The Time Machine:More Than Time Travel——《时间机器》英文读后感

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2024年3月31日发(作者：)

Zhang Shudong

2

18 English(Medicine)

22 April 2019

The Time Machine: More Than Time Travel

Nowadays, "Time Travel" seems to have become a common subject of science

fiction literature, and has been visualized in many science fiction movies. Although

this concept is no longer new and even the time machine has its theoretical basis

based on the theory of relativity in 1905, back to 1895, more than 100 years ago,

this bold idea had already been generated. This is from Herbert George Wells

(1866-1946), the pioneer of British science fiction.

Recently I just read the famous work

The Time Machine

published in 1895

written by this sci-fi writer. This book tells a story of a time traveler who invented a

time machine and was able to pass freely through the past and the future. But

when he arrived in A.D. 802701, he was confronted with a strange and terrible

scene. Humans were evolved into two races: the Elois and the Morlocks. The

former was beautiful and exquisite, but had lost the ability to work. The latter was

with a grim face, worked all day and was accustomed to the dark life underground.

The time traveler continued his journey after an adventure and saw scenes tens of

millions of years later. Finally, he returned to the "present" and told his friends

about his travel. Soon he went on his second time trip and never came back.

As a pioneering work of Time Travel, this book has landmark significance in the

history of world science fiction literature. The author's advanced idea undoubtedly

amazes the people of that time and even modern people. But what I want to talk

about is more than the concept of time travel in this book, but the author's

reflections on the problems brought about by the development of modern science

and technology. In fact, unlike Verne's optimistic tone I read, Wells'tone is full of

sadness and pessimism about the blind development of society and technology. I

suppose this is closely related to this book's creation background. In this book,

Wells focuses on evolutionism and class outlook, answering questions about

typical humanistic concern in science fiction such as "in which direction will

mankind evolve?" and "whether human social development will go backwards".

The two branches of human evolution in the fiction fully reflect the

harmfulness of blind development of science and technology to human beings.

With the continuous development of civilization, the cost is the degeneration of

human nature and the loss of human spirit. One human race was simple-minded

and weak animals, and the other was bloodthirsty monsters living underground.

Human society presented a situation of cannibalism. This is quite in line with

Darwin's evolution theory. In the long course of human development, human

society had lost its sociality, artistic creation and written records, so the civilized

society had ceased to exist. This is also related to the background of the impact of

the native culture and language of British colonies on British culture at the end of

the 19th century. With the rise of many colonial powers, the trend of British

submission to colonies had become the greatest fear in British hearts. They feared

that one day Britain would suffer such a retrogression and become as ignorant,

barbarous and chaotic as Africa. Wells, in his own way, sounded an alarm bell for

modern society, reminding people to pay attention to the adherence to the

humanistic spirit and the construction of spiritual civilization, otherwise they

would follow the same disastrous road of the Elois and the Morlocks. In our daily

lives, with the more and more convenient use of technology, many people also

begin to be obsessed with material life and neglect their spiritual pursuit. The

good traditional morals and values have been gradually abandoned, which is the

reason why we should emphasize the construction of spiritual civilization at

present. Civilization is not only about tall buildings or advanced weapons, but

about the continuation of humanistic spirit.

The narrations of two human races is regarded as a reflection of the

antagonism between capitalists and the lower mass class at that time. From a

point of view, the mutilation of the Elois by the Morlocks can be understood as the

overthrow of the British colonial rule by the colonial people who had been

oppressed for a long time. So I suppose The Time Machine is also Wells' warning

to the British Empire that Britain will not be at its peak forever and the day of

recession will come sooner or later. This anti-utopian tone reflects Wells'conscious

thought as a socialist. Class oppression under anti-utopian capitalism is always a

theme of science fiction literature. That is why scientific socialism has more value in

practice and exploration.

Although the future of human beings in Wells'works is always pessimistic, it

does not mean that Wells had completely lost confidence in the future. At the end

of the book, he wrote, "

And I have by me, for my comfort, two strange white

flowers—shriveled now, and brown and flat and brittle—to witness that even when

mind and strength had gone, gratitude and a mutual tenderness still lived on in

the heart of man.

" This sentence conveys Wells'ideal and moral voice to readers: as

long as human warmth is not lost and their souls are not empty, there is a hope for

human beings. While sounding the alarm for human society, Wells didn’t forget

to remind people to seize the glimmer of hope. This is not only Wells'consistent

"benevolence" style, but also the source of the eternal value of his works across

time and space.

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