Evolution or Devolution?

"He . . . thought but cheerlessly of the Advancement of Mankind, and saw in the
growing pile of civilisation only a foolish heaping that must inevitably
fall back upon and destroy its makers in the end" (76).
H. G. Wells's The Time Machine (1895)

Points forReflection

Karl Marx's and Friederich Engel's The Communist Manifesto (1848), excerpts, PDF

1. Why might Engels and Marx open by using language that evokes the Numinous?
2. Is it possible to reconcile the use of the words “all” and “almost everywhere” at the opening of chapter one?
3. To what social antecedents in the Middle Ages do our authors trace the bourgeoisie?
4. How long has the bourgeoisie class been ascendent, according to Engels and Marx?
5. The power wielded by the bourgeoisie in both industry and the global market is only possible, presumably, because what type of additional influence accompanies it?
6. The bourgeoisie have apparently eliminated respect and awe for what array of formerly honored professions?
7. Our authors repeatedly critique a free market.  Why?
8. Do the writers approve of the international character now given to market realities?
9. Do you think the authors use the words “rescue” and “idiocy” (4) with serious intent?
10. Do Engels and Marx decry the centralization of production and property?
11. Does the author’s rhetoric about the bourgeoisie unleashing something so powerful they cannot control it (5-6) resonate with any contemporary issues in the twenty-first century?
12. Would John Ruskin, the author of The Stones of Venice, agree with the following claim?  “Owing to the extensive use of machinery, and to the division of labour, the work of the proletarians has lost all individual character, and, consequently, all charm for the workman. He becomes an appendage of the machine, and it is only the most simple, most monotonous, and most easily acquired knack, that is required of him” (6)?
13. How does the rise of machines impact gender roles, according to Engels and Marx?
14. Do our writers consider shopkeepers, handicraftsmen, small tradespeople, and peasants to be proletariats or bourgeoisie?
15. Do these communists believe that nationalist sympathies have grown among the proletariat class during the industrial age, or decreased?
16. What do our writers mean by the claim that “the proletariat is recruited from all classes of the population” (7)?
17. What claims do Marx and Engels make about the situation of modern proletarians which presumably distinguish their present moment in history from every other?
18. Do our authors advocate violence under certain circumstances?
19. Do the communists value native intelligence and education?
20. Why declare that communist principles have not been “invented” nor “discovered” by any reformer?
21. What is the only way, presumably, for property (which exploits wage-labour) to grow?
22. What idea proposed by our writers, if embraced, would make the erasure of private property appear less radical?
23. As they warm to their theme, Marx and Engels begin making stronger and stronger statements, their rhetoric increasingly laced with emotional modifiers and verbs.  Which of their claims land, and which do you think untenable or inaccurate?
24. Upon which observation concerning children do the author’s recommendations about replacing domestic education with social education hinge most?
25. What attitude implicitly emerges towards prostitution amidst this manifesto?
26. Ideological critiques of Communism are swept aside by the observation that humanity’s consciousness—ideas themselves—are the product of what?
27. Which of the manifesto’s ten goals appeal to you?
28. In the event of a revolution, what will inevitably follow, according to our authors?

E. M. Forster's "The Machine Stops" (1909), PDF

1. Do the narrator, Kuno, and Vashti appear similarly comfortable using similes, metaphors, and analogies?
2. Which of Forster's predictions about an electronic future still seem far-fetched, and which have come to pass?
3. Does technology appear to nurture equally the physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual health of humanity?
4. Kuno suggests that his mother's reverence for the Machine must manifest in prayer (2). Is this bit conjecture substantiated?
5. How does Vashti react to her son's observation about a constellation?
6. Which of the Arts appear to have survived, and which have faded, in Forster's fictional future?
7. Why do few folk visit the Earth's surface in this future era?
8. What emotion appears positively correlated with the speed of society's various mechanisms?
9. What parental responsibilities does the Machine encourage?
10. Has The Machine actively encouraged either uniformity or diversity?
11. How do the new forms of transportation accommodate for the weather, natural disasters, as so on?
12. For what array of reasons does Vashti wish to avoid travel in an air-ship?  
13. What constitutes refinement in this new era?
14. Why do humans cease trying to outpace the sun (i.e. the speed of Earth’s revolutions), and what impact does this failure have on human innovation?
15. What do Vashti and others mean whenever they observe that something or other gives them “no ideas”? 
16. For what reasons have Vashti’s fellow travelers boarded the air-ship?
17. Does the narrator use language Vashti herself would consider anathema?  
18. What might Vashti mean by the words “soul” (8) and “spiritually minded” (9)?
19. To what end does this future society use selective abortion?
20. What does Kuno’s mantra of “man is the measure” appear to mean to him?
21. Does the Machine appear to be autonomous, or does it only make changes programmed into it by the Committee?
22. Do either Vashti or Kuno speak or behave in a way that suggests belief in spiritual things, or which recalls religious ritual?
23. What voices does Kuno recount hearing during his journey towards the surface? Is he delusional?
24. What does Kuno mean by his repeated claim that humanity has lost “a sense of space”?
25. When Kuno considers abruptly discontinuing his storytelling, his mother asks him to continue.  She wants to hear about what, and how does this differ from what’s in his mind?
26. Does the push to embrace second-hand and tenth-hand compilations of materials and reject first-hand ideas ring any bells in our own day and age?
27. Why might religion, broadly eliminated alongside technological advancement, reappear as the Machine gains more authority over human lives?
28. At what point does the narrator make an authoritative judgment about the events s/he relates?
29. Under what circumstances do these future folk request death?
30. Does the narrator at any point echo ideas central to Walt Whitman’s oeuvre?
31. Is the conclusion hopeful, tragic, or both?

H. G. Wells's The Time Machine (1895)

1. Are the Time Traveller's conjectures concerning time and space (3-6) accessible to a moderately educated, twenty-first reader? Are we more or less likely to understand what he is describing than would a generic reader in Wells's own time period (c.1895)?
2. Do you agree with the Time Traveller that the process of remembering a past event constitutes a kind of time travel--a movement backwards along the dimension of Time (6)?
3. Tthe Medical Man objects to time travel because it might result in anachronisms (6). What does he mean, and can you generate a few specific, possible scenarios that illustrate his point?
4. What about the Time Traveller is so discomfiting, at least in the eyes of the narrator?
5. Are the names given to the various professionals in attendance (ie. Blank, Dash, Chose, etc.) intended to be comic, serious, or merely descriptive?
6. Note which types of observations and comments the narrator attributes to members of the various professional disciplines represented at the party in the novel's opening chapter. Which of these professionals comes off as more intelligent and knowledgeable, and which less so? Does this intellectual hierarchy hold during the similar meeting (with, admittedly, a differently composed group) which occurs in chapter two?
7. The narrator notes the difficulty of his capturing in words the special quality of the Time Traveller's narrative. He complains that we, the readers, "cannot see the speaker's white, sincere face . . . nor hear the intonation of his voice" (15). Despite these drawbacks, does Wells--speaking through the narrator--transmit the story in vivid enough detail for our imaginations to generate a clear picture of what is described, or does he fail?
8. Does the Time Traveller find any of his expectations about the future realized? Has cruelty "grown into a common passion" and humankind become "unsympathetic, and overwhelmingly powerful" (18-19)? Are those beings he converses with advanced in "knowledge, art, everything (21)?
9. To what process is the Time Traveller alluding when he notes that "culture" is responsible for the creation of "delicate and wonderful flowers" (21)?
10. What difficulties does the Time Traveller face in trying to learn the language of the small beings he encounters (23)?
11. What (faulty) explanation does the Time Traveller come up with to explain the absence of obvious physical differences between the sexes (25), and the edenic, garden-like environment in which he finds himself (26)?
12. To the Time Traveller's mind, will the perfection of human intelligence, education, and cooperation ultimately perfect human existence (26-27)?
13. What variables does the Time Traveller believe must be present for humanity to improve itself (27-28)?
14. Does the Time Traveller believe Art is an important element of culture (28)?
15. Humankind's mental gymnastics and scientific prowess have landed the time traveler in "the most hopeless trap that ever a man devised" (33). Do his powers of reason provide ample tools for getting him out of this situation?
    • Do the time traveler's powers of reason effectively control his emotions across today's reading?
    • Does his intellect provide effective solutions to the problems he faces, and valid answers to the questions he asks?
    • Which of the theories he creates to explain what he sees proves viable? Do any of them?
    • Is his mind powerful enough to ward off the threat of madness?
    • Does the time traveler succeed in his attempts to reason his way past the Morlock’s eating habits?
16. Do these Darwinian ideas floated earlier by the traveler gain credence in today's reading, or are they rejected as irrelevant?
17. What factor, ultimately, matters more to the time traveler in determining with whom his sympathies will lie—the varying qualities of mind he finds in the inhabitants of the future, or their physical qualities?
18. Is the Eloi language more or less complex than our own?
19. According to the Time Traveler, what distinctive qualities separate humanity from other species? Does he behave in accordance with his own claims?
20. How powerful is Wells’ imagination, and how accurate his ability to look into the future? Does he base the future only on ideas, materials, and objects with which he is already familiar, or does he successfully dream up things for which there was no antecedent in his own time period?
21. Does this novel celebrate the accomplishments of humankind?
22. In his approach to solving problems and facing crises, is the time traveler more like a Morlock than an Eloi?
23. What does this novel suggest about the reliability of human perception? About the relative solidity or malleability of human memory?

detail from "The Gateway to the Great Temple at Baalbek" (1841)
David Roberts, RA

Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu