Please post your summaries of the lecture and readings for last Wednesday’s class as a comment made to this blog post.
18 thoughts on “After Class Writing Assignment: Summaries for Proto-SF, HG Wells’ The Time Machine, and EM Forster’s “The Machine Stops””
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Saif Ahmed
Prof. Ellis
Eng 2420
10/3/2017
Proto SF, Time Machine, The Machine Stops Summary
During the Lecture Proto SF In my understanding so far is the use of real objects which are simulated by a computer to make a prototype of a simulated reality world where everyone can interact with and have a sense of a real experience through the earth common minerals and objects etc. The best Example is the game No Mans Sky by Hello Games, shows the use of Proto SF in use with real world materials using the computer simulation with graphics to generate lushes worlds that are generated systematically for the players to experience and each person’s story will have the same world but differently generated. Next a summary on the Time Machine by HG Well’s, it is about a man who makes a time traveling machine controlled by a lever to move forward in time and back. He shows his Science invention to guests and the guests give it a try and feel as the time is moving forward then back. The Traveler then proves it again, by going in forward in time to a place much unknown but it is planet earth. They realize that people have evolved into creatures that are different. The time traveler stays with them and he tries to head back but realizes his time machine is gone. So he suspects it is hidden in the spinx building. He goes down and finds a society of morlocks which he was told but why were they separated from the upper world he thinks then his light goes out and morlocks chase him and he runs back. He finds out that the people on top are called elois and they are up there to stay away from morlocks but the elois grow weaker while morlocks grow stronger in this society, so he then devises a plan to get his time machine back he gets it from them and moves forward in time 1000min/s and sees the sun a red giant then and moves forward again to find more crabs then he previously found. The Time traveler goes back in time back to his office and finds the guests all confused as he has no proof of the future so goes back but is gone for 3 months never to return yet with proof. The Next story is The Machine Stops by EM Forster’s, this story is about Kuno and his mom Vashta living underground because the surface is inhabitable conditions on the surface. They live underground which is controlled by machines. The machines saved their lives and Kuno talks about seeing you through machines and not do anything through machines. The people underground see the machine as god but when the machine stops working the people do not know how to repair it because they have been so lazy because life has been easier with machines that now the humans became crippled in a way because no one has worked on machines for ages.
Brianna Grant
Eng2420 E255 Science Fiction
Prof. Ellis
City Tech
2 October 2017
Assignment #3
During this video lecture Professor Ellis expounded on the key topics relating to Porto science fiction. He also elaborated on the notable proto science fiction writers and most influential works that they published relating to proto science fiction. Early science fiction was published in an editorial magazine called the “Dime Novel.” The “Dime Novel” costs about 5-6 cents and included many works such as the “Esteem Man of the Prairies” and more.
Mr. Ellis provides evidence of these authors by providing a brief description of their works and how their works are classified as proto science fiction. He begins by elaborating about Edgar All Poe (1809-1849), an originator of the “Horror Story” and “The Great Detective Story,” and he was an innovative individual in psychological realism and poetic form. He influenced the French influence movement. His 1838 proto science fiction work entitled “Arthur Gordon Pim” was classified as proto science fiction as a result of the storied plot being about ship wrecks and sailing to unknown lands.
Hence, another influential work was entitled “The Facts in the case of M. Valdemar” (1845). Professor stated that this work is considered proto science fiction because it explores what would happen if a person on the edge of death were hypnotized.
It uses rhetoric of science in the idea of Mesmer (Australian physician) who created a therapeutic technique involving hypnosis.
Nonetheless, other authors that were mentioned by Professor Ellis were Nathaniel Hawthorne and H.G.Wells. Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) is well known for the 1850 work ” The Scarlet Letter” his depiction of the creative and descriptive skills of the sciences. His response was due to the emergence of the technical scientific elite during the 19th century. H.G.Wells (1866-1946) or Herbert George,was an important figure of the development of science fiction. His style of writing was classified as scientific romances. An influential work by him would be the 1895 “The Time Machine” that was the first prescence of a machine that moves forward and backwards in time focus on a long evolutionary time. This work was a pivotal depiction that represented an incline of proto science fiction.
Justin Tam
ENG2420
Professor Ellis
October 4, 2017
From Proto SF lecture, Professor Ellis tells us that the form/genre of science fiction as we know it today took quite a while to be more widely established, from the 17th century well into the 18th and 19th century. Gothic is a reaction to the enlightenment’s value of reason, it focuses on the unknowable as opposed to the knowing/understanding. H.G. Wells studied in biology after winning a scholarship to Normal School of Science in London. There he studied with a man named T.H. Huxley who defended Darwin’s evolution theory. From there, he was influenced to write many groundbreaking fiction such as the Prophecy of Change, Social Extrapolation and the Promose and Peril of Science and Technology. Under scientific romances for H.G. Wells fiction, there are four characteristics, long evolutionary perspective which is to look at the far future instead of the near future, absence of frontier meaning there is no real take on frontier or place, rather it is focused on the time and history. The third is that it usually has a faceless and powerless character, such as the time traveler in the Time Machine, we don’t really get to know the character indept, and last, there is usually pessimistic or worried about the future included.
In The Time Machine Abridged by H.G. Wells, it is about a man who succeeded in making a time machine. He goes so far into the future that humanity as he knew moments before he traversed through time was completely changed. He has expected that mankind of the future would be incredibly intelligent, filled with knowledge. But he was taken aback when he first encountered the surface dwellers whom he realized they had as much intelligence as a five-year-old would have. Later, much to the time traveler’s surprise, he encounters another species that evolved from man, except that they lived in the dark compared to the ones he met on the surface.
In The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster, the story is told through the view of Vashti. Basically, that humanity has depended and relied so much on the “machine” to fulfill the needs they have daily that when it suddenly stopped, they didn’t know what to do and dies. Throughout the story, you can see how shut-in Vashti is, how simply leaving her room in the machine where everything is perfect where she gets what she wants with a push of a button. During the ride on the airship, Vashti even freaks out about when the blinds sprang up and revealed the sunlight that almost touched her, to which she calls a room attendant who are reacts the same way, saying that she should change rooms instead of simply going up to the blinds and close it. Her son, Kuno was on to something, that the machine was dying, but Vashti didn’t believe him and ultimately ends up dead.
Alex Giffen
Professor Ellis
ENG 2420
10/4/2017
In summation of last weeks class, we discussed both fractals and the novelas, “The Time Machine” and “The Machine Stops.” For the first half of class we went to the lecture of Nina Samuel.She went over the entire history of fractals from their initial concept to the discovery. We talked about how we can connect fractals to our current lives, such as random generation of worlds in videogames. We also hinted at how it will reconnect to our science fiction readings in the future.
What we discussed for most of class was the two readings. To summarize “The Time Machine,” the Time Traveler goes hundreds of thousands of years into the future out of curiosity. There he finds two races of humans, the Eloi and the Morlocks. The Eloi are friendly and peaceful while the Morlocks are large and malicious. After spending time in the future, he confirms that these races were derived from the divide in wealth. The once powerful and wealthy evolved to be frail and helpless while the poor who struggled now are the feared ones. The Morlocks feed on the Eloi, a certain redemption from their roots where the rich would take advantage of the poor. H.G. Wells saw this divide of the classes and believed it would eventually create a physical evolution.
The second reading, “The Machine Stops” is a critique on our reliance on technology. E.M. Forster wrote of technologies we have today, things like communicating over the world, and how they could corrupt the idea of being human. He even writes about how most social interaction is the regurgitation of others’ ideas, a similar issue we see today like on Facebook. The people living in the Machine are completely dependant on it. When the Machine finally breaks, their civilization dies. Forster’s reason for his piece is to show the importance of what is real versus what we create and perceive as real.
Jia Du
ENG 2420 Science Fiction Literature
Professor Ellis
10/03/2017
On the video lecture the professor posted, He started the topic and discussed about Proto Science Fiction after recapping last class and finishing up Frankenstein. The professor also discussed about popular science fiction writers and their famous works. He mentions popular historical science fiction writers like Edgar Allen Poe 1809-1849, He specialized in horror, detective story. He wrote the novel Horror Story and The Great Detective Story. Another author the professor mentioned was Nathaniel Hawthorne 1804-1864. One of his best works was Scarlet Letter. Next authors he mentions are Joules Verne 1828-1905. One of works was Around the World in 80 days. The next important Science Fiction writer that was mentioned was H.G. Wells. 1866-1946. H.G. Wells was a big figure to Proto Science Fiction. He specialized in Scientific Romance. There were four Characteristic the professor mentioned. First was Long term look, next is absents of frontier, faceless nameless hero, and pessimistic people. One of H.G. Wells work was Time Machine 1895 which was about being able to go forward and backwards of time. Other works he published were Island of doctor Moreau 1896, and Invisible man 1897, War of the Worlds 1898, First men in the moon 1901, The next important Author that we discussed was E.M. Forster 1879-1970. His one and only popular work was the Machine Stops that was published in 1909. From his novel compared to others, he focused on people to people connections. Humanism, class differences, sexuality, symbolism. Forster idea compared to others were, evolution is the driving force of human development; not technology. In his novel, the Machine Stops explained to readers that, humans depend too much on technology and technology can affect human development. Like the novel, the human see machine as “god like” thing that they can’t live without. They are too attached to these machines which negatively affected their deployment because when the machine stopped working they realize how much has machines negatively impacted them in the long run. They were so depended on the machines and once it stopped they have no knowledge in fixing it which made them realize just how much has it impacted their lives.
In regards to last week’s reading, “The Time Machine” by H.G Wells (9/1866 – 8/1946) and “The Machine Stops” by E.M Forster (1/1879 – 6/1970). Both were stories detailing a possible future of humanity. Giving an idea of what the world could eventually become in regards to heavy reliance on technology.
For Wells, the main character of his story journeys to the future to see how the world has changed and kind of advancements has been made by mankind. However the protagonist’s Wonder was dashed upon discovering that the people, descendants of humanity, have grown weak, complacent, and ultimately dumb. But not only that he discovers that there are more descendants, who are aggressive, vicious, and feral. The two gave him insight on how society classism and technology had given rise to these two types of evolution.
Forster on the other hand, his story was much heavier on the pessimistic side of technology. His story depicts that the future is filled with people who barely interact with each other anymore. To the point where they very rarely see their families. They’ve grown weak, and hardly leave the comforts of their machine. They’ve grown so reliant on it that when it ultimately breaks down, it literally ends it all for them. Their survival was based on the machine.
Both stories have brought up interesting views on technology and it’s possible control over us. However I disagree with some of the aspects of what was written. Ultimately natural instinct is going to come out and prevail over the use of technology, it’s convenience aids us surely, but eons of basic instinct cannot be erased. While it is good to be concerned about what they both brought up, in the end, nature has a way of coming through.
Gabriel Higuera
ENG 2420
10/04/2017
The first reading, H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine (abridged) is the first novel that introduces the idea of moving forward or backwards through time. H.G. Wells is described by Prof. Ellis as a ‘scientific romantic’ he looks long into the future as our protagonist in The Time Machine travels through time leaping to the future. Another trait that the author is knows of using is that of the ‘faceless hero’ as prof. Ellis describes; we don’t get to know much about the protagonist, only in form of observation do we have a clue of how he/she may behave. In the story the time traveler encounters two humanoid forms, one weak in appearance and the other one grotesque and savage. This differentiates the result of social status dividing the human race, and how the two become different races.
The next reading and my favorite from the two, E.M. Foster’s The Machine Stops (abridged) narrates on the idea of human dependency on technology. It appears as in technology having the upper hand on the human race, something that in might head came up as the rise of A.I. and how smart a machine can become, ultimately slaving us in a way that humans never even expect.
Foster and Wells appear to be on opposite sides on the development of technology, Foster being more skeptical and Wells showing positivisms on the effect of technology in human development. However, “The whig interpretation of history” which describes how humans development will inevitably emerge victorious and full of progress, is shut down as an idea that is not guaranteed and our future may well hold dark times of negative outcome for humanity in some sort of dystopia.
Pierre Polycarpe
Prof. Ellis ENG2420 E255
October 4, 2017
The Time Machine & The Machine Stops
The Time Machine is a scientific novel written by Author H.G Wells however didn’t publish until 1985. The story started off with the time traveler giving some type of lecture about the fourth dimension. He educated them that “There are really four dimensions, three which we call the three planes of space, and a fourth, time. There is no difference between time and any of the three dimensions of space, except that our consciousness moves along. “
It was “ten O’clock to-day” said H.G Wells whom also referred to himself as “The time Traveller” when he first experiences the time machine. He gave it a last tap said Wells, test all the screws and sat in the saddle. When Wells pulled the lever, he disappears into the future. Everything was fast said The Time Traveller. “the night came like the turning out of a lamp, and in another moment, came tomorrow. He begins by describing what it feels like to travel into the future. [ Chapter 1 I. — THROUGH TIME AT HIGH VELOCITY] “I felt the same horrible anticipation, too, of an imminent smash. As I put on pace, night followed day like the flapping of a black wing. The dim suggestion of the laboratory seemed presently to fall away from me, and I saw the sun hopping swiftly across the sky, leaping it every minute, and every minute marking a day, I had a dim impression of scaffolding, but I was already going too fast to be conscious of any moving things.” [chapter 3] Wells end up traveling thousands of years into the future where he has no help of getting back.
The Machine Stops was written by E.M Forster in 1909. The story occurred in a world where human didn’t have the ability to live on the “Surface” of the earth so they had to live underground with the support of the machines. They basically depended of the machine for everything to the point if the machine stop working they wouldn’t know how to repair. I firmly believe that this story relates to us human in a way especially the younger generation. We are so attached to our phones and other technologies that if one day we didn’t have them, I don’t think we would be able to function. For instance, I don’t I do not see myself without my cell phone. I would rather be late for work just to go back home for my phone. That’s how attached I am to my phone. Imagine United States without power.
Randy Valcourt
ENG 1101
11/4/17
The Time Machine by H.G wells can be described as a true stereotypical science fiction story but with so much more depth. It’s basically about a scientist that creates a time machine and launches himself head first into the future not knowing where he is going to end up. When he stops the machine he ends of in a dystopia where humanity has separated into two distinctly different species one which is the product of upper class living conditions and the ladder the product of lower class living conditions. The story does a great job introducing the plot and making this obviously fictional dystopia very real. The time travel itself felt very real, H.G wells took time to describe the images that the scientist saw as moved faster and faster through time. He wrote that the scientist so the sun jet through the sky as well as the moon until they both became nothing more then a strip of light in the the sky. As for the dystopia the author did well in conveying the theme of hubris and nemesis between the rich and the poor species in the story. In the story as the scientist explores the future he find out that the weak soft beings are the rich who have changed due to there easy going lives. They where able to have such a life because they sent the poor under ground to work on the machines they needed for there easy lives. As a result the poor adapted to the lack of light and heavy machine work by Turing into pale strong creatures of the night. Now the rich (the little people) had become life stock for the poor people to eat (Morlocks).
We also got another example of a freakish dystopian society of the future from the author E.M. Foster. In his story “The machine Stops” we are shown a people who for just as like the rich in H.G wells story. They are weak and frail due to there comfortable living brought forth by the machine. As we look at the life of Vashti we see how society has become to engrossed in there technology that it has literally become what they worshipped. The human race as a whole has become completely dependent on the Machines to a point where when the machine inevitably stops most are begging for euthanasia. Both of these futuristic dystopias reminds us that we need to look at the bigger picture when it comes to creating machines that better our life’s and makes things easier.
Paul Chandipersaud
Prof. Ellis ENG2420 E255
October 4, 2017
The Time Machine and The Machine Stops Summary
Herbert George Wells and Edward Morgan Forster are the authors of the classic science fiction novels “The Time Machine” and “The Machine Stops”. Herbert was born in England on the year 1866 and died 1946 and was the author of “The Time Machine”. Edward was also born in England but on the year 1879 and he died in 1970 and he wrote “The Machine Stops”. These novels are great influences on the today we live in because they helped people think of the technologies we could have and what things we might be capable of creating. These writings can be considered what we call proto science fiction. Other writers of proto science fictions are Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Jules Verne. Ost of these stories have to do with adventure, technology, and the future.
Wells’s novel “The Time Machine” is about a man who creates a time machine and travels very far into the future. The story picks up when the narrator travels into the future and it isn’t what he predicted. The story starts with the narrator using his finished time machine to leaps into the far future. The time machine starts off slower moving him slowly into the future but it picks up rapidly, every minute that passed in the machine was actually a year. He watched the seasons change along with the landscape of the Earth. He was hestitating to fearing what would happen but he eventually did and it placed him in the year eight hundred and two thousand seven hundred and one A.D (according to his time machine). Arriving, he was met by these little beautiful but fragile looking creatures who were not like the people of his time. The scenery was nice but he soon realized this isn’t the future he imagined, he thought about the future being automated but saw no machinery what’s so ever. After more discovering he found a cave where he encountered different creatures. He called them morlocks and they weren’t like the ones he already met. The creatures he was first met by lived on the upper grounds and by night they all receded into their homes and no one was out during the night. The morlocks lived under and they feared the light, they would run whenever they saw light even the light from a match. This got the author to think how his world came to this, the fragile little people on the upper world and the morlocks who look and seem to be monstrous creatures. He gets into a altercation with the morlocks, they try to capture him but he gets away with the use of the matches. He runs back to the machine where he encounters more of them but he’s able to fight them off and escape into his machine.
Forster’s short story “The Machine Stops” is mainly about a boy named Kuno and his mother Vashti. The story is placed in a world much different than ours. Everything is ran by almost a god like figure they call “The Machine” which is an actual machine that grants the people what ever they may need. Everyone has their own room where they control their surroundings through the machine. Kuno speaks to his mother through a “blue plate” where they can see and hear each other. Kuno says he needs to tell Vashti something and she was at first reluctant to see her son cause he lives on the other side of the world but she decides to go. Vashti takes a plane to her son and on trip she sees things like the sun and the earth and mountains. These sights don’t please her they actual do the complete opposite. When she arrives Kuno tells her about his adventure to earth and all the things he does and he did to get to the earth. Kuno was doing things Vashti never heard of people doing and she was completely turned off by the idea of her son doing such things and told him he needed to stop cause its illegal and he will be sent to the “homeless”. After sometimes passed Vashti discovered her son moved to a couple of room saway from her and they end up talking through the plate and he tells her the machine is going to stop. She laughed at the idea. The story ends with what Kuno said to be true, the machine stops, and everyone ends up dying due to the fact no one was prepared for the end, the machine ultimately prepared these people for their demise.
Christopher Gonzalez
October 4th, 2017
ENG 2024 – E225
Professor Ellis
In “The Time Machine, Abridged Version” by H.G Wells, the time traveller builds a time machine that brings him eight hundred thousand years into the future. In this new world, evolution took two different paths with the rich being weak, small, and dumb while the poor were feral and athletic. The rich who the time traveler refers to as the Eloi, coward at night with the coming of their predators the Morlocks who live in darkness. This made me stop and think, the rich are known for having the poor do labor for them, it is possible that one day they will lay all responsibilities on their subordinates, that they too will be rendered weak and frail.
In E.M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops”, the world as we know it is dead, all human life lives beneath the earth’s surface as the earth can no longer sustain life, or so it is said. Technology has evolved to the point it is considered a single entity called “The Machine” and is almost worshipped like a god. To think freely is considered heretical and to want to leave the comfort of it as well. The book of the machine is regarded as a bible and while humans still exist, humanity has indeed died as babies are taken from their mothers at birth and given living quarters as far as the other side of the world, those who may grow to be muscular are killed out of fear they may diverge from the way hans are expected to behave. I like to consider this an exaggeration of today’s issue with technology as we put so much faith on our devices to the point that we sometimes question others why they do something when their smartphones can do it for them. Will we too treat our phones in such a sacred way as it is nearly impossible for one to leave their phones untouched for more than a few minutes.
Mellissa Valle
ENG 2024 – E225
Professor Ellis
Summaries
Proto SF
Professor Ellis describes proto SF and what it derives. Mentions artists like Edgar Allan (1809-1849) with his detective and adventure stories. Also Nathaniel Hathorne (1804 -864) writer of The Scarlet Letter novel. We went over the two readings from H.G Wells “The Time Machine” and E. M Forster “The Machines Stops” H.G Wells writes about evolution, science/ technology, his kind of writing is Scientific-Romance which means a long evolution prestidure, absent of a frontier, faceless/nameless hero, typically pessimistic, less hope about the future.
The Time Machine-1941
H.G Wells(1866-1946)
In “The Time Machine” the author tells the story of how a scientist traveled through time hundreds of years ahead, with the intention of knowing the future of humanity, but far from finding a society super developed, sees a decaying world inhabited on its surface by weird beings, the Eloi, gentle creatures with lack of intelligence. The Traveler supposes that this is how humanity must have finished after resolving all conflicts. Shortly after he discovers that these beings live in immense fear of the darkness. The underground is dominated by sinister creatures, the Morlock, another branch of the human species that have become accustomed to live in darkness and go out at night to capture the Eloi and feed on them.
The Eloi brothers were descendants of the old capitalists, and the Morlocks of the proletarians, who eventually dominate their former oppressors.
The time machine, basically deals with the class struggle. Taking things to the extreme, the differences between the working class and the wealthy classes. In a distant future it could reach to an end with two “degenerations” of men without human qualities.
The Machines Stops-1909
E. M Forster(1879-1970)
The story describes a technological future in which humans live underground, under the control of the machine. This machine was uncontrollable. There was not a single person on the planet that understood the monster as a whole. All idolize this machine created by man, great men, but still men. Those great minds had all died already. They had left complete instructions and each of their successors had mastered a fragment of those instructions. But Humanity, on its desire for comforts, had exceeded its limits and had overexploited the resources of mother nature
There was nothing but dust on earth. As it can be deducted from title, this machine stops, leading the world on chaos and darkness, everyone dies. Forget about a happy ending 🙂
The beginning of this class started with a speech from a Dr Samuel, talking about how one man’s creation of what is now called fracas images has helped paved the way for computer generation, creation, and, in Mandelbrot’s term, chaos. Because of this talk, we ended up hearing most of Professor Ellis’ lecture via YouTube.
Proto SF is the science fiction writing that includes technology, new machines, and the evolution of machinery. Proto implies prototype, a new way, or a test. This took place during the Industrial period, when steam engines and more advances in technology were beginning to emerge. People were either embracing it with open arms of worried that it would take over our lives (which it pretty much did). These stories tell the extremes of how we have lost our humanity to technology.
The first excerpt we read, called The Time Machine, was written by H.G. Wells, one of the most famous sci-fi writers of today. H.G. Wells, born Herbert George Wells survived between 1866 and 1946. We read only about a 2 page bit from this book, which I had downloaded from the library. I found it interesting that none of the characters were given names, but addressed as roles. The implication that Wells himself was present during the Time Traveler’s adventure is apparent, but not important, similar to the role of Captain Walton in Frankenstein’s story. The excerpt we read tells of the Time Traveler’s adventure into the future. The people who live above have become dependent on technology and light, and have no need to educate themselves other than knowing fear for the creatures who survive in the dark. The creatures in the dark have learned to survive despite being besmirched, and are angry at those allowed above ground; rightfully so. The implication is that the underground people were lower class people, while the upper class people stayed in their little light pods. What happens later is a great adventure and a reality check for the Time Traveller.
EM Forester’s life dates are 1879-1970. In EM Forester’s reading, The Machine Stops, we are presented with a proto situation where the world above is unstable and people live underground, inside machines. They have become so dependent on machinery that they have created machines that will do their bidding for everything, and in fact think of the Machine (which was man-made to begin with) as a higher being than themselves. The machine brings things to them, and people no longer interact with each other, touch other people, exert any energy, or travel for other reasons than necessity. The people regurgitate theories and lessons as ideas, but none of them are new or their own. They have taken life as a thing to do, not to be lived as an individual. It’s pretty Matrix-like, everyone in their pod, hooked up to the machine, unaware that there could be more or that ideas can come within instead of from other sources. We meet Kuno and his mother, Vashti, who are completely different. Vashti has embraced the life, never knowing any different and always finding the hum of the machine a comfortable and steady presence. Kuno is convinced there is more to life than living in dependence on the machine, and seeks to find a way to “escape” because he has risked letting his individual thought be known. However, in his escape, I believe he breaks something pretty vital with the machine, and it begins to shut down. The people who cannot think for themselves despair and give up and allow themselves to die. It is another reality check for the reader: we are in control of how much we give ourselves over to technology.
After class writing
In this class we discussed 2 stories. “The Time Machine”, by H.G. Wells, and “The Machine Stops”, by E.M. Forester
“The Time Machine” tells of an adventurer who travels through time, he is seen as a faceless character. The traveler goes through time and ends up in a completely different world. He meets on group of people who are small and weak who call themselves Eloi who live above ground and come out during the daylight. He also meets another group of people who live underground and have adapted to living in the dark called Morlocks. It begins to depict a separation of class, the Eloi are like the rich fancy people who live above ground and do not work, they have become frail and fat they do not do much work but the still are at the top of the society. The Morlocks live underground and are workers, they have become strong and adapted to their environment, they even eat the Eloi.
“The Machine Stops” tells a story of a futuristic society that is dominated by technology. The people barely have face to face contact on mainly communicate through monitors. They are completely dependent on the machine and they even worship it. People are scared to talk bad about the machine as the see it as a god. It is frowned upon to talk of leaving. The people live a very isolated life and do not know how to function without. The machine eventually stops and the society collapses.
Jessica L. Roman
Prof. Ellis ENG2420 E255
October 2017
Proto Science Fiction
This week’s lecture started with the historical and cultural events that laid the framework for the SF genre such as the Age of Enlightenment, Scientific Revolution as well as higher literacy rates and affordable literature like Dime novels. We were introduced to three notable proto-SF writers and their works. The first of which was Edgar Allan Poe, who was the originator of the horror story and the great detective story. He was also known to mix science and mysticism. Nathaniel Hawthorne, known for the Scarlet Letter, included scientist in many of his other works and depicted the good and bad that can come of science. Lastly, Jules Verne who was inspired by Poe and had many works known as voyages extraordinaire.
The two authors we read for this week are H.G Wells and E.M. Forster. H.G Wells was a pioneer in SF genre. His background and interest in science and technology made his works some of the most ground breaking SF stories; his works were classified as Scientific Romances. These stories took long evolutionary perspectives. E.M. Forster was primarily a mainstream writer who wrote dramas with themes of humanism, class difference and symbolism. Forster points to Wells as the inspiration for his only proto SF work, The Machine Stops. Forster believed Well’s view on evolution being the driving force for historical development was misguided.
The Time Machine is the story of scientist who discovers time travel and witnesses firsthand what happens to humanity after its peak. It begins with the unnamed time traveler telling a group of scientist/ academics about his theory time machine. Later the time traveler returns from his excursion and details his story on the people he encountered and what evolution and advancement did to our society. The story is a cautionary tale of Whig interpretations of history and the possible dangers of our scientific and technological advancement. “The Machine Stops” is a story of mother, Vashti, and son, Kuno, who live in a machine under the surface of the earth after it could no longer sustain life. The machine handles everything from meals, to communication and even reproduction. The population of the machine become too dependent on it and its technology and begin to look at it as a god. Vashti is among those who worship the machine while her some Kuno is convinced there is something wrong and more to life than the machine. The people’s over reliance on the machine leads to their demise when it begins to malfunction/ die. The story is a warning of humanity’s dependence on technology and how it can debilitate us and our ability to be innovative and dull our survival instincts.
We learned about Proto Science Fiction and distinguished proto SF writers and their works pertaining to proto science fiction and the advancement of science fiction as a whole.
After speaking the Dime Novel, Professor Ellis spoke about Edgar Allen Poe, a cultivator of the horror genre in literature and was proficient in writing poetic stories and what was called “psychological realism” in literature. Poe’s 1838 work entitled “Arthur Gordon Pim” was said to be an example of proto science fiction due to the plot about shipwrecks and sailing to unknown territory. Professor Ellis also spoke of “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” published by Edgar Allan Poe in 1845. It was said that this work is grouped as proto science fiction because it explores the question of what would occur if an individual on the edge of dying were hypnotized by someone named Mesmer, who creates a therapeutic method that involves hypnosis, showing a great use of “rhetoric of science”.
Other authors that contributed to proto science fiction and science fiction writing as a whole include, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herbert George Wells. Nathaniel Hawthorne is well known for his 1850 literature “The Scarlet Letter” which tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an affair and skirmishes to create a new life for himself. The Scarlet Letter was in response to the rise of the scientific advancements and ideas during the 1800’s. Herbert George Wells, also more commonly known as H.G.Wells also contributed to SF in a big way. His most famous work would be the 1895 science fiction literature “The Time Machine” which was the first story that featured a machine that was able to move forward and backwards in time and the first piece of literature to feature the word “time” and “travel” together and prominently. This single work alone is an extremely important piece of work that contributed to the progression of science fiction being more respectable.
Proto-Science Fiction’ being science fiction books written before HG Wells, Which is the era before the 1890’s
The Time Machine was written by H.G.Wells (1866-1946). His style of writing was classified as scientific romances. There are two distinct faces of Scientific Romance: a lighter and more optimistic side that sees technology as wonderful and adventurous; and a darker side that is more cautionary and filled with social critique. “The Time Machine” is about an inventor who makes the time-travelling machine that takes him into the future that holds a horrid dystopian reality, and later finds it difficult to get himself back.
E.M Foster wrote “The Machine Stops” in 1909. The story occurred in a world where humans live underground due to unsuitable conditions at the surface. Underground they depend on a giant machine for absolutely everything to the point when the machine actually stops working, people do not know what to do, how to repair it, and even beg for euthanasia.
The Machine Stops reveals how tech is integrated into our lives. If it all shuts down, how would we all react? The machine turns into their god. Technology ultimately changes our social lives and the government uses it to their advantage. In the story, people are not allowed to be athletic. Energetic babies are killed off because they want people to be slaves. Foster warns us on how weak we are because we limit ourselves by depending on technology to do it for us. It was written to open our eyes.
Jacob Banschick
Prof. Ellis
ENG2420
For this week’s lecture Professor Ellis touches on Proto Science Fiction, or Sci Fi written before 1890 (pre HG Wells). In it, he discusses some this genre’s most notable writers, which include writers like Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Jules Verne.
Poe was the originator of the horror story and the great detective story, melting science with mysticism. Nathaniel Hawthorne, while better known as the author of the Scarlet Letter, was also a writer of Proto SF. His tales are often packed with scientists and inventors, where the fantastic are given naturalistic explanations.
Jules Verne, hugely influenced by poe, wrote a sequel to Poe’s “The Adventures of Arthur Gordon Pym”. His works are filled with optimism, where european man takes a central role in 19th century culture.
In the time machine, the Time Traveler (whose name is never given) is successful in his creation of a time machine, where he travels to the year 802,701 AD and learns of two races. The Morlocks and the Eloi. Shortly after arriving, he’s separated from his machine, befriends an Eloi, fights the morlocks to regain access to his machine, loses his friend, and escapes this time period. Eventually, after exploring a bit more, he returns home to tell his tales, before disappearing again shortly after.
In the machine stops, we learn of a future race of humanity who all reside underground and have all their needs met by a machine they’ve simply come to call “The Machine”. They begin to pray to it as a god, and although the device which maintains the machine has broken down itself, believe the machine is omnipotent, and is in no danger of breaking down. Eventually though, the machine does break down, all knowledge on how to maintain it themselves having been lost long ago, and the society crumbles. Realizing all too late the importance of man’s connection to nature and self-reliance.