The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

I was 14 years old when I read The Time Machine for the first time and it blew my mind right out of the clear blue sky. Until then I had always seen the future as inevitably linked to man’s continued technical progress. It was a mind-altering experience to see a possible future where man would not only stop evolving but de-evolve.

Of course, once I was over the greatest shock I realized that there was a great flaw in Wells’ plot, i.e. man’s desire to journey into space. The mysteries of the Earth may be finite, but the mysteries of the universe are infinite and out there just waiting for us to come and find them. There would always be new challenges urging us on and I wasn’t worried that Wells’ future would come true.

Growing older (and hopefully wiser) I saw that there was a deeper element to the story. In the book man invents machines that can do anything and he stops thinking for himself. Having everything handed to you on a silver platter could actually kill your curiosity and your exploring spirit. That would mean that the drive itself is gone and thus it matters not the multitude of mysteries out there. Even today some people just don’t have any spirit for adventure. They are happy just being comfortable and cringe at any hint of imagination. What if these people would be all of humanity? (oh the horror!!!)

A literary theorist would probably also pounce on the split of the human race in Wells’ book. Maybe not the fact that the Eloi were content to let the Morlocks do all the work and have none of the comforts; but rather that by splitting the wild and primitive part from the intellectual part the latter loses its drive and passion (both being primitive emotions).

Actually literary theory bores me these days and so I’m not going to dive more into this aspect. I just loved the book when I read it. I read it again about three years ago and it was nearly as good then. The book has almost everything you need to keep a good science fiction story going. I may even dig it up and read it once more this summer.