A few months ago, my local area magazine asked me to do a few articles. The one in March, was supposed to be about time… So, I wrote a first-person Interview with H.G. Wells (after all, I am a novelist, not a journalist). The response was exciting, and I am thinking about doing even more. We’ll see…. In the meantime, the article is below, but first, a few announcements.
I am very pleased and proud to tell you that, ‘A Better Place To Be’, my contemporary fiction novel, based on the Harry Chapin song, has received two special awards: The novel is a B.R.A.G Medallion Honoree; and, was received the Bronze Medallion for Literary Excellence from Ireland’s prestigious DD International Literary Awards.
The novel is available on most retail websites, (Amazon, iBooks, B & N, Kobo, and others) and it is also available in print versions from Amazon, and by order from your local bookstores.
My newest Suspense novel, Desperately Killing Suzanne, was released on June 3rd, and is available in eBook and Print versions… Enjoy!
Now, on to the H.G. Wells interview,
An Interview with H. G. Wells, through The Time Machine
March 1, 2018
Today my guest author is the well-known socialist and author, Herbert G. Wells, currently of London, England. While best known for such works as The War of The Worlds, The Island of Doctor Moreau, and The Invisible Man, he is also known as a futurist, and as ‘the Father of Science Fiction’, along with Jules Verne and Hugo Gernsback.
“Thank you, Mr. Wells, for agreeing to this interview. I’d like to discuss a couple of thoughts that I believe my readers would appreciate.”
“Fire Away, Mr. Wind.”
“Many people around the world look to your works as much more than just fiction. Especially today, where your writing and the theories your writing espoused have mostly proven to be an accurate vision of things to come, or should I have said, things that have become. How do you feel about being held up as a ‘futurist, someone who can accurately see what may happen?””
“Very Good, Mr. Wind, I like the twist to the wording. Many of the things I wrote about have become reality; however, what I wrote about was simply the way my mind worked out probabilities, followed human nature, and put my own emotions into the mix.”
“Your first successful book was The Time Machine, which took its protagonist from your present-day London, to the far future, with stops in-between, detailing how the world (using London as the base) would change along the way. You foresaw World War One and saw another great war after that. You described how society changed at every stop the time machine made, finally ending in what everyone expected to be Utopia.”
“I did, but as we all know, it wasn’t Utopia, just another form of people making other people subservient to themselves. One of my reviewers called it ‘A warning to everyone, everywhere about what they are doing now.’
“I am so impressed that you would think in that way, in 1895, and the reviewer was very insightful.”
‘First of all, the late 1800s were an extremely enlightened time, at least in my social circles in London; however, don’t be impressed, Mr. Wind, I’m a writer of fiction, I make things up, as much as you do. There was no review like that, but it would have been nice to have it.”
“I see. Well, say what you will, but what about your novel, When the Sleeper Awakens? In that novel, you present a theoretical civilization from which parallels can be drawn to those in The Time Machine. This time you write of a protagonist who goes to sleep and wakens 200 years later, in a society he thought he envisioned before sleep, but discovers it to be darkly Dystopian.”
“I see where you are leading. What can I say? I wrote it fifteen years after The Time Machine, after The War of the Worlds, and after The Invisible Man. The 19th century had changed into the 20th century, the final 100 years of the millennium. The automobile was gaining ground, aeroplanes were flying and becoming part of our vocabulary and society. It wasn’t hard to envision, to extrapolate, where the far, far future could lead. How difficult could it be, really? All you need to look at is the way people behave, especially the way those who seek overall power, who want to control everyone and everything. I, um, believe your current president is a man like that… And please do not forget that writing of a possible Dystopian future, is done as a warning, to make you and everyone who reads the work, aware of the possibilities of not caring about others.”
“I understand but—“
“—Sorry to interrupt, Mr. Wind, all that’s needed is for you and anyone else to look to Hitler, look at what he attempted to do. If it weren’t for you Yanks, he might possibly be controlling the world right now. Look to what happened in China! It is still happening, and the threat to everyone’s freedom does not go away. What I write about is human nature. Human nature at its best, is almost god-like: at its worst…I’ll let you deduce the potential results. “
“Mr. Wells, I’m afraid our time is up. It has been a pleasure for me, and I hope for you. I would love to continue this conversation at another time in the future, would you be willing to do so?”
“It would be my pleasure, Mr. Wind, and thank you for having me today.
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Copyright 2/8/2018 by David Wind. This article appeared first in the Platina Post.
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H.G. Wells was born in 1866 and died in 1946, after accurately forecasting both WWI and WW II. He was cremated, and his remains are interred in London, England. Wells has been and continues to be one of the greatest inspirations to science fiction writers and to the legions of fans who have been reading his novels for the past 123 years.