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Tuesday 22 September 2009
H.G. Wells Predictions Ring True, 143 Years Later

Though in many ways ahead of his time, H.G. Wells was also a keen critic of his own place and era.

Co-starring the Morlocks—descendants of 19th-century working-class humans, who live literally under the childlike Eloi class, the descendant upper-crust Britons—“The Time Machine was a kind of cautionary tale of social stratification, and where that might ultimately lead,” Oltion said.

The theme would have been especially resonant in turn-of-the-century Britain, where the industrial revolution was making ever plainer the strikingly different lifestyles of the workers and the middle and upper classes.

“One of the jobs of science fiction writers is not so much to predict the future as to prevent the future,” Oltion added. “In that regard, Wells did a very good job.”

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