Oh, Glen, Glen, Glen..put away the Blockbuster card..go to the Library:
Herbert George Wells (commonly refered to as H.G). He was a Biologist, or at
least partially so trained (T.H. Huxley was one of his teachers), and his
first work was "The Textbook of Biology" (1893)..another contribution
was: "The Time machine" (1895). I think you will find the movie so
credited. He followed with: The Wonderful Visit (1895), The Island of
Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds
(1898), The First Men in the Moon (1901), and The Food of the Gods (1904).
Writng from the pessimism of the time, he eventually became a somewhat
disillusioned socialist, but did produce "positive" perspectives on the
future of man: Anticipations (1901), Mankind in the Making (1903), and A
Modern Utopia (1905). His political position and his writings were flavored
by anti-feudal (ascribed status) sentiments, while recognizing a near
biological predispositon for social stratification in man ("class")
He wrote too early to be anti-Soviet, or even anti-Fascist. The cuddly
ewoks you referred to (Morlocks) had a little practice you omitted in your
"review" of the movie: Periodically, they would come up from their
subterranean habitat to collect individuals from the "maintained herd" on
the surface....and eat them.
He died (1946) before he could see parallels to the horror he wrote in
the psuedo-socialist "evil empire" that followed. He could never compare,
say: the people of Azerbaijan, with the victims of his story.
People who were conscripted as slave labor to pour concrete in Moscow, as
the leaders of the "classless" society only passed through contemptuously,
enroute to the secret resort in Sevastopol.
La Revedere;
Rex H. McTyeire
Bucharest, Romania
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