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Peter Firchow\u2019s H.G. Wells\u2019s Time Machine: In Search of Time Future and Time Past<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Matt Harrison<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The beginning of Firchow\u2019s essay is entirely celebratory in nature. He praises Wells for his innovativeness and names The Time Machine<\/em> as the progenitor of all time-travelling fiction and media. He claims that Wells\u2019s innovations were as much literary as they were scientific. In comparison to the other time-travelling literature of the period, Wells stands alone in his narrative approach to time travel. Firchow cites the examples of Edward Bellamy\u2019s Looking Backward<\/em> and Mark Twain\u2019s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur\u2019s Court.<\/em> Firchow claims that previous authors, \u201cdo not bother to treat the actual journey in any realistic detail. On the contrary, they seem almost embarrassed by it, viewing time travel as more of an obstacle to be gotten over than as an integral part of their narratives. Firchow also claims that Wells was appealing to an audience with a craving to visit strange, exotic places, often under the threat of danger. This was a national zeitgeist that emerged with the close of British exploration and imperialism. Firchow also claims that the novel heavily influenced Joseph Conrad, who read the book at a young and impressionable age, into the writing of his famous exploration into the Congo, Heart of Darkness.<\/em> Firchow also praises Wells for his use of normalcy in the setting of this fantastic journey. Having the story told in the clubroom leads readers towards their natural inclination towards the suspension of disbelief. Firchow also mentions Wells\u2019 \u201cdeliberate, self-imposed constraint that distinguishes the scientific fantasy as developed and practiced by Wells from other sorts of fantasy. His aim is not so much to astound his readers with strange fictions as it is to work out logically and coherently how life would differ, given a single significant change.\u201d Firchow credits Wells with the creation of the original concept of \u201cnovum\u201d a term that we have worked a great deal with in class. What Firchow seems to gloss over is that The Time Machine<\/em> is a novel that seems to contain two novums. There is first and foremost the introduction of the time machine as well as the splintering of the human race into two separate species, one light-dwelling, and one dark. Though throughout this essay, Firchow brings to light the many contributions Wells\u2019s novel has made to literature, story-telling, and science fiction, it seems that he has spent so much time heaping the source material with laudations that he has left little room for true critical analysis.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Firchow, Peter, \u201cH.G. Wells\u2019s Time Machine: In Search of Time Future and Time Past.\u201d The Midwest Quarterly. <\/em>Copyright 2004 Pittsburg State University<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Frank Scafellas’s The White Sphinx and \u201cThe Time Machine\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Chris Young<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In Frank Scafella\u2019s examination of The Time Machine, he focuses mostly on the looming white Sphinx building perched on a brass pedestal, central in the land of the Eloi. Scafella is firstly quick to point out the references to the Sphinx\u2019s role in Greek Mythology. The story of Oedipus involves the titular character being questioned by a Sphinx on his way to Thebes. The Sphinx poses a riddle to Oedipus, asking, \u201cWhat walks on four feet in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three at night?\u201d Oedipus is the first to solve this riddle, answering \u201cman.\u201d Solving the Sphinx\u2019s riddle allows Oedipus to continue on his journey, and the riddle therefore holds contextual significance. Similarly, the Time Traveler is postured by the white Sphinx he encounters in 802,701 A.D. Scafella says that the Sphinx is asking a question regarding the nature of man, specifically, \u201cWhy is it the subjugation of Nature to human needs has led to atrophy of knowledge and intellect?\u201d When not fending off Morlocks, the Traveler spends most of his time trying to answer this riddle.<\/p>\n Scafella continues his argument, saying that the Sphinx is \u201ca statue, a symbol, a work of art,\u201d along with the Sphinx being \u201ca symbol of science.\u201d Scafella plays with the ideas of an Eloi world created and overseen by the works of science and its symbols (the Sphinx), yet lacking any evidence of routine usage of scientific properties or abilities. The Eloi are living under the wings of the Sphinx but not having to answer any of its riddles.<\/p>\n I am very drawn to the article\u2019s arguments. The Sphinx is one of the most mysterious aspects of the novel, grinning on its pedestal. Scafella does a fantastic job of aligning our view of the creature with the view of the Time Traveller, situated with Francis Bacon\u2019s arguments. I am left wondering about Wells\u2019 intentions with the white Sphinx; I wonder how much of Scafella\u2019s argument was authorial intention.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n