Finish reading The Time Machine by H.G. Wells and respond to the discussion question on the class bulletin board: What is something that the Time Traveler learns throughout his travels and what is something that the reader learns?

-- Anonymous, February 11, 2005

Answers

In this story the time traveller learns that humanity will wither because of our own abilities and adaptations. We reach the point where we do not need to think or advance anymore and because of that we fall back. This book is a good insight for the reader of the fears and ideas of the time wells. During this time there was a lot of social questioning. The ideas of Marx had spread to many people, which also made for anti-socialist movements. This book in my opinion is very anti-socialist/communist/marxist because it shows what happens when society reaches this economic and social state of perfection. The Eloi on top lived in peace and prosperity, the morlocks are in a state where their beings and lives are around machines and the underground. Then we see what happens when this society stagnates and degenerates.

-- Anonymous, February 12, 2005

In his travels, one thing the Time Traveler learns in my opinion is the value of love. (Yes, how terribly corny, I know.) He strikes me as a man of science, a bachelor who was content to be alone save for the company of his male friends. In meeting Weena, he discovers how wonderful the simple love and devotion of another can be, and how having your life bound to someone else's is a rewarding experience. I believe Weena's death is partially to blame for his disappearance in the Epilogue--part of me thinks that he wanted to perhaps go back again to the future to try and save her from the Morlocks. (Or maybe I'm just sentimental.)

I think that the reader learns is the mortality of humanity. The Time Traveler went traveling into the future expecting to find a world very different from his own but with aspects of human control in it that he could relate to. Instead he found a parasitic society with the Morlocks feeding on the Eloi and neither species more "human" than the other. I believe that in recognizing that Morlocks and Eloi were the fallen descendants of his own Mankind we begin to grasp how futile and insignificant all the inventions and discoveries of the day are--in a few thousand years, they won't mean a thing.

-- Anonymous, February 12, 2005

I think the Time Traveler learns the pain of causing death and the pain of losing someone you love to it. Weena's death takes a toll on him, as does the fire he creates that kills Morlocks. Arguably, the strain from these two events is what causes him to disappear into the time continuum at the end of the novel.

I think it's hard to say whether or not the reader learns anything from this book other than things about the attitudes of the time period in which it was written. Debatably, Wells could be said to have dim view of human nature in that half of the populus will evolve into, quite frankly, ninnies, while the others shift into barbaric monsters.

I would like to note, though, that Wells did...well in choosing a time so far in the future as his target, as it allowed him to make up whatever he wanted.

-- Anonymous, February 12, 2005

The Time Traveler learns the value of companionship. It doesn't seem as if the men with who he discusses his discovery with are cloase friends. They are argumentative and very skeptical fo his time machine, even after seeing it in action. The Time Traveler was a loner and eccentric scientist before he found Weena. He feels a resonsibility to her. This is why he takes her on his missions at great danger to his life and hers when he could have just as easily left her behind.

The reader learns to not automatically dismiss new scientific discoveries just because they sound fantastical. Great geniuses are often rejected as lunatics because what they propose is unconventional for the time period. I was watching MIB yesterday, and Tommee Lee Jones' character says to Will Smith, "--- years ago, people 'knew' the earth was the center of the universe... Imagine what people will 'know' tomorrow." The men at the begining seem to "know" time travel isn't possible.

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2005

I like this story as a sort of social commentary (check out Will's post, too) on the dangers of complacency. Note Wells' choice of character: the scientist could be content to simply crank out practical doodads and get rich, but he pursues radical (and laughable, to his contemporaries) inventions for, i don't know, his own gratification (that's not really the best term for it, but it's all i can come up with - he does it because he likes to push his limits). In contrast, Wells shows a world where people have abandoned any effort in favor of a static lifestyle of indolence. As Frank Herbert said, "That way lies stagnation. That way lies death." The Time Traveler goes in for the "Barbaric Yawps" of life - he lives to push the limits.

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2005

I think that the Time Traveler learns that life is not supposed to be spent doing nothing but research and observations and that exploration is important, no matter the outcome. The Time Traveler spent a long time (ha ha ha) creating his machine, but he probably never actually expected it to work. I think he finally learned that life consists of actions, which all have consequences.

I think that the reader learns that mankind is complicated and it has many flaws. The race that was once the upper class becomes free from cares and has all of their needs seen to but they become complacent because they have been without problems to solve for so long. The other race becomes a race of underground engineers who eat the flesh of the Eloi. It is a reversal of the fortunes of the Eloi, who once controlled the air supply for the Morlocks to keep them working. It leads the reader to the idea that humans can never accomplish a perfect society and that while neither of these races are fully human, they are the extremes of human nature and reside within humans even now.

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2005

First I'd like to lay a curse on greenspun.com for being busy when I wanted to post, on Friday.

The time traveler learns the value of a flawed world. If you accept his hyupothesis we are defined by our suffering. Conflict makes us (as a race) stronger unfortunately that is with the sacrifice of individuals. This interesting, it kind of reminds me of The Architect in the "The Matrix".

What the reader learns is how time really is a forth dimension. As human being we are constrained by gravity and therefore cannot rise above the earth's surface without machines. The same applies to time. We can jump off the ground only briefly and likewise we can travel back in time only briefly by remembering. I for one had never heard it explained so well.

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2005

I think the Time Traveler learned something about the nature of geniuses and truth--how even the brightest, most ambitious, and miraculous people may even be disbelieved when what they say seems impossible to their listeners. Only the Narrator "belived" him, and that was sort of faint until the Epilogue. I can only suppose the Time Traveler is left up their with Galileo and the rest.

Something the reader learns is the vitality of structure, I think...that may sound sort of cumminist; that's not how I mean it. The Eloi preserved nothing and did not assist each other, and so they swiftly became prey to natural forces as well as the Morlocks. The Morlocks at least had more of a pack mentality and order to them, which enabled them to focus and survive. Had the Eloi or their forefathers preserved knowledge such as how to make a simple torch, their species would have been much more fit and capable to live in their environment. (Moral: Keep your Physics notes).

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2005

The Time Traveler learns great respect for the tools of his time. He had to 'economize' his goods that he happened to have. Matches were invaluable in the story. Fortunately, he had food and drink, but he was a little low on supplies.

The reader learns that they should be much more thankful for what they have today. Things we have everyday, beds, clothes, matches (Josh), and toilet paper, are extremely valuable, and we take them for granted. Another thing learned is that you should bring a camera when going to another time. What kind of non-boss kid forgets everything but matches when time traveling?

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2005

The time traveler learns what truly separates the human race of our time from the two types creatures they become. The Morlocks and the Eloi both have and lack certain characteristics of human beings. The Eloi are kind and capable of compassion, like today's humans, yet they lack any initiative (which is what Para said separated humans from everything else in "Surface Tension"). The Morlocks still maintain some vestiges of human civilization (such as their machines), and they do not lack initiative as the Eloi do. However, their farmer-cattle relationship with the Eloi betrays their lack of deep human emotion, as well as that there is no odium in connection with cannibalism.

As the readers, we learn about the ideas that were going around Europe in the early twentieth century. Wells, who had some socialist connections, shows what he believes to be the ultimate result of the social and economic divide between the aristocrats and the workers. The aristocrats (Eloi) come to depend so much on the workers (Morlocks) that the Morlocks are eventually able to completely control them. It is like a complete reversal of the class system. Communism is also mentioned by the Time Traveler in passing, though it is hard to discern what Wells felt about communism. Sorry if this post is a bit long. By the way, if anyone wants to read a different (but in some ways similar) view of what is to come and the decline of the human race, you can read the short story "Twilight." It is in our Science Fiction book, and Matt Bugbee and I will be presenting on it sometime this quarter.

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2005

I think the Time Traveler learned what to "live" is. He can't accept this upper-world where all the people do is live, science, war, and religion are completely gone, it's innocence and live. It's too simple for him to accept.

The reader learns to appreciate science. Much like Tom said. What if Wells is right and it all goes backwards. They have a new respect for science through the Time Machine and the Time Traveler and science in general, things like matches they now appreciate.

Ror

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2005

One thing the Time Traveler learns is that most people (even your 'friends') won't accept anything you say without proof. This was seen in how only one person from the group of listeners actually believed him.

One thing the reader learns is how small and insignificant your life is in comparison to the whole history of the world. The Time Traveler could easily have spent the entire story in any one of the thousands of years he passed. Each of those years which meant everything to the people in them was skipped by him in a matter of seconds.

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2005

The Time Traveller learns not to take things at face value, like the seeming utopia of the Eloi in the beginning. Thinking humanity had achieved the perfect balance, the actual state of the talking livestock and their beastly cultivators is loathesome.

The reader learns that humanity's current goals may not be as good as they now seem, especially that of seeking comfort and dominion over Nature. From my limited sci-fi reading, I've picked up that much of the genre is aimed at making changes in society now for the benefit of the future, and Wells' story seems to do be one of those stories, warning against the dangers of both decadence and increasing class distinctions.

-- Anonymous, February 14, 2005