The Invisible Man

I am still in my cycle of dystopian books, but « The invisible man » by H. G. Wells is not about a dystopia. It just came with the version of “The time machine” I have bought so I figured I’ll just read it right now.
I’ll make it a short entry though. I’ll make it a short entry though. It has the same background as “The time machine” and was written at the end of the 19th century. As seen with today’s eyes, it can be seen as yet another invisible man story, but it could be the first invisible man story.

The fact that the man is invisible is certainly important, and was an innovation in itself when the novel was written, but it’s not the most important point of the story. The way I felt it, the story is more about acceptation and racism than about the scientific experimentation.
First he thought being invisible would only have benefits, but when one is naked, London is rather cold... So he tries to blend in, disguises himself and tries to resume his research to become visible again. The twist is that in order not to arouse suspicion, he doesn’t mix with people and people can sense that he is different. They try to reveal him, and he resists; his difference cannot be accepted by others and he can only find relief in vengeance.
To me, it is a classical story of racism and hatred, and the “invisible man” could have been replaced by the “stranger” in the novel to no great difference.

Next in the list of dystopian novels is 1984. I’ve already read it several years ago, but I am ashamed to say that I remember very little of it; which definitely proves the usefulness of this blog ;)

The Time Machine

I've just finished The Time Machine by H. G. Wells. It's a short novel, which has been written in the last 19th century, and that's what makes it remarkable. Would someone write such a novel today, it probably would not get a fraction of the success this one had, because time travel stories have been extensively covered since.

In this story, the narrator is invited to the Time Traveller’s home for dinner; during this dinner, the host tells his guest he has built a model of a time machine (I won't go into the details of the theory, just that time is seen as a fourth dimension, just as the three space dimension, and that travelling back and forth along this dimension, if not as easy, should be at least as possible as moving along the 3 other ones). To prove his point, the Time Traveller makes his model disappear in front of his surprised guests. Another week, another dinner with his guests and the Time Traveller has finished his real-size construction and is just back from the future, from year 802 701 AD to be precise. He seems ruffled, tired and excited at the same time, excuses himself to his guests, takes a shower and comes back to the dinner room where he rushes to the meat. Then, he tells the most improbable story to his dubitative guests.

*** SPOILER WARNNING ***
He has travelled far in the future where he spent a week and encountered two species that seem to inherit from man, the Elois and the Morlocks. The former, which he first discovers, live happily but futilely in the sun, they are richly clad but have no evolved language, do nothing but frolic in nature, eat fruits that hang from trees and are afraid of the dark. As the Time Traveller founds later, the latter live underground, where they seem to maintain some kind of machinery, although it seems that they do it out of habit since they do not seem to have an evolved language either, are afraid of the day and light and they feed upon the Elois. The Time traveller makes the assumption that the Elois who are now just cattle to the Morlocks, are the ultimate (d)evolution of the former upper / richer class of human society, which must have lived happily and richly in the sun. The Morlocks must be the remnant of the poor working class of that society, which must have been working underground; he supposes that in this condition, they have lost their humanity. Dark vision of the future indeed! The Time Traveller leaves his guests free to believe his story and the next day, he disappears with his "Time Machine", to never come back.

It's a nice novel, and a very interesting read (although it's pretty short) and, for the nineteenth century, brings pretty groundbreaking imagination to the table. But nowadays, it's probably not so groundbreaking. The added value of the "take it or leave it" attitude of the storyteller really adds to the story and forces you to choose side, to believe or not to believe, which is always an interesting experience!