The Time Machine

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 October 2019

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas explored in HG Wells' novella, published in 1895, in which the Time Traveller moves forward to 802,701 AD. There he finds humanity has evolved into the Eloi and Morlocks, where the Eloi are small but leisured fruitarians and the Morlocks live below ground, carry out the work and have a different diet. Escaping the Morlocks, he travels millions of years into the future, where the environment no longer supports humanity. The image above is from a painting by Anton Brzezinski of a scene from The Time Machine, with the Time Traveller meeting the Eloi With Simon Schaffer Professor of History of Science at Cambridge University Amanda Rees Historian of science at the University of York And Simon James Professor in the Department of English Studies at Durham University Producer: Simon Tillotson

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts
0:05.0	Thanks for downloading this episode of In Our Time.
0:07.7	There's a reading list to go with it on our website and you can get news about our programs
0:11.6	if you follow us on Twitter at BBC In Our Time.
0:14.9	I hope you enjoyed the programs.
0:17.0	Hello, in 1895, H.G. Wells wrote The Time Machine in which the wealthy time traveler goes
0:23.1	to the 800 and 2,700 and 1 A.D. and is shocked by the future.
0:29.4	The meets the E-Loy descended from elite people like himself, but much smaller, weaker and
0:34.4	aimless, and the more locks the descendants of factory workers who live underground and
0:39.0	farm the E-Loy for their meet.
0:41.6	Wells' exploration of class struggle, evolution and eugenics was informed by the latest ideas
0:46.5	in science and politics and it's been highly influential ever since.
0:50.7	We'd meet to discuss The Time Machine by H.G. Wells' R, Amanda Reese and historian of
0:55.2	science at the University of York, Simon James, professor in the department of English
0:59.8	Donners at Durham University and Simon Chaffer, professor of history of science at Cambridge
1:04.7	University, Simon Chaffer.
1:06.4	How do H.G. Wells start out in life?
1:09.7	Wells' early life is dominated by the fact that he's poor and he's bright and he's young
1:19.2	and he's extremely ill and the first 20 years of his life are a struggle for existence.
1:29.9	What was his illness?
1:31.6	He had lung disease and he broken his leg.
1:36.0	The advantage of having broken his leg is that he kept some time in bed and read avidly.
	...

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