7 Followers
This is one of these books that you finish and then you sit there not really knowing how to go on with your life. The report of the future that the Time Traveller gives his audience is jarring and depressing. Man has divided into two species - the beautiful, simple Eloi and the nocturnal, light-fearing Morlocks. All that is left of human society and its classes is a relationship of necessity between cannibals and human cattle. The hopes of the Time Traveller are that mankind will progress - after all, things really look promising at the end of the 19th century - but centuries into the future, and then millennia into the future, he finds that humanity has died out, that the very earth goes down in darkness, that the world and perhaps even the universe perishes and degenerates. The ambition and brilliance of mankind - all but a fleeting, petty dream. Yet the story ends on a positive note - no matter how nobility and strength and intellect might whither, kindness and affection remain even in the remote future. But is it that positive, when you really think about it? The Eloi were kind and affectionate. Perhaps that was the very thing that marked them out as human cattle in the first place. Apart from that, it was beautifully written. Wells did not seek to amuse and entertain the reader by bombastic adventures. The charm and suspense of his story comes from inner reflection, from speculation, from trying to make sense of this new world, and thus directly appealing to the reader's own curiosity and interest. It's shock comes not from showing, but from anticipating. From hoping and fearing. From being disgusted and pleased alike at the silent and beautiful and cruel world of 802,701.
May 21, 2025
This is one of these books that you finish and then you sit there not really knowing how to go on with your life. The report of the future that the Time Traveller gives his audience is jarring and depressing. Man has divided into two species - the beautiful, simple Eloi and the nocturnal, light-fearing Morlocks. All that is left of human society and its classes is a relationship of necessity between cannibals and human cattle. The hopes of the Time Traveller are that mankind will progress - after all, things really look promising at the end of the 19th century - but centuries into the future, and then millennia into the future, he finds that humanity has died out, that the very earth goes down in darkness, that the world and perhaps even the universe perishes and degenerates. The ambition and brilliance of mankind - all but a fleeting, petty dream. Yet the story ends on a positive note - no matter how nobility and strength and intellect might whither, kindness and affection remain even in the remote future. But is it that positive, when you really think about it? The Eloi were kind and affectionate. Perhaps that was the very thing that marked them out as human cattle in the first place. Apart from that, it was beautifully written. Wells did not seek to amuse and entertain the reader by bombastic adventures. The charm and suspense of his story comes from inner reflection, from speculation, from trying to make sense of this new world, and thus directly appealing to the reader's own curiosity and interest. It's shock comes not from showing, but from anticipating. From hoping and fearing. From being disgusted and pleased alike at the silent and beautiful and cruel world of 802,701.
May 21, 2025
