A reflection on Time Machine, by H.G. Wells.
“Nothing remains interesting where anything may happen.” -H.G. Wells.
The key to successful world-building is a set rules. In novels with fantastical elements, the talent displayed in good literature is not about what an author includes, it’s about what the author excludes. Anyone can write a novel with sentient cacti and fire-breathing dogs. The difficulty is connecting those fantastical elements to a set of logical rules that give the novel credibility. Although the world of Harry Potter is rife with magic critters and confusing potions, the limit of what those in the wizarding world are able to accomplish is what gives it an illusion of credibility. Harry Potter wouldn’t be nearly as believable nor entertaining if every wizard could do any spell at any time without any difficulty. It’s the limits which make a story believable and science fiction introduces a new kind of limit.
Time Machine is a novel by H.G. Wells, which tells story, as the title suggests, of a time traveler and his adventures. This book has been hailed as the first time traveling book, and one of the foundations for the genre of science fiction. In the preface H.G. Wells talks about limits in fiction. He says that the limit that decieved readers into believing fantasy throughout history was magic. It was magic that would have the reader make an assumption, be held under the illusion of that assumption, and enjoy the book while the illusion held. But on the turn of the 20th century, he noticed that it became more difficult to squeeze this belief out of magic. To convince people to believe in the impossible, he needed a new foundation for that illusion. The decline of belief in magic, not coincidentally, coincided with the emergence of technology such as the steam engine, telephone, and electricity. It was from this industrial revolution that H.G. Wells found an appropriate foundation to limit these books of fiction: science. Thus the birth of the modern notion of the science fiction genre.
H.G. Wells manages to make a story of time traveling, nocturnal humanoid creatures, massive crabs, and glittering sphinxes believable. Under the assumption that science can make the impossible possible, the impossible becomes believable, and a compelling fantasy plot is born. I was hooked in the story from start to finish and as I set down the novel, I realized how ridiculous the plot actually was, but that was irrelevant because I had already experienced the wonder, fear, and joy that Time Machine had to offer.
Time Machine is as much a fantasy as it is a social commentary and it can be read both for entertainment and introspection. I have to admit, I hardly read science fiction growing up, and so I’m glad this was my introduction into a fascinating genre. But even more than the wonder of the palaces of future civilizations and the thought-provoking commentary on humanity, I still am at awe on how convincing H.G. Wells was in a story that’s objectively absurd. The best part about it was that was his aim all along. I think that’s one of the reasons this novel has such
“They are all fantasies; they do not aim to project a serious possibility; they aim indeed only at the same amount of conviction as one gets in a good gripping dream. They have to hold the reader to the end by art and illusion and not by proof or argument, and the moment he closes the cover and reflects he wakes up to their impossibility.”
-H.G. Wells.
The book for next week is Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson.