The Time Machine：More Than Time Travel——《时间机器》英文读后感.doc

Zhang Shudong2018062102118 English(Medicine)22 April 2019The Time Machine: More Than Time Travel Nowadays, Time Travel seems to have become a common subject of science fiction literature, and has been visualized in many science fiction movies. Although this concept is no longer new and even the time machine has its theoretical basis based on the theory of relativity in 1905, back to 1895, more than 100 years ago, this bold idea had already been generated. This is from Herbert George Wells (1866-1946), the pioneer of British science fiction. Recently I just read the famous work The Time Machine published in 1895 written by this sci-fi writer. This book tells a story of a time traveler who invented a time machine and was able to pass freely through the past and the future. But when he arrived in A.D. 802701, he was confronted with a strange and terrible scene. Humans were evolved into two races: the Elois and the Morlocks. The former was beautiful and exquisite, but had lost the ability to work. The latter was with a grim face, worked all day and was accustomed to the dark life underground. The time traveler continued his journey after an adventure and saw scenes tens of millions of years later. Finally, he returned to the present and told his friends about his travel. Soon he went on his second time trip and never came back. As a pioneering work of Time Travel, this book has landmark significance in the history of world science fiction literature. The authors advanced idea undoubtedly amazes the people of that time and even modern people. But what I want to talk about is more than the concept of time travel in this book, but the authors reflections on the problems brought about by the development of modern science and technology. In fact, unlike Vernes optimistic tone I read, Wellstone is full of sadness and pessimism about the blind development of society and technology. I suppose this is closely related to this books creation background. In this book, Wells focuses on evolutionism and class outlook, answering questions about typical humanistic concern in science fiction such as in which direction will mankind evolve? and whether human social development will go backwards. The two branches of human evolution in the fiction fully reflect the harmfulness of blind development of science and technology to human beings. With the continuous development of civilization, the cost is the degeneration of human nature and the loss of human spirit. One human race was simple-minded and weak animals, and the other was bloodthirsty monsters living underground. Human society presented a situation of cannibalism. This is quite in line with Darwins evolution theory. In the long course of human development, human society had lost its sociality, artistic creation and written records, so the civilized society had ceased to exist. This is also related to the background of the impact of the native culture and language of British colonies on British culture at the end of the 19th century. With the rise of many colonial powers, the trend of British submission to colonies had become the greatest fear in British hearts. They feared that one day Britain would suffer such a retrogression and become as ignorant, barbarous and chaotic as Africa. Wells, in his own way, sounded an alarm bell for modern society, reminding people to pay attention to the adherence to the humanistic spirit and the construction of spiritual civilization, otherwise they would follow the same disastrous road of the Elois and the Morlocks. In our daily lives, with the more and more convenient use of technology, many people also begin to be obsessed with material life and neglect their spiritual pursuit. The good traditional morals and values have been gradually abandoned, which is the reason why we should emphasize the construction of spiritual civilization at present. Civilization is not only about tall buildings or advanced weapons, but about the continuation of humanistic spirit.The narrations of two human races is regarded as a reflection of the antagonism between capitalists and the lower mass class at that time. From a point of view, the mutilation of the Elois by the Morlocks can be understood as the overthrow of the British colonial rule by the colonial people who had been oppressed for a long time. So I suppose The Time Machine is also Wells warning to the British Empire that Britain will not be at its peak forever and the day of recession will come sooner or later. This anti-utopian tone reflects Wellsconscious thought as a socialist. Class oppression under anti-utopian capitalism is always a theme of science fiction literature. That is why scientific socialism has more value in practice and exploration.Although the future of human beings in Wellsworks is always pessimistic, it does not mean that Wells had completely lost confidence in the future. At the end of the book, he wrote, And I have by me, for my comfort, two strange white flowersshriveled now, and brown and flat and brittleto witness that even when mind and strength had gone, gratitude and a mutual tenderness still lived on in the heart of man. This sentence conveys Wellsideal and moral voice to readers: as long as human warmth is not lost and their souls are not emp