The Time Machine (short story exerpt) by H.G. Wells (03/22/2015)

[Nathan, First Tiger]

This week we read a short excerpt from The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. Chapter 3 which you can read here. http://www.bartleby.com/1000/3.html
The scene is of the traveler explaining his machine and the first experience of traveling. The complete novel is also available for free as an eBook in a variety of sources.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Time-Machin...

http://www.planetebook.com/The-Time-M...

https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebo...

Even in audio
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6620

[Nathan, First Tiger]

Has anyone in this discussion not read The Time Machine? If so, how do you feel about this excerpt?

For those of you who have read the novel, how does Well's prose compare to modern time travel books you are reading?

[Jaime]

I have read just about every sequel to the TIME MACHINE and have always been disappointed with the writing styles. They didn't have the H.G. touch. Only one seemed to capture the style and dovetail with the original...Can't mention the name because I'm the author.

[Amy, Queen of Time]

Jaime wrote: "I have read just about every sequel to the TIME MACHINE and have always been disappointed with the writing styles. They didn't have the H.G. touch. Only one seemed to capture the style and dovetail..."

I'm going to deem it on-topic and say that you can talk about it. This is it, right? Epilogue: Time Machine Chronicles

[Amy, Queen of Time]

Ah, here's my original thoughts on the book as a whole:

I gave it 4 out of 5 stars because it lacked a certain something. I think it has to do with the formality of the 1st person narration in the part where the Time Traveler is telling his story. It's not so much that language was more formal for the time but that there's a certain level of observational distance that the Time Traveler seems to keep from the story that he's in. He plays the part of thinker and observer foremost rather than the part of a true explorer. He seems to approach everything like a scientist looking at life under a microscope. And maybe that's intentional since the Time Traveler is a scientist observing a time that's not his own -- a time that he hopes to escape from. Everything in this future world for him is a shade of unreal. The people are subhuman to him. Perhaps the problem ... the something that I couldn't put my finger on about why this book isn't a better book ... is that I don't much care for the Time Traveler himself.

[Jaime]

Yes Amy, You are right. That is my book. I find your further comments about the TIME MACHINE interesting because, for the most part anyway, I agree that the Time Traveler carried himself with a sense of superiority (and on some levels he was ). However, being human, he is basing his assumptions on what he sees and experiences. So after studying and reading much literature from the authors of the time period (especially H.G.) I tried to capture the "prose" of that time and dealt with the Time Traveler's personality while taking the story in a direction that I felt H.G. himself would approve of. Took from 1987 to 2010 to finally get it right--Thanks for letting me blab a bit about it---Jim

[Nathan, First Tiger]

I am not a fan of the detached tone either. I do like the bits of personality and humanity that peek through in this excerpt though, like when he stops the machine primarily because he is scared to. I like that he goes against safety and just acts on impulse. Makes a good momentary counterpoint to his usual scientific nature.

[Cheryl]

And that impulsiveness is the thing that bothers me most about the novel. All he brings are matches?! I guess a writer would recognize the value of that device, but as a reader I see it as, at most, a gimmick.

I'm not going to read the excerpt, sorry. I read the novel fairly recently and recall it being more accessible than I'd feared, both in style and theme.

[Jaime]

Cheryl-He was completely unprepared for his first visit and he had matches only because he smoked a pipe. Even towards the end of the novel, as he prepares for his second visit--I quote now--"He had a small camera under one arm and a knapsack under the other." So he was aware of his impulsive actions during his first visit, and sought to correct them..

[Glynn]

I read the excerpt and liked it a lot (4 stars.) Brought back some memories of when I read the book millions of years ago. The H.G. style is very different from today and I like it. Jaime I have put your book on my TBR virtual pile of books. :)

[Lincoln, Temporal Jester]

'The peculiar risk lay in the possibility of my finding some substance in the space which I, or the machine, occupied. So long as I traveled at a high velocity through time, this scarcely mattered; I was, so to speak, attenuated - was slipping like a vapour through the interstices of intervening substances! But to come to a stop involved the jamming of myself, molecule by molecule into whatever lay in my way; meant bringing my atoms into such intimate contact with those of the obstacle that profound chemical reaction - possibly a far-reaching explosion - would result, and blow myself and my apparatus out of all possible dimensions - into the unknown. This possibility occurred to me again and again while I was making the machine; but then I had cheerfully accepted it as an unavoidable risk - one of the risks a man has to take!

This makes me laugh so much...I might cause an explosion the likes of which has never occurred and I might blow myself out of all possible dimensions...but hey its a risk I am willing to take....Not only take but a man has to take!

[Jaime]

Hello Glynn-Thanks for your interest in my book. I sought VERY hard to transport the reader along side the Time Traveler in his journeys. Hope the story sweeps you away and distracts you from the everyday headaches and worries that we all experience in life. I certainly look forward to hearing your thoughts about it. Thanks again--Jaime (Jim)

[Jaime]

Lincoln wrote: "'The peculiar risk lay in the possibility of my finding some substance in the space which I, or the machine, occupied. So long as I traveled at a high velocity through time, this scarcely mattered..."
Hello Lincoln--in defense of the Time Traveler--He goes on to say "Now the risk was inevitable, I no longer saw it in the same cheerful light." end quote. It was a risk he had to take if he was to travel in time. He must have felt the same doubts and fears as the early sailors who feared sailing off the edge of the world. After weeks of sailing into the unknown with no land in sight their bravado must have withered away and any 'cheerful light' that they shared before their journey grew dimmer with each passing day. Like them, he was going into the unknown. And he was probably right as far as the "far reaching explosion." After all, atoms smashing into atoms is the basic principal of nuclear weapons...Just saying...Jaime (Jim) Batista

[James]

Nathan wrote: "Has anyone in this discussion not read The Time Machine? If so, how do you feel about this excerpt?"

I haven't.

I read War of the Worlds many years ago and this is the next thing of Wells, that I've read. I enjoyed the writing and even noted, a few times, how nicely he phrased things.

I suppose a suicide who holds a pistol to his skull feels much the same wonder at what will come next as I felt then.

His flushed face reminded me of the more beautiful kind of consumptive – that hectic beauty of which we used to hear so much.

Nice.

Guess I'll have to find time (hah) to read some more of Wells.

[James]

Nathan wrote: "I am not a fan of the detached tone either. I do like the bits of personality and humanity that peek through in this excerpt though, like when he stops the machine primarily because he is scared to..."

Yes, sticking strictly to this excerpt (since it's all I've read), I like the tone.

I liked his feelings, from rapt engagement, to rising excitement, to fear and uncertainty... all with curiosity... his near-panic in trying to right the machine...

[Jaime]

James wrote: "Nathan wrote: "Has anyone in this discussion not read The Time Machine? If so, how do you feel about this excerpt?"

I haven't.

I read War of the Worlds many years ago and this is the next thing ..."

It will be ---TIME---well spent..