From: "Strong, Lee" <StrongL at MTMC.ARMY.MIL> To: "'WSFA members'" <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net> Subject: [WSFA] Re: The Time Machine (2002) Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2002 08:43:03 -0500 Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net> A number of good points here. First, I read the novel and appreciate its groundbreaking theme. One thing that strongly influences this discussion is that Wells chose to set the critical action in the 803rd millenium and the movies followed him on this point. As Keith points out, this creates a number of logical problems summarized as Why should the Eloi and/or Morlock culture(s) exhibit any survivals from our own civilization? However, too much strangeness results in a different story and possibly one that modern viewers/readers would have trouble understanding. "Cheats" are intended to help the viewer/reader, not to confuse the audience or to exercise logicians. I agree with many of Keith's points logically, but strict adherence would result in bad storytelling. As I recall, during the 1960s someone did an American Indian point of view Western called _Cheyenne Autumn_ in which all of the Indian characters spoke Indian languages and no translation was provided. The movie bombed at the box office. Why did I suggest 21st Century genetic engineering as the cause of the Eloi/Morlock split? Because I consider it to be a realistic potential threat that could result in the story requirements. I enjoyed all three _Back to the Future_ movies and _It's a Wonderful Life_. I also recommend _Fatherland_ and _The Philadelphia Experiment 2_ for Nazis win World War II alternate history stories. My comments on the Time Traveler's experiments in altering time really supported Keith's comments (and plugged my own interest in alternate histories). Concerning Morlock activity cycles, I certainly missed the uber-Morlock saying that his people were exclusively nocturnal. I do recall the female Eloi's surprise that the Morlocks were out and about during daylight hours. The fact that the Morlocks were out and about proved that they are capable of daytime activity even if they prefered darkness. Maybe the uber-Morlock was speaking of his own preferencece for darkness. Concerning Eloi defensive measures, the Eloi thought they were taking adequate measures or the best measures that they could take, but those measures proved inadequate. There is an obvious motive for intelligent predators to allow their prey to think that inadequate defenses are "actually" adequate. If nothing else, this discussion proves that remakes are an attempt to predict the future, but a method of limited effectiveness. Lee/3/Right -----Original Message----- From: Keith F. Lynch [mailto:kfl at keithlynch.net] Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2002 1:10 AM To: WSFAList at keithlynch.net Subject: [WSFA] Re: The Time Machine (2002) > The Moonfall disaster was just bad science intended to justify the > evolution of Eloi and Morlocks. Keith's comments are well taken. > I would prefer to justify the genetic divergence by reference to > 21st Century genetic engineering. Why 21st century? The problem with setting something in the 8028th rather than the 22nd or 23rd century is it's so distant. Their story would probably have little to do with anything we know. It's like skipping ahead hundreds of volumes when reading an interminable "trilogy". You're reading the sequel of something you haven't read. The events of the 803rd millennium are no more likely to be the direct result of anything that happens in this century than to be the direct result of the fall of the Roman Empire, which was, after all, just two more millennia back. > H.G. Wells thought that "ordinary" evolution would accomplish the > changes. Actually, his novel is most noteworthy for what it *doesn't* say. It never says what the cause of the split is, though the (unnamed) time traveler speculates. It's realistic in that someone visiting a non-literate culture for just a few days is unlikely to get a very good idea of what's going on, much less of how things got into that state. His novel is in the public domain, and can be read online at ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext92/timem11.txt It's only about 32,000 words, which means that by the Hugo rules it's a novella, not a full novel. Unlike much of what he wrote, it's still a good read. > Once alternate time tracks are introduced, we really have a separate > concept from Wells' original and I would like to see a separate > movie explore this concept more fully. The three _Back to The Future_ movies did so, though not very consistently or realistically. Still, they're fun to watch. _It's A Wonderful Life_ is another example, in which a man gets to visit a version of his home town in which he had never been born. > Anyone notice that Luke Skywalker, Commander Adama, Princess > Antillia and the Klingon High Council et alia speak good English > even if some of their written languages are non-English? And so do Germans in WWII movies, and Hobbits in LoTR. It's understood that they're supposed to really be speaking their own language. Of course that doesn't work when it's necessary to portrary their interaction with someone who really is speaking English, and where there's no plausible way they could have learned English, or the English-speaker could have learned their language. Some Germans know English, and some Hobbits know Elvish, but no Americans speak Eloi, and it's completely unbelievable to me that any Eloi would speak English, even if they could read it, which is almost as unbelievable. > Regarding the activity cycle of the Morlocks, in this version, > they're not nocturnal. The uber-Morlock said they were. And the Eloi certainly made sure they were off the ground and the ladders pulled up before sunset, while taking no precautions at all during daylight hours. > Regarding the ability of the Morlocks to burglarize the Eloi > village, the Eloi defensive techniques are ineffective against > Morlock spies. What's the point in living on cliffs and pulling up the ladders at sunset, then? Why not live somewhere more convenient, if it would be no less safe from Morlocks? The best part of the movie was the previews. And the best preview was for something called "Clockstoppers," about a gadget which can stop (or at least greatly slow) time, so one can walk through a landscape that's like a still picture. It opens in two weeks. Of course H.G. Wells wrote one of *those* stories too. (He wrote the first example of almost everything.) It's online at http://www.classicreader.com/read.php/sid.6/bookid.172/ -- Keith F. Lynch - kfl at keithlynch.net - http://keithlynch.net/ I always welcome replies to my e-mail, postings, and web pages, but unsolicited bulk e-mail (spam) is not acceptable. Please do not send me HTML, "rich text," or attachments, as all such email is discarded unread.