April 13, 2008

Book 14: The Sleeper Awakes

The Sleeper Awakes
H.G. Wells

I have always been interested in time-travel narratives, and H.G. Wells, being one of the preeminent fathers of science fiction, has naturally thrown his hat into the ring. Unfortunately, his predictions of the future have not aged well, though they are sometimes remarkably accurate and show an interesting glimpse of what life was like while he was writing. The Sleeper Awakes, while not a bonafide classic of science fiction, nonetheless presents an intriguing look at the year 2100 that reflects as much on his own time as on our own (which is almost precisely in between Wells's own time and the novel's imagined future). Useful for its vision, Wells is often unclear and the narrative often cluttered, alternating too infrequently between long passages of description, which often become boring and tiresome, and action that often occurs far too quickly to be followed by the reader. Wells has intriguing ideas, but is ultimately unable to combine them with a gripping plot to form a successful book; the pacing is, frankly, terrible, but the book is far from horrible.

The main thrust of Wells's story is the continuing and changing education of Graham, the protagonist who awakes in a foreign world to find that, due to interest and investments on his behalf, he is absolute owner of the future London. Unfortunately, the audience is as clueless as Graham and any subtle hints are entirely missed in the confusion. There is something to be said for experiencing this disorienting future alongside the unfortunate lost soul, but throughout most of the first half of the novel there is no hint of a coherent plot or landscape; everything is muddy and the vertigo experienced by the reader is entirely unpleasant. To top it off, much of this section is devoted to descriptions that end up going nowhere, with almost no plot to hold the reader's interest and justify further reading. Thankfully, the second half sees a spurt of action and connects many of the loose threads from the first half of the novel, but unfortunately these are explained to Graham and he has almost no sense of discovery. For an ultimate ruler, he has strikingly little power and insufficient psychological depth to carry the book.

The reason the book is not a total waste, however, is its predictions, which offer interesting insights into both the 1890s and the historical trajectory of the present. Sure, we don't have single person monoplanes, but modern readers must remember that Wells wrote The Sleeper Awakes a few years before the historic Wright Brothers' flights at Kitty Hawk; what Wells does predict is a sense of open-air combat and dogfighting that remains relevant, though less so, today. This prediction, along with visions of feeding tubes and babble machines (almost literally "talking heads"- sound familiar?) presents a realistic view of our own world and is remarkably prescient, even for a 1921 revision. Wells hit the nail right on the head regarding the population migration into cities and away from rural areas; though he did not forsee the sprawling suburbs of the middle class, he accurately assumed great shifts of people that reflect not only the physical reality of modern urban/suburban spaces but also communities on the Internet and the general sense of globalization that we live with. More interesting than his technology, perhaps, is Wells's vision of future politics. Though, thankfully, we have not seen a resurgence of slavery, the urban underclass today is arguably enslaved by the modern capitalist system. Wells is far from a Marxist and the politics of his novel end ambiguously, but his view of the natural extension of capitalism cannot be ruled out as a viable possibility. Unlikely, maybe, but there are traces of modernity in this fictional system that pits the people against a tyrant ruling "in their name". Most shockingly, this scenario was made full flesh in the Soviet Union under Stalin, and is not impossible under the increasingly top-heavy American capitalist system today.

Overall, then, The Sleeper Awakes is trapped between two extremes: its writing leaves much to be desired and sputters only to suddenly fling the reader along at full speed, but its actual content is relevant and intriguing. The pacing is uneven and ragged, leaving the reader often as lost as Graham, which is not necessarily to the novel's benefit. On the other hand, Wells has proven his credibility in predicting future trends. This book is illuminating for its visions of the future of yesterday and that future's relationship to our own familiar world. Anyone interested in futurology or Victorian visions of today would be interested in this book's raw predictions, though the plot leaves a bit to be desired. Politicians would be wise to read this book in good faith, and Wells carefully treads the line between Marxism and capitalism in his politics. The book ends in an ambiguity that is not frustrating but amazingly appropriate, ensuring that The Sleeper Awakes is at least relevant and interesting to niche audiences.

Grade: B

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hello. This post is likeable, and your blog is very interesting, congratulations :-). I will add in my blogroll =). If possible gives a last there on my blog, it is about the Computador, I hope you enjoy. The address is http://computador-brasil.blogspot.com. A hug.