other Wells book I've read, The War of the Worlds, likely because it was simply more to my tastes. It was a pretty quick read--the short length and quick pacing combined with the 19th-century language was perfect.
In a later essay, Wells himself called The Time Machine a "glimpse of the future that ran counter to the placid assumption of that time that Evolution was a pro-human force making things better and better for mankind." This was, I thought, the most fascinating aspect of the book. Early studies of evolution and biology used "chains of being" that ranked humans as dominant in some kind of natural hierarchy, but Wells, who studied Darwinian evolution, disputed this. The Time Machine exemplifies this in an unsettling and profound way, with humans having eventually diverged into two species, an herbivorous one and a subterranean, carnivorous one which preyed upon this other variety. Neither form retained the technological or cultural prowess of humans in Wells' time.
I personally found myself speculating happily about the chain of events that led to this evolution. The Time Traveler, though offers his own hypotheses, which I think should be viewed with some suspicion. The Time Traveler, despite his genius, is exemplary of human hubris. He does not temper his curiosity with humility, and this makes him arrogant (we see him make a few completely false assumptions about the humans 800,000 thousand years in the future, so why should his final one be true?). His actions also lead to negative consequences many times. His unthinking arrogance should be obvious right away: he doesn't consider that he might emerge in a new time inside a solid object (since his machine doesn't move) until after he starts it.
Wells' exploration of an evolution that doesn't favor humans any more than anything else concludes with the Time Traveler visiting the last ages of the dying Earth, where he sees a red ocean with a shoreline dominated by enormous crab-like animals and algae-coated rocks. As he continues in time, all life disappears save the algae. This is pretty realistic, especially for the time in which it was written. The Time Machine is, therefore, incredibly bold and challenging.
The message I chose to take from this book is that humans are not necessary. We should temper our own actions with humility and respect.
First, I thought this was much better than the other Wells book I've read, The War of the Worlds, likely because it was simply more to my tastes. It was a pretty quick read--the short length and quick pacing combined with the 19th-century language was perfect.
In a later essay, Wells himself called The Time Machine a "glimpse of the future that ran counter to the placid assumption of that time that Evolution was a pro-human force making things better and better for mankind." This was, I thought, the most fascinating aspect of the book. Early studies of evolution and biology used "chains of being" that ranked humans as dominant in some kind of natural hierarchy, but Wells, who studied Darwinian evolution, disputed this. The Time Machine exemplifies this in an unsettling and profound way, with humans having eventually diverged into two species, an herbivorous one and a subterranean, carnivorous one which preyed upon this other variety. Neither form retained the technological or cultural prowess of humans in Wells' time.
I personally found myself speculating happily about the chain of events that led to this evolution. The Time Traveler, though offers his own hypotheses, which I think should be viewed with some suspicion. The Time Traveler, despite his genius, is exemplary of human hubris. He does not temper his curiosity with humility, and this makes him arrogant (we see him make a few completely false assumptions about the humans 800,000 thousand years in the future, so why should his final one be true?). His actions also lead to negative consequences many times. His unthinking arrogance should be obvious right away: he doesn't consider that he might emerge in a new time inside a solid object (since his machine doesn't move) until after he starts it.
Wells' exploration of an evolution that doesn't favor humans any more than anything else concludes with the Time Traveler visiting the last ages of the dying Earth, where he sees a red ocean with a shoreline dominated by enormous crab-like animals and algae-coated rocks. As he continues in time, all life disappears save the algae. This is pretty realistic, especially for the time in which it was written. The Time Machine is, therefore, incredibly bold and challenging.
The message I chose to take from this book is that humans are not necessary. We should temper our own actions with humility and respect.