The Time Machine

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Reading Time Machine Comics	The Time Machine   A new movie version of H.G. Wells' novel The Time Machine came out in 2002, directed by Simon Wells, and starring Guy Pearce, Samantha Mumba, Jeremy Irons, and Orlando Jones.  While the movie was enjoyable in its own right, there were some rather dramatic changes from the original novel, and I'm not sure that they were for the better.   I just recently saw the 1960 movie version, directed by George Pal and starring Rod Taylor and Yvette Mimieux, so I can safely say that Pal stayed much closer to the original novel, making only a few slight changes in his version.   Truthfully, while I had read the original book some time ago, and recently re-read it to make comparisons between it and the newer movie, my first introduction was an old comic book adaptation published in Classics Illustrated back in the 1960s.  In any case, I certainly hadn't seen the movie when I read the comic book, but the comic book ignited my imagination.  It was well-done and effectively told the story.  And, as I later found out when I finally read the original novel, the comic book was a very faithful adaptation, even closer than George Pal's movie.   This isn't my review of any particular version, but rather, a comparison between these versions, and a discussion of the ideas of the story.   As I said, the 2002 movie had some dramatic differences to the other versions.  The first difference is right at the beginning.  While our protagonist, the Time Traveler, is still a scientist from just before the turn of the century, he differs because he is engaged to be married to a woman he loves.  It is because she is killed by a robber that he completes his work on the time machine.  After going back into the past several times and failing to prevent her death, he finally decides to travel into the future to see if he can find out why he cannot change the past.   In the other versions, the Time Traveler has no love interest until he meets Weena in the distant future.  His main desire is more scientific, to find out what wonders man has accomplished in the future, perhaps hoping that a Utopia is possible for man.  In the 1960 movie especially, George Pal seems to be making an anti-war statement, having the Time Traveler despair of the wars of his time, and then having him stop during his time-travelling in 1917 (World War I), 1940 (World War II), and again in 1966 (the near-future when the movie came out) when an even more devastating war is commencing.
	The Plot   In all the versions, the same general plot holds true.  The Time Traveler travels some eight hundred thousand years into the future to discover two very different groups of people who have supposedly descended from the human race:  the Eloi, a simple, child-like people who live above ground in the open, and the Morlocks, hideous underground creatures that maintain the machinery of production and feed on the Eloi, since no large animals (or even no animals at all?) apparently exist on the planet.    The time machine is taken by the Morlocks, trapping the Time Traveler in this strange future world until he can figure out how to get it back.    And that's really about it, except in the movies.  The plot itself didn't seem too important to Wells, functioning more as a device to give the Time Traveler a reason to explore the world and speculate on what he had found.  Except for getting his time machine back, the Time Traveler doesn't really accomplish anything, at least not in the original novel and comic book.    But that wasn't enough plot for our movie makers.  Both George Pal and Simon Wells decide that the Time Traveler has to play hero and destroy the Morlocks for good, freeing the Eloi from their terror.  Furthermore, in both movies, we find out that the Time Traveler decides to stay in the future world to help the Eloi and to be with his new love interest, Weena.   In the original novel and comic book, Weena gets separated from the Time Traveler and is not seen again, presumably killed in the fire that the Time Traveler starts but which gets out of control.  Furthermore, the Time Traveler returns to his original time to tell his incredible story to friends, before he leaves again, never to return.  However, we don't know what time or times he traveled to.  With Weena dead, he may have decided not to return to that particular time, or perhaps he did return and try to prevent her death.  But we don't really know.  It's a shame that Wells didn't write a sequel telling of the Time Traveler's further adventures.  The novel certainly left it wide open, even if the movies didn't.
	The Ideas   As I suggested above, Wells seemed more interested in speculating on the future of the human race than in telling an adventure story.  But what speculations!    He suggests that mankind will evolve into two different species and that they will eventually conquer nature and the problems of production.  But after having solved these problems, both races degenerate from a lack of challenge to the intellect, creating a strange symbiotic relationship between the two races.  The underground Morlock continue to provide food (fruits and vegetables) and clothing (other necessities aren't mentioned) for the child-like, almost helpless Eloi, and in return, they eat the Eloi.  Sort of like raising cattle, but life's good until it's your turn to be eaten.   Our Time Traveler speculates that the proletariat laborers were the ones forced to live underground and serve their elite golden-haired masters who continued to enjoy the good life on the surface, in the sun.  And yet, he empathizes with the child-like blue-eyed Eloi who seem more human to him than the hideous creatures living underground tending to the machines.  He tries but fails to rationalize his empathies.  His empathies are stranger still because the Eloi showed little intelligence and curiosity, aspects that the Traveler valued, instead of the Morlock, who evinced curiosity about the Traveler and his time machine, and who had to have some greater level of intelligence to maintain the machines.  Was our protagonist of science allowing his baser instincts to control him, making judgements based on appearance?  Or did he see the cannibalistic preying of the Eloi by the Morlocks as irredeemable behavior, regardless of their greater intelligence?   It's interesting to note that here and in The Lord of the Rings, there's a certain anti-technology bias, but it's stranger coming from Wells than from Tolkien.  Why should those who work with machinery be considered hideous creatures living underground?  Admittedly, the machinery of Well's time tended to be bulky, ugly, and dirty, but Wells could have imagined that just as technology improves our lives, technology itself could be improved, being made cleaner, smaller, more aesthetic, and more user-friendly.  As we've seen over the course of the twentieth century, that's exactly what happened.  Electronic equipment and appliances are quite different in many respects from the crude electric and steam-powered devices of Well's time.   Interestingly, while there seems to be a large hierarchical divide between the Eloi and the Morlocks, there seems to be little or no hierarchy within the two races.  They seem to live rather communal life-styles with little importance placed on individual distinction or privacy.  Upon discovering that the Eloi had no individual or single family dwellings, the Traveler's first thoughts are of communism. The Time Traveler spent very little time exploring the underground world of the Morlocks and their lifestyle, so it's possible, even likely that there was some kind of hierarchy that he never found out about.  In fact, in the 2002 movie, the Morlocks do have a hierarchy, with different types of Morlocks for different tasks, and a head Morlock who controls the different groups.  The head Morlock plays the bad guy personified that our Time Traveler has to fight, and who engages him in conversation and provides information, whereas in the other versions, the Morlock as a race are the bad guys, and provide no information.   In most versions, the Eloi are child-like, frail, helpless creatures who seem entirely dependent upon the Morlock for their necessities.  But in the 2002 movie, the Eloi seem primitive but not quite so helpless.  While they are unable to fend off the strong, ferocious Morlocks, they do provide for their own needs, making their own clothing and housing, and gathering their own food.  In this version, the Eloi are less like cattle raised for slaughter and more like roaming buffalo hunted down by the Morlocks.  This entirely changes the symbiotic relationship between the two races and makes the Morlock totally evil, because they're feeding on the other race without providing any discernible benefits in return.
	The information problem   One of the more fascinating aspects of the original story is that in spite of the importance placed on the speculations of the Time Traveler, it is emphasized more than once that these speculations may be quite wrong.  Besides the fact that the Time Traveler was only there a few days (no more than a week), and that he only explored a small part of the planet (traveling about 18 miles on foot in one direction and back again), he found no documentary evidence to tell him more about the past or present situation.  He did find a museum, but it was in such a state of decay and disrepair that it provided little information.  He found the remains of books that had long since turned to dust, their words lost to the ages.   The other versions simply assumed that the speculations must be true, and in both movies, the Time Traveler was provided with documentary evidence to support his speculations.  In the 1960 movie, the books were useless, just as in the novel, but there were these "Talking Rings", metal rings that, when spun over a scanning surface, would provide audio playback of recorded information.  A rather ingenious invention for 1960, reminding me of compact discs, though with less surface and a larger hole in the center.  However, I did wonder how long the rings could be made to spin, and what you did if you were a bad ring-spinner.  ;-)   In the 2002 movie, the Time Traveler had documentary evidence provided by an artificial intelligence, Vox (entertainingly-played by Orlando Jones), who functioned as an informative holographic museum guide, and who was still functioning in the far future of Weena's time.
	Social Commentary and Politics   Many reviewers and commentators have pointed out that Wells was criticizing capitalism and the class structure created by wage labor, and that the degeneration of the human race would be the result.  However, at least one reviewer, John Derbyshire at National Review Online, vigorously denies such social commentary by Wells.  As a libertarian and supporter of capitalism, I would certainly like to downplay the importance of anti-capitalism in the original story, but it seems absurd to deny it altogether.  After all, H.G. Wells *was* socialistic in his politics and a member of the Fabian Society.  Still, as I pointed out above, the Time Traveler does seem to harbor doubts about his speculations, and seems to empathize more with the Eloi, the former "masters", than with the Morlock, the former "wage laborers".  It may well be, as Derbyshire suggests, that it was not intended to be social commentary.  Or, since this was an early novel for Wells, it may simply have been a weakness as a writer in not making his point more forcefully.  Or he may have intended the commentary, but preferred not to be preachy to the readers, merely offering it as a suggestion.  In any case, even if Wells did intend the anti-capitalistic commentary,  it's not the reason that so many people think that The Time Machine is a classic of science fiction and literature.
	Time Travel   Many people refer to The Time Machine as a story about time travel.  This is a mistake, I think.  It is certainly a time travel story--the protagonist clearly has his adventure because he traveled through time--but it is not a story about time travel.    Wells wasn't really interested in exploring the intricacies, paradoxes, and other features of traveling through time.  He simply used the time machine as a plot device to allow his character to speculate on the future of the human race.  It is those speculations, those ideas about society that Wells was most concerned about presenting.    If the Time Traveler had truly been a scientist concerned with investigating time travel, he wouldn't have rushed ahead over 800,000 years into an unknown future--that would have been  too risky.  Yet in the original novel, his only experimentation is one slight move of the lever that carries him ahead a few hours, and then his next stop is the world of 802,701!    At least in the movies, they had him make two or three stops, and for plausible reasons, on his way to the distant future.   No, if he had truly been interested in exploring the phenomenon of time travel, he would have made many shorter trips into the near future and near past, traveling only a few hours, a few days, a few weeks, and only gradually increased the amount of time traveled, taking notes and pictures all the while.  He would have taken greater precautions against the initially unknown effects and consequences of time travel.
	Time and Space   If the Traveler's time machine did indeed only travel through time, and not through space, he most likely would have discovered a rather disturbing fact that Wells overlooked:  planetary motion.  For example, if the Traveler used the time machine to travel 12 hours, future or past, he may not be moving in space, but the earth would have spun on its axis.  12 hours through time would leave him at a spot halfway around the world, not the spot he started at.  A full 24 hours of time travel would be necessary for him to end up in the same spot he left.   Furthermore, the earth travels in orbit around the sun.  Several days of time travel might either put him somewhere inside the earth, or way up in the sky, but not at ground level.  Several weeks or months would leave him in the cold of space while the earth was somewhere else in its orbit.    Finally, the whole solar system itself is moving, carrying the earth along with it.  Time travel through several years or decades might leave the traveler outside the solar system.  Centuries of time travel would have the solar system leave him far behind.  He might get very lucky and end up on another planet or moon, but more likely he would just end up in the vacuum of space with nothing close by.   Brr!  Such a phenomenon would make time travel much more difficult and less practical.  But we can forgive Wells for overlooking such complications because this isn't a story about time travel, but about the future of the human race.
	The End of the World   One section of the original story that was not included in the movies was the end of the world.  In both of the movies, the Traveler does travel farther into the future, but in the original novel, he travels incredibly far, millions of years into the future.  Stopping at one point, he discovers that the only life left is lichen, giant crabs, and giant butterflies.  The sun is large and red, the air is rarified, and the scene is very desolate.  The gravitational forces have reached their final conclusion.  There are no tides, no winds, and the earth's rotation has stopped.  The end of the earth was nigh.   Going even further, he finds no more crabs and butterflies, but some unidentifiable black, tentacled thing flopping about.  Overwhelmed by horror, the time traveler manages to pull himself together and travel back in time again.   Obviously, this future scene was meant to display the desolation, the futility, the hopelessness of human effort, that absolutely nothing remained to show that humans had ever existed.  But maybe there's more to it.  Another commentator suggested something that hadn't occurred to me.  Perhaps the crabs and butterflies represent the Morlock and the Eloi?  Perhaps the Morlock and Eloi actually continued their degeneration to eventually become the crabs and the butterflies?  After all, there were no animals in the time of the Morlock and Eloi.
	Themes   Science Fiction is sometimes called "the fiction of ideas", and The Time Machine illustrates this well.  One of the reasons it's a classic is because it was the first at not one, but three different types of science fiction stories.   First of all, it is of course a time travel story.  However, as I've pointed out above, Wells' main concern was not about exploring the concept of time travel, although he did set it up fairly well in the beginning of the story.   Second, it was a speculation on the future of the human race.  He tried to tie socio-economic ideas into human evolution, that capitalist economic practices could lead to evolutionary changes in humans.  While this doesn't really hold together very well if you look at it too closely, it still manages to make the reader think about the possibilities.    Lastly, he looked at the end of the earth and sun.  Does all this astronomical and physical stuff have an ending?  There are things we know now that they didn't know in 1895, but Wells made good use of what science did know in his time.  Even here, though, the end of the earth scene seemed to reflect on the evolutionary end of the human race, especially if the crabs and butterflies were degenerated Morlocks and Eloi.   But there was one more theme, one more speculation that he tackled:  the question of the human spirit and human nature.  When the Time Traveler arrived in the distant future of the Morlock and the Eloi, man's greatest achievements were already in the past, although some evidence of those achievements still lingered in the time he visited.  Most notably, man had conquered nature, making the earth of Weena's time like a huge park.  The Traveler speculates that men, having overcome great challenges, settled into complacency and started degenerating because of a lack of challenge in life.   Even this theme could be discounted, because it's easy to see that even if men conquered some of the great problems facing us, there would still be new frontiers and new challenges to face.  But this doesn't discount the possibility of human laziness, that having solved the most pressing and essential problems of strife and production, men decided to enjoy the fruits of their labors instead of continuing their labors in new areas.  This theme could be considered a warning to us, that we as human beings have a choice, but if we make the wrong choice the results will ultimately be fatal.
	The Style   I said earlier that the plot was of secondary concern to Wells, a mere device that he used to advance his speculative ideas in the book.  But that doesn't mean that it's not a well-written book.  Typical plot and stylistic devices of the Victorian age abound in this book.  Having the protagonist narrate his adventure to friends, the wordy verbiage and vocabulary more common to an older time, and, of course, the relating of the protagonists' thoughts and emotions to help advance the story.    Nonetheless, Wells manages to set the scenes, tell an exciting and interesting story, explore the gamut of human emotion, and present his speculative ideas without breaking the mood or the pace of the story.  Perhaps one of the reasons it's well-written is that he was focused on presenting his ideas, not upon expounding at length about his philosophy, or showing off his vocabulary in an excess of purple prose, or constructing a complicated plot that would have buried everything else about the story.    This is a short novel, by any standards, and it is that very concise quality that keeps any pretentious nonsense from becoming overbearing to the reader. Wells touches on a lot of different things, but doesn't dwell too long on any particular aspect.
	Classic Literature   So what is it that makes The Time Machine a classic in literature?  The same thing that makes any literary work a classic.  It has a timeless quality that reaches beyond the particular time and place it was written in, that reaches beyond even any particular intent or design of the author, and has something to say to readers of all times and places.    The Time Machine engages both the reader's mind and his heart, and helps us to understand the human spirit.  That's why it's a classic, and that's why the movies, as good as they are, are ultimately disappointing.  Changing the original material not only changes what Wells meant to say, but also what he *didn't* mean to say, which nonetheless still reaches out and strikes a chord with readers.   If you've never read the book or seen the movies, I would recommend following a reverse chronological order.  See the 2002 movie first, then watch the 1960 movie, and only then pick up the original 1895 novel to read.