[SFRA-L] Wells TTM question: Elio and Morlock appeals

Tue Oct 25 01:08:20 EDT 2011

If memory serves, the introduction to the Signet mass market 
paperback edition of TTM (bound with WW or IM, I think) touches on a 
conversation Wells had with Teddy Roosevelt on this very subject 
during a White House visit. I'm traveling and can't check the major 
biographies just now, but I would imagine that some cite this 
encounter as well. Apologies if this has already surfaced earlier in 
the discussion.

Jon

Jonathan R. Eller, Professor of English
Director, The Center for Ray Bradbury Studies
Textual Editor, The Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury
Textual Editor, The Writings of Charles S. Peirce
Textual Editor, The Works of George Santayana
Senior Textual Editor, Institute for American Thought
Indiana University School of Liberal Arts

At 5:38 PM -0700 10/24/11, Richard Erlich wrote:
>Getting in even later (and probably getting repetitive) ...
>
>If meaning is created in the interaction of audience(s) and text(s); 
>and, if audience members are multiply-situated; and, if 
>identification can get quite weird - as we see in practical politics 
>as well as art - then this is an especially intriguing question for 
>what to make of TIME MACHINE.
>	A mischievous hypothetical: What would/did Teddy Roosevelt 
>make of Eloi and Morlocks? Or, say, a rich jock football player in 
>Dallas or Fort Worth (or a gentleman-thug rugger from Richmond's 
>2011 equivalent)? Or a Columbian feminist artist with Trotskyite 
>leanings, an Olympic bronze in women's soccer, and a good deal of 
>money?
>
>Rich
>
>On 17/10/2011, at 4:47, Sue & Bruce Rockwood wrote:
>
>>I come into this discussion on the tail end of the tale, but this 
>>question of the working class reader reminds me of E. P. Thompson's 
>>The Making of the English Working Class.England had a vital labor 
>>movement, which included labor education on a local decentralized 
>>level, so I would not be surprised if workers read Wells. 
>>Thompson's book got him a chair at Warwick, one of the new 
>>universities Labor created I believe, and he came out of this labor 
>>education movement.
>>
>>Maybe if we offered educational programs for laid off workers, who 
>>knows what we could accomplish.
>>
>>Bruce Rockwood
>>
>>On Sun, Oct 16, 2011 at 10:52 AM, Easterbrook, Neil 
>><<mailto:n.easterbrook at tcu.edu>n.easterbrook at tcu.edu> wrote:
>>
>>I know some of you are Wells experts (hear me, Andy?), and I want 
>>to pick yr brain. I suspect that I could easily research this, but 
>>just at the moment I'm too busy (ok, too lazy).
>>
>>Abt TTM: I've told my students that the setting of Richmond is 
>>significant, since then it was a wealthy town adjacent to London 
>>(what we would call a suburb, and so I make allusions to parallel 
>>areas of Fort Worth and Dallas), and this is then important to know 
>>who specifically the Eloi are descendents of: the residents of 1895 
>>Richmond (and then more generally, the landed and wealthy 
>>classes...). (As it happens, my students are the general equivalent 
>>of the residents of 1895 Richmond.)
>>
>>Which, given the events of 802701, configures the novella's 
>>audience as current residents of Richmond, the future Eloi.
>>
>>But I don't know enuf abt either the specific Heinemann 
>>publication, serialization, or reading habits & markets of 1985. I 
>>know abt the explosion of pulp publication, the increase of 
>>public literacy and schooling, and so forth, especially as these 
>>are central to the development of sf (as for example, analyzed 
>>in the fine discussion of the opening chapters of Luckhurst's _SF_).
>>
>>My specific question: very roughly, what percentage of Wells' 
>>1895 audience would have been future Morlocks rather than future 
>>Eloi; said another way, was TTM read also by members of the working 
>>class; said a third way, is the construction of the "ideal" reader 
>>as a member of the upper-class merely a narrative convention or 
>>an empirical fact?
>>
>>Thanks in advance for allowing me to morlock yr brains (yum-yum, 
>>and just in time for lunch).
>>
>>--Neil
>>
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>>
>>
>>--
>>""We believe we teach students before we teach subjects." And then 
>>we try to live that every day."
>>- Chris Lehmann quoting Nel Noddings.
>>
>>Operor plures res.
>>Nunquam trado navis navis.
>>
>>
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>
>________________________________________
>Richard D. Erlich, Film Script Analyst
>Port Hueneme, CA 93041-3447
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