Issue #21: The Works of H.G. Wells
-
H. G. Wells and Stories That Go On
Herbert George Wells is one of those authors whose work everyone sorta kinda knows, but very few can discuss in detail.
“Didn’t he write 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea? How about Around the World in 80 Days?”
No, that was Jules Verne.
H. G. Wells is the one whose first novel, The Time Machine, was an instant hit and the first of a series of works that foresaw air travel, space travel, nuclear weapons, and satellite television.
He was a prolific writer, cranking out 51 novels, over 70 works of nonfiction, over a hundred short stories (along with several dozen short story collections), and three dozen articles. While modern readers associate him with science fiction, the four works we’ve chosen to focus on here: The Time Machine, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Invisible Man, and The War of the Worlds, focus more on the social effects of extraordinary occurrences than on how those occurrences are achieved.
This style of writing prefigures writers as disparate as Stephen King and Haruki Murakami whose formula is much the same—one extraordinary occurrence, and then a close focus on the people affected by it.
But I’ll just go ahead and say it: while Wells had some impressive thoughts and big ideas, his writing was...let’s just say “very much a product of its time.” There are some circles in which I’d be soundly denounced if I admitted that Wells has a tendency to tediously long descriptions of clothes, scenery, food, but have all the good stuff happen just off camera—exactly how the time machine is able to move forward in time, or the process by which a puma turns into a woman. It makes much of his writing feel like a tease.
It is, however, a measure of the innovativeness of his ideas that dozens of films and thousands of short stories and novels have been based on the original works of H. G. Wells—so many other authors and artists have understood the genius at the heart of the work and sought to improve on its delivery.
But if you want to hear H. G. Wells interview all of your favorite authors, I would encourage you to have a listen to The Dead Authors Podcast, available on most podcast apps, wherein, via the legendary time machine, H. G. Wells interviews literary luminaries from history. And in the meantime, please enjoy all that this issue has to offer!
Lise Quintana
MANDEM
I Am the Sayer of the Law (cover)
MANDEM has been artist-in-residence at Il Palmerino (Florence, Italy) and Negative Space Gallery (Cleveland, Ohio). Their painting series “Hypermobility” has been awarded two consecutive grants from the Ohio Arts Council.
Carina Bissett
The Perils of Invisibility
Carina’s short fiction and poetry have been published in Hath No Fury, Gorgon: Stories of Emergence, Mythic Delirium, NonBinary Review, and the HWA Poetry Showcase Vol. V. Her work has been nominated for several awards.
Darrell Urban Black
Six Pathways to Parallel Existence
Darrell has artwork displayed in galleries, museums and other institutions in America and Germany. He is a member of the Veteran Artist Program abroad (EuroVAP).
Kersten Christianson
Reading Science Fiction Again
Kersten is the author of What Caught Raven’s Eye (Petroglyph Press, 2018) and Something Yet to Be Named (Aldrich Press, 2017). She is also the poetry editor of the quarterly journal Alaska Women Speak.
Carrie L. Clickard
RSVP—Mars
Carrie’s [aka Clarice Radrick] work has appeared in Mirror Dance, Light, Literary Nest, Defenestration, Poet’s Haven, and Enchanted Conversations. For more information visit www.clclickard.com and www.clariceradrick.com
David E. Cowen
The Homilies of Edward Prendick
David is the author of Sixth and Adams (PW Press 2001), The Madness of Empty Spaces (Weasel Press 2014), The Seven Yards of Sorrow (Weasel Press 2016), and Bleeding Saffron (Weasel Press 2018).
Jessica Renee Dawson
A Letter to Mrs. Hall
Jessica is presently studying under award winning poet, Lynne Knight. Dawson’s works have appeared in journals including: Poetry Quarterly, INK IN THIRDS, Haiku Journal, Wild Plum, and NonBinary Review.
Denise Dumars
The Crying Puma
Denise was nominated for a Rhysling Award for her poem “Mars Must Remember.” Pumas live within the County of Los Angeles, not far from her home in L.A.’s South Bay, but are dying from eating animals killed by rat poison.
Angele Ellis
Reflections on The Time Machine
Angele is author of Arab on Radar (Six Gallery), Spared (Main Street Rag), and Under the Kaufmann’s Clock (Six Gallery), a fiction-poetry hybrid with photos by Rebecca Clever.
Dennis Etzel, Jr.
The Time Traveller
Dennis’s work has appeared in Denver Quarterly, Indiana Review, BlazeVOX, Fact-Simile, 1913: a journal of poetic forms, 3:AM, Tarpaulin Sky, DIAGRAM, and others. Etzel is the recipient of a 2017 Troy Scroggins Award.
Lara Frankena
Invisibility, Just; A Woman Writing
Lara is a Midwesterner by birth and a Londoner by chance. Her poems have appeared in publications such as Poetry News, Cream City Review, and Midwestern Gothic.
John Kiste
Grodlik
John is an Edgar Allan Poe impersonator who has been published in A Shadow of Autumn, Modern Grimoire, Dark Fire Fiction, Theme of Absence, and in Haunted Are These Houses, and the Camden Press anthology Quoth the Raven.
Brian Quinn
The Tripod
Brian has illustrated children’s books, literary fiction anthologies, speculative fiction magazines and sci-fi, fantasy and horror magazines. He uses different media but almost always ends up in Photoshop.
J. Nelson, Jr.
Far Too Short a Day
J.’s story “First Night’s Always Free,” was published in NonBinary Review Issue #19 and will be available on Amazon. He is currently workshopping two novel manuscripts: a steampunk western and a sci-fi thriller.
Sarah Nichols
Inaudible Things
Sarah is the author of She May Be a Saint (Porkbelly Press, 2019) and Dreamland for Keeps (Porkbelly Press, 2018). Her work has also appeared in The Fourth River, FreezeRay, and Glass Poetry’s Poets Resist Series.
Gretchen Rockwell
Invisible? Man, I Wish
Gretchen’s work has appeared in Glass: Poets Resist, Into the Void, Noble/Gas Qtrly, New Plains Review, and elsewhere. Gretchen enjoys writing poetry about gender and sexuality, history, space, and unusual connections.
David Sims
The Thing in the Forest
David’s comix can be seen in the Nashville Review, Talking Writing, Nunum, and Arkana; his digital paintings appear in pages of the Raw Art Review, Burningword, and Stonecoast. He can be reached at tincansims@gmail.com.
Kayla Stansbury
The Man Alone
Kayla is a writer and an educator based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She is a PhD candidate in Comparative Literature at LSU. Her debut poem, “Saudade,” can be found in Dovecote Magazine.
Toeken
The Island of Doctor Moreau
Toeken has published in Unfading Daydream, Hinnom Magazine, Sq Magazine, Lackington’s, The Future Fire, The Drabblecast, Helios Quarterly, Kaleidotrope, Crimson Streets, RobotDinosaurs, and Ares Magazine.
Rekha Valliappan
The Specter of the Shifting Sands
Rekha’s credits include publication in Lackington’s, GHLL, Aphelion, Foliate Oak, Thrice Fiction, Madras Courier, Liquid Imagination, Schlock!, Queen Mob’s Teahouse, and elsewhere.