The Time Machine - Chapter 4

Overall: Well that got philosophical, much more than I thought it would be.

So I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting out of this book but if this chapter is much indication (the book is only 80-some pages, so I’m coming up on halfway through) then The Time Machine is a lot more philosophically inclined than I had thought it would be. It isn’t Heidegger or anything, don’t get me wrong, but I’m comparing it to Jules Verne, who’s probably the name most often invoked alongside Wells when considering this era of science fiction.

However, at least given what I’ve read of Verne (about a quarter of Journey to the Center of the Earth), he was much more into the adventure aspect of science fiction than the more contemplative side which Shelley had introduced and, if this chapter is much to go on, Wells continued. The Time Traveler spends his time in this chapter among the people here in the future (the year 802,701!!!!) and finds them very different than he had expected. Rather than hyper-advanced polymaths, the people are diminutive and childlike. They are peaceful, vegan (as it seems most animals have died out) and generally happy and accepting of The Time Traveler. He lives among the people’s homes and takes some observer’s part in their society, finding them to be interested in him, but childlike in that they tend to lose interest quickly and go about whatever it was they had been doing.

One day, as the sun is setting, the Time Traveler comes upon a hill and proceeds upon a big moment of introspection regarding humanity and the state of the world. While some of it is kinda loaded with evolutionary psychology biofacts (blech) there is a degree of insight into what he says regarding the promulgation of the species and a somewhat peaceful/accepting view of humans at the edge of their extinction. Like, I know this was written while communism wasn’t much more than a theory, but jeez, I have to imagine this book may’ve been challenged throughout the 20th century for its fairly favorable view of these people who The Time Traveler supposes must’ve been the result of a communist restructuring of society at some point in the intervening time.

I imagine this won’t last much longer than this chapter, but it’s really interesting to me when books have these moments in them which touch on wider philosophical/political trends occurring in the world surrounding the text (it’s also why I don’t tend to subscribe to the whole “Death of the Author” thing).

Also: It just occurred to me as I read this chapter. What was the Time Traveler called before he went into the time traveling business?