V. Ainsworth Annotated Bibliography

  1.         Hollinger, Veronica. “Deconstructing the Time Machine.” Critical Approaches to Science Fiction: Retrospects & Prospects 14.2 (1987): 201-21. MLA. Web. 15 Nov. 2014.

In this article, Veronica Hollinger discusses Science Fiction in a few different frames, all relating to one another.  The biggest frame is that of a Newtonian VS Einsteinian view on physics.  Through this discussion, she relates to H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine among other various novels also dealing with time travel.  She also brings up paradoxes we face in real-world terms of looking at time travel.  This will help in my argument for the relation between Wells’s The Time Machine and how it’s use of time travel has impacted not only modern SF but also helped inspire the modern scientific thoughts on time travel.

 

2.         Firchow, Peter. “H. G. Wells’s Time Machine: In Search of Time Future and Time Past.” Midwest Quarterly: A Journal of Contemporary Thought 45.2 (2004): 123-26.MLA. Web. 15 Nov. 2014.

In this article, Peter Firchow discusses Wells as an innovator both in both literary and scientific terms.  He discusses how Wells used the scientific advancements of his time to “provide an up-to-date,  technologically and scientifically grounded rationale for doing something that had hitherto been justified as occurring either by means of magic or though some sort of dream vision”1 This article will help my argument in understanding Wells’ application of what he considered “modern advancements.”

3.         Willis, Martin T. “Edison as Time Traveler: H.G. Wells’s Inspiration for His First Scientific Character.” Science Fiction Studies 26.2 (1999): n. pag. MLA. Web. 16 Nov. 2014. .

In this article, Martin T. Willis discusses the three different roles that Wells’s Time Traveler could fill, focusing deeply on one in particular.  The one he focuses on is the one of the traveler filling the role of a “mythic or other model.”  He goes on to explain how Thomas Edison was a huge influence at the time, and that Wells’s time traveler mimics him in certain behaviors.  This will be helpful in the sense that, despite my dislike of Edison, it will give a background of science that Wells was influenced by to help make claims upon how he influenced what was to come after his time machine.

 

In this tome, Paul J. Nahin analyzes, explains and connects time travel throughout physics and the Science Fiction that has been written.  He goes into detail to explain how and why some “time machines” will not work, and why some might be close to working theoretically.  He talks a lot about Einstein and his theories and advancements and about the following research and understanding that has come about since his death. He references many other science fiction works, including Wells’ Time Machine.  This large tome will be beneficial in helping me form and back up my argument in relating how Wells’s time machine has influenced both science fiction and science.

5.         “S” “Four-Dimensional Space.” Naure 31 (1885): 481. Print.

In this letter to the editor of Nature magazine, an anonymous author, “S.”, brings up the discussion of the fourth dimension as time.  This is cited to be the first discussion of such a notion, and there are speculations to “S.” being one of Wells’s peers or Wells himself.   This is an important letter because Wells uses the concept of the fourth dimension as time heavily in his novel.  This will help me relate his views with what came later in regards to Einstein.

6.            Philmus, Robert M. “”The Time Machine”: Or, The Fourth Dimension as Prophecy.” PMLA 84.3 (1969): 530-35.JSTOR. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.

This article, however focusing a lot on degeneration, has a bit to say about Wells’ Time Traveler and the proposed fourth dimension.  He discusses the necessity for the Traveler to go back at the end of the novel and explains the disbelievability of the Traveler’s speculations and visiosn. This article might not be the most helpful of the articles I’ve found, but it might prove to be helpful.

7.         Sussler, George. “Re-Writing the Time Machine around Mrs. Watchett.” Cahiers Victoriens & Edouardiens 46 (1997): 191-211. Print.

In this article, Sussler picks apart Wells’s The Time Machine in terms of Einsteinian physics with specific focus on the “Mrs. Watchett” scene.  He explains how Wells’s time machine is flawed since it does not move in both space and time.  He discusses many other examples of Wells’s machine not applying to our modern-day understanding of physics as well.  This will be helpful in terms of showing an advancement in the thought of time machines since Wells’s day, and hence his impact.

8.         St. Clair, Justin. “Borrowed Time: Thomas Pynchon’s Against the Day and the Victorian Fourth Dimension.” Science Fiction Studies 38.1 (2011): 46-66. JSTOR/ILL. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.

In this article, St. Clair goes into detail about another author’s SF novel.  In doing this, he explains the influence H.G.Wells, along with two others, had on this author.  He also goes into detail to explain that Wells himself was influenced by E. Abbott and Charles Howard Hinton.  This will aid me in backing up that Wells has inspired both modern SF and Scientific thought with his novel, The Time Machine.

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