I've been reading a lot of fantasy books, from various sub-genres, and I've read a lot of history books during my studies (still do... getting a bit tired of it actually... not tired of reading and learning, but tired of studying), but finally I've branched out a little into Science-Fiction (I like to call it "Futuristic Fantasy"... but that's just me being evil).
About a month ago, I was searching on the usual online store where I buy my books (yes, I'm contributing to the gradual demise of traditional bookstores, and I should be ashamed... but not having to leave home is too convenient for me to resist), aiming to purchase some fantasy book from my wishlist, when I saw a book: "The War of the Worlds" by H.G. Wells", at a very attractive price (or so I thought) of about 10 euros. The first thing that came to my mind was something like: "oh, I saw that movie, years ago, the one with Tom Cruise". So, in an impulse, I added it to my basket and made preparations to buy it. And then my grandmother called (granny to the rescue) and, after a short talk, I decided to research a bit more about the author and the prices of the books.
I knew that it was a "classic", but I was surprised to learn that the author wrote the book in the late XIX century, which made me even more interested in reading it! What better way to jump from Fantasy and History to Science-Fiction than to start reading some Science-Fiction that is part of History?
And then, I searched for alternatives to the copy that I choose and found an edition by Everyman's Library that contained "The Time Machine", "The Invisible Man" and "The War of the Worlds", in hardcover and priced at around 16 euros (not counting the discount that the store had put on it), simply too good to resist. And so my journey began.
The first "book within the book" was "The Time Machine", so that's where I started. I must say that, at first, it was not easy to get into. The style of writing was very different from what I'm used to and the story didn't seem interesting to me. The "ambiance" of a XIX century "gentleman's club" did not seem to be an environment from where a good story could follow, but I was so wrong. When the "Time Traveler" starts describing his adventures in chapter 3 (most chapters are actually very short - the book is short), then I became instantly hooked. I wanted to know more and more, and I devoured the entire book in one sitting! The writing also became more accessible, literally as if I was one of the men in the room, listening the Time Traveler tell his adventure.
Wells, managed to create a story that can mirror the problems of his time (and ours too, many things have changed, but the problems are similar), and give the reader an interesting narrative. I'm not going to spoil this one, just read it!
Now, it's time for my rant! (I think that I can't bring myself to write here unless it's to rant about something...)
About two days after I finished "The Time Machine", I had an idea for a book that I'm working, I wanted to make a subtle reference to the Eloi and the Morlocks, but I had left the book upstairs... So, lazy as I am, I went to google to get both terms written without typos. There I found that there were various movie adaptations of the book, so I decided that I would watch one at night before sleep (that would be "today", or "yesterday", since it's past 3 in the morning - and the "sleep" turned into writing this). I choose to watch the most recent one, with the same title has the book, made in 2002 and being a remake of the 1960's film.
**SPOILERS** for both the book and the movie below. Again I warn that the following text contains a fair amount of sarcasm.
It's a decent movie... but it completely destroys everything that the book transmits. To begin (this doesn't really ruin anything, but I want to make a point...) the "time traveler" is from New York, and not from London. (but of course... if it was not in the USA, how would the american viewers understand the geography of it? Who on earth would know where London is?). The group of men that gather around the "time traveler" (that in the movie is called Alexander - but that is justified, it would be hard to make the movie from the same perspective as the book), was mostly merged into one character, which is also understandable, what matters the most is the journey of the "time traveler"... but then we spend half the movie without much time traveling. And this is where the movie (in my opinion) committed its first sin. In the book, the "time traveler" desires knowledge, and that is what drives him into the adventure, while in the movie it's all because of love, the entire first half of the movie is basically dedicated to this. Basically "Alexander" proposes to a woman, and then she gets killed and his motivation for the creation of the time machine is his desire to save her by traveling to the past. And then, being unable to save her, he travels to the future to seek for answers. I can just imagine the writer(s) that made the guide for the movie: "What? The protagonist built a time machine all for the purpose of knowledge? What does that even mean? No one will understand what that is! No no, we need something more primal, that will make the public relate to it... they won't relate to this «pursue of knowledge», let's make this a love story." So, the first americanization was this "dumbing down" of the "time traveler".
When the protagonist arrives at the "future" portrayed in the book, he does it by mistake (again, same problem as before), and then he gets into contact with the Eloi. The Eloi are very different from the Eloi of the books, but I guess some of that is the price of moving the plot to New York... the Eloi from the books lived in stone, somewhat modern buildings above ground. The ones from the movie live on some cloth and bamboo tents, on the side of a cliff... ok, why? The Eloi in the books are very simple people (or so it appears at first), they live and rejoice during the day, and sleep in their buildings at night. The Eloi from the movie appear to be a completely normal people, apart from the fact that they do not fight.
In the book, the "time traveler" befriends a Eloi woman named Weena, and shares part of his adventure with her. In the movie, Alexander "befriends" (obvious love interest) a woman named Mara (no harm done... but why? Did they think that people would not see the movie because someone was called "Weena"?). And here again, another sin, another americanization... the protagonist needs his "love interest", he needs to save her and "get the girl" in the end! He needs to be a hero! And so... we need the villains.
The Morlocks in the movie are portrait as typical villains, they hunt and eat the Eloi (just like they do in the book), they take Mara and a lot of other Eloi, eat everyone but Mara, and lock her in a cage so that our protagonist can have his "save the girl" moment. But wait! There's more! Her cage is in a room with the "chief" of the Morlocks! He is super intelligent, he even has psychic powers! And so, we have our main villain... our "dark lord", the one that commands all the "Morlocks", etc etc... Typical American stereotype.
Almost 4 am... gotta hurry and make my point. In the book, there is no hero, there is no love interest, there is no villains! The "time traveler", has problems with the Morlocks, but they are never treated has villains, as they are in the movie. Both Morlocks and Eloi are what they are, the presence of the "time traveler" is a minor happening in both societies. He sees, he learns what he can, and he returns to his Time Machine as soon as he can. There's is no good nor evil, the future that Wells wanted to transmit was inevitable, one man could not change it, less of all in little more than a week. In the movie, Alexander tries to entice the Eloi to fight the Morlocks, when they refuse, he fights them ending up killing all of them by destroying his time machine and settling with his "new girl"... the complete opposite of the message of the original... actually, the same message that we get from most american movies. "Be the hero, fight and kill all that oppose you, get the girl and save the world."
The book is a masterpiece! The movie adaptation is a wasted opportunity, it considers that it's viewers would not be able to deal with intricate thoughts such as "the protagonist is not a hero, and he doesn't kill the baddies".
Anyway... it's late. Rant over.
5/5 for the book.
2/5 for the movie.
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