After making notes on this week’s lecture on Proto-SF, H.G. Wells, and E.M. Forster and the assigned readings, write at least 250 words summarizing your notes. Focus on what stands out to you, what were some of the important points that I made, what were interesting elements in the readings, connections between the readings and other SF that you know, etc. Remember, the weekly writing assignment is graded on best effort. I would like to know what you find notable about each week’s class. As long as the posts relate to the class and you give me your best, you receive all the credit. Also, this serves as regular writing practice, which has been shown to improve your writing skills by simply doing this kind of work. It will help prepare you for the writing that you will do on your research essay and the final exam.
14 thoughts on “Weekly Writing Assignment, Week 5”
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I think that what stood out the most to me after reading both texts was the fact that the stories were not directly related in any way. Looking at the names, at first glance I thought that maybe “The Machine Stops” was an alternate version of “The Time Machine” where at some point in the story the time machine stops working, leaving the nameless protagonist stranded at some point in the future. I am not sure if they are related but I have a feeling that I watched a movie related to “The Time Machine” when I was little.
With my pre-reading thoughts aside, personally I found both works to be disturbingly similar in terms of the point they were trying to make. In the distant future, advances in technology have led humans to evolve into something that makes us, the reader, question if there is anything left we can even call humanity at all. In the case of “The Time Machine,” humans evolve into two subspecies, which are basically those who used to be the wealthy living on the surface, and the working class who become savages that now live for revenge on their former oppressors of the surface. In “The Machine Stops” on the other hand, humans have developed an omnipotent machine that can satisfy all their basic needs and therefore leave the surface of the earth to live underground. This is a world where the concept of feelings towards fellow human beings no longer holds any meaning to people. Ultimately, the belief that the machine is omnipotent and endless leads them to their demise as the mechanism in charge of fixing the machine itself breaks down with no one left who knows how to fix it.
Personally, I found the pessimism of both readings reached a new level for me. I wouldn’t say it is necessarily a bad thing, but I found the chances of the events of the stories becoming a reality so possible that I was somewhat stressed while reading them, especially in “The Machine Stops.”
After reading “The Machine Stops” and “The Time Machine” I have noticed that those two science fiction stories have different idea of concept and did not completely relate together. In “The Machine Stops” The story describes in a world which most of the humanity has lost the ability to live on the surface of the Earth, and that leads them to live in the underground. The people who live there are all dependent on machines that can pretty much do everything for them, but in the end, when the machines brokens and collapses, the meaning of civilization starts again. In the lecture, Prof Ellis said “Forster however sees technology as a threat to humanistic values.” In this point, the more advance technology becomes they will have the power to control humanity. What truly matter is the connection between humanity and the natural world, and not the machine taking over. In “The Time Machine” is about a traveler travel through time to the future world seeing that humankind has been evolved into two different species. The Eloi and Morlocks. Rich and educated people became Eloi, they are friendly innocent but weak. Hard working people became Morlocks, a savage and human beast. The Eloi are living in the surface with joy and Morlocks are living in the darkest place in the underground and eat Eloi for living. In connection, “The Machine Stops” is like Industrial Revolution. People via the machines working day and night nonstop, relying on the machines to producing products or anything. In “The Time Machine” the future world is similar to the movie call Planet of the Ape (1968), in the year of 3978 there is two races. The human and apes. Human became slavery and captured by the army of apes.
The one thing that stood out to me in lecture 5 was Prof Ellis spoke about a detail about 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas. I heard about this book when I was 5-6 year old when I was shopping in the bookstore. At that time, when I heard about the title of the book it sounds very interesting about under the sea in 20,000 in depth, but until I started reading that book it really starting to confuse me. But until Prof. Ellis said is traveling by distance with the submarine, and not by going down by depth in 20,000.
I like the distinction between the Morlocks and the Eloi. I think it’s a dystopic portrayal of how human society can go wrong. If the worsening social stratification between classes persists and wealth inequality continues to ravage human emancipation and flourishing, the Morlocks and the Eloi might become the real future for humanity. I like the allegorical characteristic in H. G. Well’s work.
“The Machine Stops” is trying to warn us about the potential danger of science; it reminds me of Frankenstein. As our technology advances, we rely on it more and more everyday. I, for one, think that I might not be able to live without a computer. I’m doing my works on a laptop; I’m playing my video games on a laptop; and I’m taking my lessons on a laptop; it’s basically an extension of me, as though I’m a cyborg. It worries me if the machines do stop working one day, just like Forster’s story. If they do, humanity will be in a great danger. COVID pandemic has shown us the vulnerability of our existence. In order to survive the future as a species, we need to be cautious about what we create using science. Technologies as destructive as nuclear bombs will be out of the question.
In our lecture, I learned many proto-SF writers. I’m happy to see that one of my favorite authors is on the list—Edger Allen Poe. I also learned that SF didn’t emerge out of thin air; it takes shape thanks to the combination of fantastic voyages such as Homer’s Odyssey, Thomas Moore’s utopias, Voltaire’s conte philosophique, and gothic genre.
I noticed the ongoing theme in both readings of the oppression that one group faces by another group which does demonstrate the Gothic Period discussed in the lecture. The idea of romanticism and ideologies shows the bias that one group might have towards their own and against “The Other” which is a concept challenged by science. In H.G. Wells’s “The Time Machine”, the protagonist struggled to work his machine and went through trial and error to work the machine in anticipation of what the future might be just the past is perceived to be anarchy from dinosaurs to wars and imperialism. The Utopia that the protagonist found in the future to being beautiful and luxurious with equality for all showed the ideological belief on how time progresses civilization but the aspect of Darwinism that exists no matter what is left us. This very fact that the protagonist questing the details of attire worn by the happy people foreshadowed dark questions because of how there was no sign of industrialization to provide for these capitalist-produced things. The foreboding answer came about when the protagonist fell down a well and discovered “Marlocks” or underground slaves that have been working on machines to produce the so-called paradise. This theme made the romanticist belief and ideology of challenging science proved to be shown as oppressive to one group versus another. The idea of oppression ranges from races to gender to sexuality and etc, but these “savage-like” creatures who were afraid of the dark seemingly were oppressed and forced into doing the upper world’s bidding. That factor stood out to me because of the cultural systems that stand alongside romanticism while the scientific revolution stands besides rationality and moving away from tradition. Moreover, the similar theme that came about in “The Machine Stops” is the idea of the ‘weakest’ to be put ‘homeless’. The story talked about the human dependence on technology but it also addressed the apocalyptic future that humanity faced with the over-dependence on technology. After Kuno was sentenced to homelessness because he escaped showed the oppression that individuals faced if they had gotten out of line, which is an aspect of contingency on technology because when we are using our electronics, there is no boundary for the cravings of constant entertainment. In the same way that romanticism still plays out in today’s cultural and political environment, humans are driven by the way they feel more than how they think and the logic in which they think. Humans’ attachment to technology demonstrates the apocalyptic scenario that we all are living in, letting everything fly by and only focusing on an issue for a short span of time. I want to connect the idea of romanticism and scientific revolution to the controversy over Dr. Suess books that have been ‘canceled’ due to the implicit racism in them, the storylines and meanings in books such as “The Lorax” that showed the destruction of the environment from wealthy corporate individuals who happen to be white, to demonstrate the underlying issue of climate change. Not all Dr. Suess’s books demonstrate the same message of the foreboding apocalypse that humanity has caused on its own existence, but the characters in the book show the emotional attachment people would have. Most famously, the grinch proved to be the most talked about in our society but the emotional effect on children from the movies and books did not rationalize or bring into minds how implicit racism was stated in those books. As stated in the lecture that I’ve found fascinating, the enlightenment period definitely gave people the ability to think freely about the immoral of the world and led them to abolish humanity’s greatest oppressions (In America at least) but leave behind hundreds of years of similar oppressions. In the same way, Dr. Suess’s books that implicitly were racist were taken down as a result of the enlightenment of the on-going issue and the recently more widely-talked-about racism in America.
What I have noticed over the years of experiencing Science fiction, books, movies, games etc. is that the vast majority of them depict a dystopian and dark future resulted by humanity’s actions. The Time Machine and the Machine stops are no different when it comes to the events that happen in these stories and although that isn’t a bad thing, they lose some originality because in the end they want to teach us the same lesson, that humanity will eventually implode.
The Time Machine is about a man finally building a time machine and travelling thousands of years into the future expecting to see advanced technology and civilizations only to see that “humanity” has been divided into two relatively unintelligent races. One that lives on the sunlit surface depicting the old aristocrats and wealthy class, and one that lives in the dark, underground depicting the working class. The Machine Stops takes places into a future where humans have built a “Machine” so advanced that it is referred to as a deity by people living there. Humans live underground, each in their own rooms, and are expected to submit “ideas” for the machine in order to not be killed, all the while the Machine takes care of all their basic needs. Although travel is not prohibited, it is viewed upon as something completely unnecessary as everything you need is provided by the Machine and everyone that lives in this world believes that contact with other people is vile and the only means of communication should be a monitor from the Machine. The Machine eventually breaks down, and with no one left to know how to fix it, the community collapses and everyone dies.
I really enjoyed reading both stories and I found the Machine Stops to be much more believable, especially now, considering that we have been locked at home for more than a year, we have no choice but to completely rely on technology. However people today don’t necessarily think contact is vile, like the story. Although we all avoid contact, we miss it. Humans are social creatures, they want to travel the world and meet other people and experience life. Covid has shown us that people really don’t like being locked down. The Machine Stops can be viewed as quarantine taken to the extreme and I bet that no person that read this story would want the world to turn like that in the future.
This week lecture talks about Proto SF. This concept was about different literatures, early novels that would develop into science fiction in the period of the enlightenment. Professor Ellis talked about many writers of that period who contributed a lot to the Proto-SF, before 19th century. WE can mention here Voltaire, Edgar Allen Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Jules Verne, H.G Wells and E. M Forster. Voltaire was a French writer who developed Conte Philosophical which served as a satire. Satire is a form of humor more like irony and criticism. Edgar Allan Poe born was an innovator in Psychological realism. Hawthorne most known novel was “The scarlet letter”. Jul Verne was also a French author. He was known as a revolutionary science fiction author, funder of modern SF. I remember a book by Jul Verne “Around the world for 80 days.” That was one of my favorites.
“The Time Machine” by H.G Wells and “The Machine Stops’ by E. M Forster are two science fiction novels or books that have some things in common, but at the same time I noticed many differences between two writings. Wells in his writing “The Time Machine” starts his discussion with the four dimensions of human, where time is the fourth dimension. He used his time machine to travel into the future where he finds small humanoids called Eloi, which were friendly and gave him food and help him. Then he saw other creatures Morlocks who were carnivorous and lived below the ground. His idea was to build this time machine to travel in the future and find extremely smart species, but all he found were not intelligent species. “The machine stops” talks about a woman named Vashti who lives in the opposite side of the world from her son Kuno. Kuno who lives underground has always been curious about the life above underground, but his mom believes that visiting the surface of the world is dangerous about their existence and they don’t need that. They have that machine who supplies the basic human needs with just a click of a button. Forster was very sceptic on human relationship to technology and he saw the technology as a threat to human values.
After completing this week’s lecture on prototype SF, and the assigned readings of “The Time Machine” and “The Machine Stops”, by H.G. Wells and E.M. Forster respectively, I will like to point out a common trend, the failure of technology. This is a topic that in this week’s lecture, Professor Ellis points out that H.G. Wells warns the reader about the celebration and caution of technology. While technology is great and advances the world, it can sometimes cause great damage to human capabilities. This is exactly the case in “The Machine Stops” where we read about a population of humans who have entirely abandoned planet Earth’s surface and interact with each other through technology. This creates a great deal of reliance on technology, where these humans lost the social interactions that we can consider as “norms” in society. These humans gain knowledge through the machine, which does almost all of their daily duties. The society in this novel lacks humanistic characteristics which creates a sense of a super natural society of individuals. Due to their reliance on the machine, the society ultimately falls apart. In H.G. Wells “The Machine Stops”, we encounter the phenomena of time travel which is still being studied by physicists. In this short novel, we are introduced to a man we don’t know the name of, another characteristic of prototype SF that Professor Ellis mentions. This character travels a great amount of time into the future where he loses sight of his time travel machine and encounters a species called Morlocks who he causes great damage to by starting an accidental fire which kills most of the population. He finds his time machine, which then brings him millions of years into the future where there is an Earth with no humans and he remains there forever. In both stories, technology lets down a society and a time traveler.
Some things I noticed were the same authors were mentioned being the “fathers” of Science fiction. Those being Edgar Allan Poe, Jules Verne, and H. G. Wells. In the lecture, the professor also mentioned these authors as well and their specific works. In “A New Sort of Magazine” by Hugo Gernsback, he wrote how these 3 men helped to shape technology. These 3 men inspired the creation of certain inventions that we have today. It kind of sounds like they gave inspiration and hope for whoever read their books. In one section of the reading, Hugo mentioned how Jules Verne predicted the modern day submarine. I think it just inspired someone to actually make it then “predict” the creation of it. It is interesting that these three authors basically wrote stores that brought about the idea of how technology can have a negative impact on society. Their stories demonstrate how society could react depending on when the technology is used negatively. E. M. Forester’s story demonstrates the skepticism of technology. New technology may have a negative effect on our health. This skepticism of technology is relevant today. This skepticism is also seen over the coronavirus vaccine. There are a good amount of people that believe that the vaccine does not work or that the government has put chips in it. If that somehow is true, there will be a lot of issues. People would probably fully distrust the government and chao would ensue. These Science Fiction texts give an interesting perspective and insight into what can possibly happen if things turned out the other way.
Hugh Gersnback opens up a new possibility for fiction called “scientifiction”. He writes “Our entire mode of living has changed with the present progress, and it is little wonder, therefore, that many fantastic situations–impossible 100 years ago–are brought here today.” Gernsback continues to write that “they are also always instructive.” This introduction to issue one of “Amazing Fiction” brings forth the idea of New Age literature. He wants to highlight how this isn’t your everyday romance or comedy: it is something you can learn from and reflect upon. Science fiction is now coined and ready to turn into SF.
“The Skylark of Space” is a Scientifiction about a scientist named Dick Seaton who creates an unknown metal “X” that has a penchant to travel to the moon. After getting accused of taking psychoactive drugs by his chemist colleague, Seaton undergoes a Jimmy Neutron-like brain blast to finally realize exactly what happened: he releases the intra-atomic energy of copper. His villanous boss decides to murder or steal from Seaton so he can use the intra-atomic energy to either create a weapon or a power plant, just to make a few extra dollars. After a long-winded, neanderthal-brain argument between Brookings (Millionaire hitman?) and DeQuense (Seaton’s upper), they conclude with Brookings wanting a piece of X himself. With a Dr. Evil gadget, Dequense calls his henchmen Perkins to steal the substance before Brookings does.This escalates into a spaceship mission to rescue Dorothy, Seaton’s love. Aliens give Seaton a lot of jewels and its happily ever after.
Drawing on edisonian literature, scientificion was a new genre in the days of Amazing Fiction that eventually evolves into one of the largest genres and definitions.
In this week’s lecture we learned about proto-science fiction. Professor Ellis discussed some of the notable writers of proto-SF. Starting with Edgar Allan Poe. He’s the originator of the horror story and the great detective story. An innovator in psychological realism and poetic form. One notable work was The Facts in the Case of M. Valdenar 1845. Second writer is Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of the 1850 novel “The Scarlet Letter” and “The Birthmark”. Third writer is Jules Verne. Verne’s writing is filled with optimism about progress. Verne notable works are Journey to the Center of the Earth 1864 and Around the World in 80 Days 1873. The other writers mentioned in the lecture were Voltaire, H.G. Wells and E. M. Forster. “The Time Machine” by H.G. Wells is about a time traveler, who travels into the far future. Going to a world where there’s only two kinds of species, Eloi and Morlocks. Eloi are like the middle to higher class in this world while the Morlocks are the lower class. “The Machine Stops” by E.M. Forster is about a world that relies on technology to live and survive. People become more dependent on machines. It’s just like today. Where everyone lives on their smartphones. People are becoming more dependent on their phones and the internet. Some people need their phones to survive and function well. Just like the story technology has made people lazy. It’s crazy to think if this current generation could live back in time when there were no Internet, Video Games, Smart Phones, etc. And see how we live and act without having any of that.
This week’s lecture mainly discussed how SF is composed of other genres such as fantastic voyages and utopias, it also briefly touched on both H.G. Wells’ and E.M. Forster’s writing styles. Many Proto SF writers and works were mentioned throughout the lecture. some things that stood out were how things outside of the literary world had influenced the science fiction writings. Take for example, the major developments in astronomy would have definitely had people thinking about space and aliens or non-human beings, so it is no surprise when SF literature started to incorporate other worldly characters in it seeing as I’m a big fan of the horror genre I definitely plan on checking out more of Edgar Allan Poe’s work, the first thing that I ever read from him was “Tell-Tale Heart” back in middle school.
When reading the work of H.G. Wells and E.M. Forster the differences and similarities are clear as day. “The Machine Stops” comes off as more of a warning that if humanity were to put all their trust into technology, if we were to rely on it too much it would give technology too much power and the upper hand. In the end when the machine finally falls so do people and we bring about our own destruction in that way. HG Wells “The Time Machine” was similar in that it portrayed potential future where humans slash beings were underground, and some were on the surface. In “The Time Machine” the class distinctions are apparent with the wealthy above on the surface and everybody else below. This story also warns of an ill fate future for human beings if we continue the path, we are on now. It was sobering reading these two stories particularly “The Machine Stops” because I do think I put too much of myself into technology for instance my passwords, bank details and other sensitive information. I would like to think that all that information is completely safe, but the truth of the matter is if anybody wanted to they could find a way to that personal info and potentially use it against me because we created this technology so we can find ways to manipulate it and bend it at our will and use it with malicious intent. Also, the documentary The Social Dilemma is another great example of how an instrument, our phones and social media was initially created to serve us but has somehow flipped the script and we are now at its mercy.
In this week number five, we learned in Professor Ellis lecture we learn about the pre-science fiction and about the French writer Voltarie (who developed the philosophical tale). Furthermore, we learned about the Gadonkan experiment, The gothic genre (definition and characteristics), the romanticism, and Dime novels. Besides, Edgar Allan Poe ( He is the originator of the horror story and the great detective history), Nathaniel Hawthorne ( with his important work “ The Birthmark”), Jules Verne (story theme is Voyage of Extraordinaries).
According to the author Edward Elmer Smith in his story “ The Skylark of Space.” In this story he says that Richard Seaton stared after the cooper steam-bath that he has been electrolyzing with his solution “X”. After Richard took off the breaker started to fly the heavy bath out of his hand with an incredible speed over the table, hitting some chemicals and apparatus and getting out of the room through and open window. After this incident the professor Richard started to think what in reality happened and another chemist that was in the other room asked him what happened, and Richard responded to him that he knows the what and part of the how, but he do not know the why. Then , he continued thinking the scientific explanation of this incident and at the end he said to gets to the conclusion that he had liberated the intra-atomic energy of cooper. After, he thinks that the next day he will show this project to the bureau of Scientifics and even if they do not approve it he will continue researching about this incident. Furthermore, in “The New Sort of Magazine,” Talks about this is a new magazine and if it is true that there are many magazines in the United States, this is the first one that is about Science Fiction . This magazine has made arrangement of the copyrights of Jules Verne stories and this magazine will have exclusive stories from him. Besides, this magazine will have the S.F stories of writers from United States, German, and French writers.
In week 5 we learn about some of the most notable proto-SF writers. The first being Edgar Allan Poe who is known for his horror stories. He lived from 1809 to 1849. Notable works from him are The fact in the case of monsieur Voldenor and the narrative of Arthur gordan pen. The next is Nathaniel Hawthorne who lived from 1804 to 1864. One of his writings was “Rappuchinnis daughter” 1844. In this writing a girl gains resistance to a poisonous plant but in return she herself becomes poisonous to those around her. His other writing discussed in the lecture is “The birth mark” in which a woman is born with a rare birthmark. Her significant other becomes obsessed with the strange birthmark and decides to have it removed from her. In doing this the birthmark is removed but the woman is killed. The next writer is jules verne who lived from 1828 to 1905. This writer was influenced by Edgar Allan Poe and even went as far as to write a sequel to one of Edgar Allan Poe’s writings after his passing. Another writer is heber George Wells that lived from 1866 to 1946. He wrote scientific romances that jumped far into the future while retaining technology we have today but slightly more advanced. His characters also had no distinct identity and were only known as the faceless or nameless hero. E.M forster who lived from 1879 to 1970 wrote “the machine stops.” In his writings he discusses his fear for how technology will effect humans as technology becomes more advanced.
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells has a dystopia sense of the future. The time traveler uses the machine to go into the future and he sees a different world in front of him. The story seems to be occurring during a Victorian time and keeps moving into different time periods. The story points to a capitalist environment and a sense that if the people who are on the bottom overturn and stand up for themselves that they can over throw the top and make changes. The bottom does not have to stay stuck in their position but can use their intelligence and their own strengths to rise above.
The Machine Stops by E.M Forster shows how dependent people are to the machine. In a sense, it has a futuristic feel to it because people are obedient to this machine like how people are addicted to machines now such as computers, cell phones and other electronics. People have used these items in ways to make their life easier. There is also a lack of human interaction because everything is controlled by the machine, simple things that they could do on their own such as pick up their own books from the floor the machines would pick it up for them. There is a strong dependency on the machine and once the machine dies out so do the people.
These two stories although different go hand in hand, The Time Machine showing what could be accomplished by moving forward and The Machine Stops showing what happens if humans keep on being dependent on machines.