Jules Verne was something of a socialist as well, but a different flavor. So was Jack London. While Wells was known for what we call Science Fiction today, a vast majority of his work was general drama and romantic fiction. I published one of his synopses (a drama called The Wheels of Chance) in my book THE SYNOPSIS TREASURY. He was looking for an American publisher for the book. My book is a collection of actual successful synopses and submissions that were sent to industry and landed publishing contracts for their authors.
As a native of Oakland, California I was severely disappointed to find out that London was a more-than-casual racist. Against blacks as a matter of self-identity and against the Chinese (and ostensibly, Asians in general) to seemingly genocidal ends. It's a shame that two great writers of the Victorian era would have such thoughts, but also telling of the thinking of that time in general.
@@staceymeans134 As a native of London, England I have been severely disappointed to see how many influential and contemporary black leaders in America express extreme racist views - unless you would like to believe that Louis Farrakhan and Al Sharpton (for example)are middle-of-the-road moderates.
I'm currently reading We by Soviet writer Yevgeny Zamyatin, a science fiction novel banned in the Soviet Union in 1922, about a post-apocalyptic global society based on science and mathematic order - all twisted, of course, to control and submerge anything we would see as human love, caring and emotion. According to the intro by Bruce Sterling, Zamyatin managed a publishing house printing translations of works from English authors, including those of H G Wells. Sterling also says that George Orwell read an English translation of We - but it seemingly isn't known if Wells also read it. Zamyatin died in 1937, before Wells' eyes were opened to the evils of a eugenics-based society by the Nazi horrors of WW2. Thank you for this excellent video on Wells, Socialism and the social upheavals of the early 20th century.
We, can be interpreted as a fear of losing our idealistic religion to a scientific materialism that encouraged anti-communist tropes in support of capitalist imperialism that was perpetuated throughout the rest of the 20th century by Western Marxism.
Great analysis! A bit chilling, given recent events. I do think good writers need to have empathy and compassion and it seems like it was core to Wells’ being. Love that he stood up to Lenin.
I am running to the descriptions to be found of the meeting between Wells and Stalin, on reading “When the Sleeper Wakes” (1898) I found his character Ostrog to be remarkably prescient .
Most everyone believes they have found the secret and unrealized path to their idealized world. Most everyone is wrong, and the ones that may be right likely lack the power to realize that ideal.
Given the scope, speed and trajectory of global environmental collapse along with the chronic state of war, not really sure if it matters which authoritarian ideology wins the right to molder in the ashes of a dying civilization. It is sad to think that will be our legacy. (holy shit this got dark)
Socialiam is NOT an authoritarian ideology. You are brainwashed by capitalists. And no, the Soviets were never socialist. Socialism: stateless, classless, moneyless, fully democratic society. Sounds like the Soviet Union? Nope, I agree, it doesn't, because it wasn't any of those things.
Stages of civilisational grief dude, butterfly or phoenix the choice is ours. I agree with Damo, the power of story can save us from more collateral ashes than needed through a new better mythos, but its got to be written & we all need to write it.
Awesome analysis as usual. Wells was trully remarkable for creating many Science Fiction's tropes from scratch: time travel, alien invasions, granting superpowers to ordinary people, genetic manipulation, among others. He was the prophet of the genre. While Verne's work is mere extrapolation of scientific advances, Well speculates about the posibilities of mankind's scientific progress. It's the true mark of science fiction, what Ursula K. Le Guin called "what if...?"
@@colinmorrison5119 I've heard that, in the time before microphones and PA systems, high voices carried across distance much better than low ones. So anyone who had to do public speaking back then cultivated a high voice. Booming, deep, "In A World" trailer voices are a product of modern technology.
I came from a communist country, we were bombarded with good and bad soviet literature, my favorite was sci-fi, I remember one specially: Andromeda's Nebulose, socialism to the max!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Been with you a little while brother and it's been a nice ride. loved your Andor critics. I knew Andor was excellent but didn't know why. Thanks for making it clear. I'm not a fan of what Star Wars became but I was there in 1977 and not since then, a long time ago in a world far far away, have I liked something from the Star Wars franchise.
I've tried listening thru the "The World Set Free" so I knew before even watching. The only thing Wells was romantic about in his "scientific romances" was socialism.
@@simonaustin5659 No. It's a quote from the 1936 film, _Things to Come,_ and stated by the character, John Cabal, played by Raymond Massey, as seen in the thumbnail for this video... It's a very interesting movie... This video definitely casts the entire film in a vastly new light...
Wow, that was incredible. I didn’t know almost any of that. I wish we could somehow bring back the spirit you talk about in the early section of the film when the working class were becoming literate and developing a working class consciousness wanting more and better for the masses. But it seems that all the forces of both centrist liberalism and far right authoritarianism are aligned to smother any such nascent development in its cradle. The manufacturing of the consent of the masses for the power and wealth of the oligarchy seems in full control. The future seems on track to be global corporatist neoliberalism whatever happens; the only question is if we get a slightly more socially liberal or a more xenophobic socially authoritarian version.
@@gav7428 Lenin make it up as he went along. "Kulak" meant the sort of people we're supposed to champion, but who we intend to screw over anyway "because we don't like them."
Wells himself formulates the nature of his evolutionary collectivism as follows: “I believe that by a definite system of education for all society the existing capitalistic system can be civilized and transformed into a collective one.” Trotsky
Man, you're kicking it out of the park with your recent pieces. I've change my opinion about you, for the better it should be said. On that note, I'll add; humanity evolved to look for evidence that supports our beliefs (confirmation bias), which leads to us all seeing the world as we are, not as it is. H. G. Wells shows that it is possible to learn to challenge our beliefs, which is what makes him 'great' for definitions of great that are flexible.
"It is true that Lenin understood how to speak very instructively. But he only did it when he was of the opinion that his fellow conversationalist was ready to learn something. In such cases he spared neither time nor trouble. But in the presence of the magnificent Gulliver whom the favor of fate had brought to the office of the “little man,” Lenin must have come to a firm conviction, after two or three minutes, somewhat like the inscription over the entrance into Dante’s hell: “All hope abandon!" Trotsky
I read Wells' The World Set Free this year. It's in three sections. #1, how mankind has harnessed various kinds of energy, ending with nuclear. #2, a tale of the development of the atomic bomb from his limited perspective in 1914. (Dropping them by hand over the sides of wood and fabric airplanes.) #3, a long political diatribe on how the nations of the world should all just agree to be nice to each other and set up a single government. The book would have been vastly improved had he extended section 2 and omitted section 3 completely.
That was awesome! Love your deep dive philosophical sci-fi insights 🌟 I haven't watched your vids in a few months and I had just finished before this one, the flight of the navigator upload, it was great but to go off topic for a sec, I wanted to mention a recent thought that popped into my head after I watched a non sci-fi gritty dark film about two emt paramedics and it ends with one surviving at the end who, having gone through an odyssey of a sort, the thought struck like a bolt the words "he went through the hero's journey". Sometimes I have very clear thoughts that seed and so then without purposeful thought, I began back into your vids and the first one I watch has the words mentioned "the hero's journey"! Spooky coincidence! Anyway I'm saying this because sometimes the universe tries to teach us something so I'm hoping I understand why I should start now to think so much about this. Well I just wanted to share that, it's probably not too interesting of a story lol 😅
If you want to be pedantic then the creatir of SF was Mary Shelley. The reason we say H.G. Welles is the father of SF is less to do with him creating the gdnre but that he CODIFIED the genre. He alone created more SF sub genres than anybody else and almost everything we understand of SF was authored by him. What was not from him was then by Isaac Asimov. Verne's greatest contribution to the genre was a sense of scientific playsability, a sense of adventure and creating stiry scenarios that are extremely inspiring even to this day, in short, Verne turned early SF from being a literature of parabols and made it fun. The truth is, SF has many fathers, i would say it has many pardnts, and that is what's so great about it.
@carlossaraiva8213 That "scientific feasibility" or verisimilitude IMO is the cornerstone of SF. I think it's better not to assign anyone as the "father/mother" of SF. Doubly, because I think if you delve more into it you may discover that SF may have started quite early during the Industrial Revolution, which was already going for about a century when HG Wells lived.
Great analysis. Gave me much better perspective on Wells. That Thomas "Bulldog" Huxley was his biology teacher is amusing as Huxley was Edward7th's press secretary and subsequent Huxleys progeny brought us (Americans) lsd, and a compromised counter culture. Best to all.
When I saw the title I thought the video would be about either George Orwell or HG Wells. I knew about Wells's socialist agenda only in a general way; watching this, I learned several intriguing things and got a more comprehensive overview. I hope this channel or another one has explored Orwell in the same way. His experiences fighting in the Spanish Civil War alone would make a fascinating video but I'd rather learn more about his transition from communism to socialism. He might not be right for this channel since 1984 is the only Orwell work I can think of that I'd call science fiction.
With my pessimistic cold-war kid hat on, I can't see us surviving as a civilisation in the next 10 years. Sure, humanity will go on, but we'll be broken. The Eloi will come out of their bunkers and live a care-free life with their automated AI driven junk, while us Morlocks will continue underground, if indeed we survive, producing the things we need that will in turn keep the Eloi alive, to ensure we've got a sustainable food source....
Lift your head up and look around. The vast majority of sci-fi stories, especially the early mood-setting tropes, are control psyops grooming your dark expectations. This is how we are managed, we govern ourselves, set our own limits believing we’ve expanded horizons.
I have a cold war kid hat too, looks like Putin's Russia may be on its last legs but now we have a pro wrestler-prez look for pro wrestler plotlines. Interestimg times. Best to ya!
Brilliant video - it seems that libertarian socialism/anarcho-communism/syndicalism is likely the only hope to orient ourselves towards in these dark times. It will require an incredible coordinated effort to reclaim our collective future from the destructive forces of global capital, however the small successes of democratic socialism such as the Democratic Confederalism in Rojava (in northeastern Syria) is extremely promising in this regard. Science fiction will be one of our most fundamental tools in this endeavour, especially if we are to reignite a wider counter-cultural push for a better world and inspire the necessary shift in class consciousness and consciousness itself, as the late great philosopher Mark Fisher began to explore in his final works - if you haven't already I think a lot of Fisher's work relating to hauntological sci-fi, modernism, cyberspace, lost futures and socialist horizons is perfectly suited for discussion on your channel! Huge respect for all the amazing work and analysis you do Peace and love from Australia ❤
Is this suggesting that the West & it's client states have been operating under Social Democracy over most of the last half century ..? Curious as to what role, if any, you think neoliberalism has had on the policies & practices of Western governments; the impact & influence of multinational corporate power has had on the struggles of developing nations & their populations. The violent & coercive practices which continue to be employed this day, that are integral to the way that the West manifests it's power across the globe.
"He brought to him the quite new thought that for the success of socialism it is “necessary to reorganize not only the material side of life but also the psychology of the whole people.” He pointed out to Lenin that “the Russians are by nature individualists and traders.” He declared to him that communism was acting “too hastily” and was destroying before it could build up, etc., always in the same sense. “That brought us to the main point,” Wells says, “where our views diverged, to the difference between evolutionary collectivism and Marxism.”" Trotsy
Making a utopian proletarian paradise in russia is like making a Black Forest gateau with a human turd. For a while it might look promising from a distance but before long you notice the smell and the flies and realise you’re not as hungry as you thought you were.
This pop-psychology nonsense about how "Lenin did the revolution to get revenge" says more about this guy's desire to construct a story, like the ones he was just comparing it to, than actual history. The order to execute the Czar was signed off on by local party officials in Siberia to prevent him being reinstalled on the throne should it look like the Whites were going to win. Lenin, like most of the Bolsheviks waffled on what to actually do with the Czar because, as an individual, he didn't figure much into their thinking, less so than the SRs or the Mensheviks. It's like how people say "Stalin was bad man because his father beat him" when there is no actual historical evidence that this was the case except statements after the fact by people who weren't there. This is how idealists (liberals, anarchists, same thing) look at history. They think it's just individuals and ideas, like some sort of shitty didactic novel of the sort they would write. They don't see the ordinary people behind the revolutions, the material changes in society that bring things to a boiling point, the reality of what a revolution actually necessitates or the material gains they made possible. As far as H.G. Wells, he did contribute one thing worth reading on socialism, which is his interview with Stalin. In it he asks Stalin if he thinks America has achieved socialism through the New Deal. In response, Stalin elucidates clearly why social democratic reforms in a capitalist society are always living on borrowed time, essentially summing up what the next 70 years of American economic history would bring with Reagan and the advent of neoliberalism. I'll leave his response here for anyone actually interested in socialism and not just the same regurgitated liberal anti-communist narratives passed for an insightful critique: Stalin :The aim which the Americans are pursuing, arose out of the economic troubles, out of the economic crisis. The Americans want to rid themselves of the crisis on the basis of private capitalist activity, without changing the economic basis. They are trying to reduce to a minimum the ruin, the losses caused by the existing economic system. Here, however, as you know, in place of the old, destroyed economic basis, an entirely different, a new economic basis has been created. Even if the Americans you mention partly achieve their aim, i.e., reduce these losses to a minimum, they will not destroy the roots of the anarchy which is inherent in the existing capitalist system. They are preserving the economic system which must inevitably lead, and cannot but lead, to anarchy in production. Thus, at best, it will be a matter, not of the reorganisation of society, not of abolishing the old social system which gives rise to anarchy and crises, but of restricting certain of its excesses. Subjectively, perhaps, these Americans think they are reorganising society; objectively, however, they are preserving the present basis of society. That is why, objectively, there will be no reorganisation of society. www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1934/07/23.htm
the reply irks me. any critique against the status quo and its view on history still seems to make those critical into stalinists... if you dare to quote a man (that tbf was brutal), it means you must fully support him /s meanwhile the west currently precides over a genocide, but that's completely fine. the politics from these handwringing and concern trolling "grown ups" that sees everything as black and white is tiring. they profusely deem capitalism to be superior and the western way of life to be superior. but if you follow the common thread of logic that important philosophers (like hegel), from their "superior culture" in the west discovered. a logic that underpins their society, it is directly linked to the logic of an always changing society. he found the social logic and the meaning of life, which is to constantly find the contradictions within society (and the individual) and follow up by being in a constant state of "resolving" those contradictions and becoming something new. marx added that this process is not predestined and depends on practice, taking actions and the material conditions (like this doofus "grown up" denying the logic and being part of the process of hindering change because of fear of said logic. our material conditions are full of idiots fearing change). in normal language: as an individual one is in a constant state of change, you idealize what you want to become and go for it through action, and the same logic goes for society and the collective at large... but nooo western logic is supreme EXCEPT what was discovered here. liberals are so annoying.
H.G. Wells was a Socialist but not a Marxist or Anarchist, he was a Class Collaborationist and a Technocratic Authoritarian Statist. The only reason people hesitate to call H.G. Wells a Fascist or Nazi is that his political vision was Internationalist rather then Nationalist, but to me Nationalism is definitional to Nazism but not Fascism, and Racism isn't definitional to Fascism either, Mussolini flip flopped on Malthusianism and Eugenics. Fascists also loved to self identify as critics of Imperialism especially how the British practiced it. "The Nazis would have killed him is a real badge of Honor" they would have killed Oswald Mosley too just like they did the leader of the Austrian Fascists, Fascists kill each other all the time. The core definition of Fascism is "Everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state" that can absolutely apply to a Globalist State. The other core common denominator is being Anti-Bolshevik.
@@DamienWalter I'm not a Trot. Thing is I do disagree with Leninism, I am far more inline with Kautsky or Rosa Luxemburg, but this hyper demonization of the Bolsheviks is a part of Fascism.
@@DamienWalter Funny I'm used to people thinking my Anime Avatar makes me some kind of right winger. My Avatar is a character from a show it's not even normally to unironically like as much I do within the community. Most other Left Wing Anime fans are not likely to agree with how hard I just was on Wells.
so the short of it, fascism is against change "...nothing against the state", while socialism or whatever left wing society, ideally, is for a constant change. or constant "sublation" if i'm going to pretend i understand some things (maybe i do 🤫lol).
Is there a right wing/capitalist science fiction? Is American sci-fi a descendant of British Sci-fi? Illumating vudeo as always. Keep up the good work Damo!
The answer is sort of 'both'. We are forever bound by our nature, but our nature includes an ability and inclination to transcend our instincts and cultural indoctrination to a very significant degree.
Wells has serious socialist cred, but the most socialist SF novel ever written was Looking Backward, by Edward Bellamy in 1889. And Wells would definitely have heard the term Science Fiction. He was very active until his death in the late 40s. The term was invented in the 1850s.
Nobody knew who the feck Hugo Gernsback was in 1926. HG was focussed on politics and non-fiction from the 1910s onwards. It's very unlikely he had any knowledge of provincial pulp publishing. Sure it's possible he encountered the term late in life, but the point is that he at no point sat down to write "science fiction".
We need to imagine a new way of running the world, because the problems we face are transnational. Nations are a serious problem, but not easy to get rid of, for obvious reasons. That is not to say that nations are the only problem. They are merely one of a suite of problems for which we are going to have to rely on the young to solve, because they are less invested in the machinery of modern society, and have less to lose/more to gain by their solution.
Other versions of how the Romanovs' were killed have it that once taken captive by the Bolsheviks and while being transported to face trial the peoples' ire was raised - the Tsar and family were the face of a regime of ruthless brutal of oppression - and seized them from their captors and killed them in revenge. On the point of Wells as 'father' off science fiction, this is rather subjective, a better precedent would be Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. It ticks all of the boxes with a morally dubious technology - including an evolution-altering mastery of death, a deeply flawed creator, and a creature able to hold a mirror up to its masters.
This is a revisionist view of Wells and his Social Darwinist philosophy. I could breakdown the entire script from several political scenarios. But there is one critique that needs revisiting. Wells was an irredeemable Rascist. One sentence is quoted and refuted. Please read the first chapter of his "Short History of the World" A narrative which falsely condems the Tasmanians to extinction but phrases that genocide to the natural order. A group of people which had successfully adapted to isolation made extinct by the natural superiority of English Whites Claims which he never recanted causing social damage to surviving families to this day. Read Wells as he is and you will see him as he was. A British Imperialist who may have played with Socialist thought but still remained a literal English imperialist.
what a thought I just had: how is History of the Universe/Earth the best channel ever? I was watching this video start with beautiful selected docu videos and narrative, AND suddenly I saw a young nice bald man under a roof somwhere = I disconnected from my trance, and went to skip automatically. in HotU I've never seen the narrator, it's all trance But first I wanted to share this thought I had: the power of YT is the video of smt interesting. It is even Art for me. Surely not a person speaking. I can't even watch Tyson speaking for long, only shorts. It is video and not radio. I wish I could say this to all nice guys like you, the max video content the better (for me) I know some matters dont have many videos available to include, OK find relevant or your own solution., just to keep the trance, and even make shorter works if needed. I liked your video, keep up the good work!
This essay, while covering Bolsheviks vs scifi wirters, has two tightly placed mistakes in the first fifth, and two more spaced mistakes in the last fifth.
"Mass Murderer or Great Leader?" In my readings of history and literature, great leaders usually have a high body count preceding the golden age they start.
Please share your source regarding Lenin ordering the death of the Tsar? You say this as if it is a fact. It is not a fact. There is no clear evidence that this is the case.
I envy those people who still had hope for the Human Condition: Welles, Lenin, Trotsky , James Connolly, even the Surrealists, the Communists, Anarchists and Socialists! Today there is despair and few with clear visions of the future. Everything good has been devalued and discredited. The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity
I agree - everything that seems be good for our future seems to be considered in terms of a commodity with a profit or loss tag attached. It’s sad but true.
That's not what I got from Shape of Things to Come at All. The Shape of Things to Come is a surprisingly modern fresh horrible anti-totalitarian saga. I don't know what book you read. MarΘa right?
A very intriguing essay. I never separate the individual from the ideas they espouse. IMO, Lenin was an intelligent brutal tyrant and Stalin was a gangster. I doubt their sincerity when they expressed concern for the proletariat. All change, especially revolutionary requires unsavory if not brutal tactics. The reason I always recommend caution.
Yes all revolutionary change will by necessity be at some people's expense. That's why we need to make sure the rich pay most of the damage. Sacrificing the 1% for everyone else.
You could have googled the word to save humiliating yourself like this. Eugenics is not Genetics. It's the belief that selective breeding can eliminate disabilities or similar. It can't. It's a pseudoscience because there was never any scientific process to support it. It was just a common belief among fools like you.
I prophecy that Humanity will head out from Earth to the stars, taking all our baggage with us. People will be people, crazy, cruel, kind, brilliant, stupid, loving, and hateful far into the distant future.
Did you see the Falcon heavy fly back to it's nest? The keys to the stars are in our hands, and we'll use them. Anyone who wants to stay behind is welcome to...
@DamienWalter So, as we face the withering of our great experiment, some Eloi will d/evolve into Morlocks, or they already walk among us--and they're late for lunch.
A context for Wells' work I didn't have before. Thanks for another great essay.
Jules Verne was something of a socialist as well, but a different flavor. So was Jack London. While Wells was known for what we call Science Fiction today, a vast majority of his work was general drama and romantic fiction. I published one of his synopses (a drama called The Wheels of Chance) in my book THE SYNOPSIS TREASURY. He was looking for an American publisher for the book. My book is a collection of actual successful synopses and submissions that were sent to industry and landed publishing contracts for their authors.
1908’s dystopian tale, The Iron Heel, by Jack London is worth a look.
ooo Jack London, you have my interest.
It was a bestseller in its time. The powers that be would rather you stuck to his stories about dogs, of course.
As a native of Oakland, California I was severely disappointed to find out that London was a more-than-casual racist. Against blacks as a matter of self-identity and against the Chinese (and ostensibly, Asians in general) to seemingly genocidal ends. It's a shame that two great writers of the Victorian era would have such thoughts, but also telling of the thinking of that time in general.
@@lexicornfell7361 Of course.
@@staceymeans134 As a native of London, England I have been severely disappointed to see how many influential and contemporary black leaders in America express extreme racist views - unless you would like to believe that Louis Farrakhan and Al Sharpton (for example)are middle-of-the-road moderates.
Only just found your channel, thank you, you've got a brilliant delivery and I've loved learning things I never knew about my favourite sci-fi series
Thank you.
I'm currently reading We by Soviet writer Yevgeny Zamyatin, a science fiction novel banned in the Soviet Union in 1922, about a post-apocalyptic global society based on science and mathematic order - all twisted, of course, to control and submerge anything we would see as human love, caring and emotion. According to the intro by Bruce Sterling, Zamyatin managed a publishing house printing translations of works from English authors, including those of H G Wells. Sterling also says that George Orwell read an English translation of We - but it seemingly isn't known if Wells also read it. Zamyatin died in 1937, before Wells' eyes were opened to the evils of a eugenics-based society by the Nazi horrors of WW2. Thank you for this excellent video on Wells, Socialism and the social upheavals of the early 20th century.
We, can be interpreted as a fear of losing our idealistic religion to a scientific materialism that encouraged anti-communist tropes in support of capitalist imperialism that was perpetuated throughout the rest of the 20th century by Western Marxism.
Great analysis! A bit chilling, given recent events.
I do think good writers need to have empathy and compassion and it seems like it was core to Wells’ being. Love that he stood up to Lenin.
I am running to the descriptions to be found of the meeting between Wells and Stalin, on reading “When the Sleeper Wakes” (1898) I found his character Ostrog to be remarkably prescient .
Authors are not infallible visionaries, although they pretend to be in their novels.
Most everyone believes they have found the secret and unrealized path to their idealized world. Most everyone is wrong, and the ones that may be right likely lack the power to realize that ideal.
Given the scope, speed and trajectory of global environmental collapse along with the chronic state of war, not really sure if it matters which authoritarian ideology wins the right to molder in the ashes of a dying civilization. It is sad to think that will be our legacy.
(holy shit this got dark)
Socialiam is NOT an authoritarian ideology. You are brainwashed by capitalists. And no, the Soviets were never socialist. Socialism: stateless, classless, moneyless, fully democratic society. Sounds like the Soviet Union? Nope, I agree, it doesn't, because it wasn't any of those things.
Stages of civilisational grief dude, butterfly or phoenix the choice is ours. I agree with Damo, the power of story can save us from more collateral ashes than needed through a new better mythos, but its got to be written & we all need to write it.
"global environmental collapse"
......
It got dark, yes, but well put.
I'm seemingly leaving the same comment on each video these days, but bravo. You're on a run. (Also never tire of Jeff Wayne!). Thank you!
Awesome analysis as usual. Wells was trully remarkable for creating many Science Fiction's tropes from scratch: time travel, alien invasions, granting superpowers to ordinary people, genetic manipulation, among others. He was the prophet of the genre. While Verne's work is mere extrapolation of scientific advances, Well speculates about the posibilities of mankind's scientific progress. It's the true mark of science fiction, what Ursula K. Le Guin called "what if...?"
Damn right!
In the 1970s, I read Soviet science fiction. In the 2020s, I am reading Chinese science fiction.
In Soviet Russia, book reads YOU!
Oh geez.
5:00 I didn't expect such a high voice. I should have expected the sing songy cadence though. All old recordings that I've seen have that.
Not gonna lie, Wells sounds like Heinerdinger from _Arcane_ with the way he talks.
Could be an artefact of playing the film too fast.
The microphones of the time didn't have much bass response, and the recording media would have had an impact too.
@@colinmorrison5119 I've heard that, in the time before microphones and PA systems, high voices carried across distance much better than low ones. So anyone who had to do public speaking back then cultivated a high voice. Booming, deep, "In A World" trailer voices are a product of modern technology.
@@georgesdelatour It's the opposite. If you're some distance from a rock concert, all you hear is the bass.
A brilliant and imaginative dive into history, bringing to life vividly the facts of history and its effect on the present day.
I came from a communist country, we were bombarded with good and bad soviet literature, my favorite was sci-fi, I remember one specially: Andromeda's Nebulose, socialism to the max!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, quite quite true!
Been with you a little while brother and it's been a nice ride. loved your Andor critics. I knew Andor was excellent but didn't know why. Thanks for making it clear. I'm not a fan of what Star Wars became but I was there in 1977 and not since then, a long time ago in a world far far away, have I liked something from the Star Wars franchise.
Keep creating! You’re producing excellent work!
I've tried listening thru the "The World Set Free" so I knew before even watching. The only thing Wells was romantic about in his "scientific romances" was socialism.
Humankind can overcome almost anything... except itself. tavi.
Thanks from a New Subscriber !
Vladimir Ilyich carried away from his conversation with Wells. “What a bourgeois he is! He is a Philistine!” he repeated 😂😂😂
*It definitely gives the phrase, **_"Wings Over the World!",_** a sinister and ominous subtext...*
😕
Is that a quote taken from the film The Creator? (a sincere question)
@@simonaustin5659 No. It's a quote from the 1936 film, _Things to Come,_ and stated by the character, John Cabal, played by Raymond Massey, as seen in the thumbnail for this video... It's a very interesting movie... This video definitely casts the entire film in a vastly new light...
@ thank you for confirming. I am going to look the film up.
Y did it take me years to find this outstanding channel 🎉
Also Les 500 millions de la Bégum by Jules Verne is a great depiction of the world that would be in less than 30 years
Wow, that was incredible. I didn’t know almost any of that. I wish we could somehow bring back the spirit you talk about in the early section of the film when the working class were becoming literate and developing a working class consciousness wanting more and better for the masses. But it seems that all the forces of both centrist liberalism and far right authoritarianism are aligned to smother any such nascent development in its cradle. The manufacturing of the consent of the masses for the power and wealth of the oligarchy seems in full control. The future seems on track to be global corporatist neoliberalism whatever happens; the only question is if we get a slightly more socially liberal or a more xenophobic socially authoritarian version.
I’m sure Lenin saw Wells as just another Kulak ripe for harvest
Yes that's exactly how that word is used
@@gav7428 That's exactly and unironically correct.
@@DrCruelthat lenin saw wells as a wealthy peasant landowner? If you say so
@@gav7428 Lenin make it up as he went along. "Kulak" meant the sort of people we're supposed to champion, but who we intend to screw over anyway "because we don't like them."
@DrCruel now you're just insulting everyone's intelligence
23:18 I admit it--you got me. Well done. Excellent video. Hope to see more.
Wells himself formulates the nature of his evolutionary collectivism as follows: “I believe that by a definite system of education for all society the existing capitalistic system can be civilized and transformed into a collective one.” Trotsky
Great quote, unfortunately it was stymied by WW1 then perverted by WW2 leaving us with the worst form of capitalism possible ! 🌎✌️🌍. Still waiting.
great video- you are brilliant and articulate
Once again, an excellent essay.
Thank you.
Man, you're kicking it out of the park with your recent pieces. I've change my opinion about you, for the better it should be said. On that note, I'll add; humanity evolved to look for evidence that supports our beliefs (confirmation bias), which leads to us all seeing the world as we are, not as it is. H. G. Wells shows that it is possible to learn to challenge our beliefs, which is what makes him 'great' for definitions of great that are flexible.
I like the use of music from Jeff Wayne’s war of the worlds musical. Awesome
Fantastic video. I subscribed today. Thanks for explaining Well's underlying intentions, as attacking the British class system and empire.
something about power corrupting, for good measure
"It is true that Lenin understood how to speak very instructively. But he only did it when he was of the opinion that his fellow conversationalist was ready to learn something. In such cases he spared neither time nor trouble. But in the presence of the magnificent Gulliver whom the favor of fate had brought to the office of the “little man,” Lenin must have come to a firm conviction, after two or three minutes, somewhat like the inscription over the entrance into Dante’s hell: “All hope abandon!" Trotsky
I read Wells' The World Set Free this year. It's in three sections.
#1, how mankind has harnessed various kinds of energy, ending with nuclear.
#2, a tale of the development of the atomic bomb from his limited perspective in 1914. (Dropping them by hand over the sides of wood and fabric airplanes.)
#3, a long political diatribe on how the nations of the world should all just agree to be nice to each other and set up a single government.
The book would have been vastly improved had he extended section 2 and omitted section 3 completely.
But section 3 is the point. The only reason the rest of the book exists is an argument for world government.
Great job using the Rick Wakeman War of the Worlds soundtrack in the background!!
That was awesome! Love your deep dive philosophical sci-fi insights 🌟
I haven't watched your vids in a few months and I had just finished before this one, the flight of the navigator upload, it was great but to go off topic for a sec, I wanted to mention a recent thought that popped into my head after I watched a non sci-fi gritty dark film about two emt paramedics and it ends with one surviving at the end who, having gone through an odyssey of a sort, the thought struck like a bolt the words "he went through the hero's journey". Sometimes I have very clear thoughts that seed and so then without purposeful thought, I began back into your vids and the first one I watch has the words mentioned "the hero's journey"! Spooky coincidence! Anyway I'm saying this because sometimes the universe tries to teach us something so I'm hoping I understand why I should start now to think so much about this. Well I just wanted to share that, it's probably not too interesting of a story lol 😅
The "father of SF" is Jules Verne, and others in the 19th century.
If you want to be pedantic then the creatir of SF was Mary Shelley. The reason we say H.G. Welles is the father of SF is less to do with him creating the gdnre but that he CODIFIED the genre. He alone created more SF sub genres than anybody else and almost everything we understand of SF was authored by him. What was not from him was then by Isaac Asimov. Verne's greatest contribution to the genre was a sense of scientific playsability, a sense of adventure and creating stiry scenarios that are extremely inspiring even to this day, in short, Verne turned early SF from being a literature of parabols and made it fun. The truth is, SF has many fathers, i would say it has many pardnts, and that is what's so great about it.
@carlossaraiva8213 That "scientific feasibility" or verisimilitude IMO is the cornerstone of SF. I think it's better not to assign anyone as the "father/mother" of SF. Doubly, because I think if you delve more into it you may discover that SF may have started quite early during the Industrial Revolution, which was already going for about a century when HG Wells lived.
Great analysis. Gave me much better perspective on Wells. That Thomas "Bulldog" Huxley was his biology teacher is amusing as Huxley was Edward7th's press secretary and subsequent Huxleys progeny brought us (Americans) lsd, and a compromised counter culture. Best to all.
😂I can't hear smart bomb without thinking of the bomb in the film dark star❤❤❤❤❤
I think Jules Verne predated HG Wells.
Yes. But what does that mean?
@DamienWalter he said in the video that HG Wells invented science fiction. Jules Verne qualifies as science fiction.
@@TreeLuvBurdpu Ken Macleod said that Wells learning about evolution is the beginning of British science fiction.
@DamienWalter wasn't Jules Verne British?
@@TreeLuvBurdpuFrench
You are propably the best, imaginative, civilized visionary in TH-cam hell,
When I saw the title I thought the video would be about either George Orwell or HG Wells. I knew about Wells's socialist agenda only in a general way; watching this, I learned several intriguing things and got a more comprehensive overview.
I hope this channel or another one has explored Orwell in the same way. His experiences fighting in the Spanish Civil War alone would make a fascinating video but I'd rather learn more about his transition from communism to socialism. He might not be right for this channel since 1984 is the only Orwell work I can think of that I'd call science fiction.
With my pessimistic cold-war kid hat on, I can't see us surviving as a civilisation in the next 10 years. Sure, humanity will go on, but we'll be broken. The Eloi will come out of their bunkers and live a care-free life with their automated AI driven junk, while us Morlocks will continue underground, if indeed we survive, producing the things we need that will in turn keep the Eloi alive, to ensure we've got a sustainable food source....
Eloi Musk.
@@Ballardian Somehow I think he'd have a bad taste. Probably best avoided - could be toxic.
Lift your head up and look around. The vast majority of sci-fi stories, especially the early mood-setting tropes, are control psyops grooming your dark expectations. This is how we are managed, we govern ourselves, set our own limits believing we’ve expanded horizons.
I have a cold war kid hat too, looks like Putin's Russia may be on its last legs but now we have a pro wrestler-prez look for pro wrestler plotlines. Interestimg times.
Best to ya!
He's a fake. Just like pro wrestling.
Brilliant video - it seems that libertarian socialism/anarcho-communism/syndicalism is likely the only hope to orient ourselves towards in these dark times. It will require an incredible coordinated effort to reclaim our collective future from the destructive forces of global capital, however the small successes of democratic socialism such as the Democratic Confederalism in Rojava (in northeastern Syria) is extremely promising in this regard. Science fiction will be one of our most fundamental tools in this endeavour, especially if we are to reignite a wider counter-cultural push for a better world and inspire the necessary shift in class consciousness and consciousness itself, as the late great philosopher Mark Fisher began to explore in his final works - if you haven't already I think a lot of Fisher's work relating to hauntological sci-fi, modernism, cyberspace, lost futures and socialist horizons is perfectly suited for discussion on your channel!
Huge respect for all the amazing work and analysis you do
Peace and love from Australia ❤
Is this suggesting that the West & it's client states have been operating under Social Democracy over most of the last half century ..?
Curious as to what role, if any, you think neoliberalism has had on the policies & practices of Western governments; the impact & influence of multinational corporate power
has had on the struggles of developing nations & their populations.
The violent & coercive practices which continue to be employed this day, that are integral to the way that the West manifests it's power across the globe.
Briefly. Neoliberalism is the narrative used to deconstruct social democracy.
@@DamienWalter I would say to destroy social democracy.
"He brought to him the quite new thought that for the success of socialism it is “necessary to reorganize not only the material side of life but also the psychology of the whole people.” He pointed out to Lenin that “the Russians are by nature individualists and traders.” He declared to him that communism was acting “too hastily” and was destroying before it could build up, etc., always in the same sense. “That brought us to the main point,” Wells says, “where our views diverged, to the difference between evolutionary collectivism and Marxism.”" Trotsy
Jack London's Scarlett Plague (1912) and Iron Heel (1907).
"...they will have to go." The class system will dominate civilization, and humanity.
Seems like we've come to the long way of tyrants as opposed to Lenin's way of tyrants.
11:27 - ish. One second clip of green '65 Mustang fastback powersliding. It's not the Bullit Mustang so it must be from some Sci-Fi movie.
War of the Worlds 2005 1966 GT H
Great vid, thank you
Making a utopian proletarian paradise in russia is like making a Black Forest gateau with a human turd. For a while it might look promising from a distance but before long you notice the smell and the flies and realise you’re not as hungry as you thought you were.
This pop-psychology nonsense about how "Lenin did the revolution to get revenge" says more about this guy's desire to construct a story, like the ones he was just comparing it to, than actual history. The order to execute the Czar was signed off on by local party officials in Siberia to prevent him being reinstalled on the throne should it look like the Whites were going to win. Lenin, like most of the Bolsheviks waffled on what to actually do with the Czar because, as an individual, he didn't figure much into their thinking, less so than the SRs or the Mensheviks. It's like how people say "Stalin was bad man because his father beat him" when there is no actual historical evidence that this was the case except statements after the fact by people who weren't there. This is how idealists (liberals, anarchists, same thing) look at history. They think it's just individuals and ideas, like some sort of shitty didactic novel of the sort they would write. They don't see the ordinary people behind the revolutions, the material changes in society that bring things to a boiling point, the reality of what a revolution actually necessitates or the material gains they made possible.
As far as H.G. Wells, he did contribute one thing worth reading on socialism, which is his interview with Stalin. In it he asks Stalin if he thinks America has achieved socialism through the New Deal. In response, Stalin elucidates clearly why social democratic reforms in a capitalist society are always living on borrowed time, essentially summing up what the next 70 years of American economic history would bring with Reagan and the advent of neoliberalism. I'll leave his response here for anyone actually interested in socialism and not just the same regurgitated liberal anti-communist narratives passed for an insightful critique:
Stalin :The aim which the Americans are pursuing, arose out of the economic troubles, out of the economic crisis. The Americans want to rid themselves of the crisis on the basis of private capitalist activity, without changing the economic basis. They are trying to reduce to a minimum the ruin, the losses caused by the existing economic system. Here, however, as you know, in place of the old, destroyed economic basis, an entirely different, a new economic basis has been created. Even if the Americans you mention partly achieve their aim, i.e., reduce these losses to a minimum, they will not destroy the roots of the anarchy which is inherent in the existing capitalist system. They are preserving the economic system which must inevitably lead, and cannot but lead, to anarchy in production. Thus, at best, it will be a matter, not of the reorganisation of society, not of abolishing the old social system which gives rise to anarchy and crises, but of restricting certain of its excesses. Subjectively, perhaps, these Americans think they are reorganising society; objectively, however, they are preserving the present basis of society. That is why, objectively, there will be no reorganisation of society.
www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1934/07/23.htm
Stalinists! Yay!
the reply irks me. any critique against the status quo and its view on history still seems to make those critical into stalinists... if you dare to quote a man (that tbf was brutal), it means you must fully support him /s
meanwhile the west currently precides over a genocide, but that's completely fine. the politics from these handwringing and concern trolling "grown ups" that sees everything as black and white is tiring.
they profusely deem capitalism to be superior and the western way of life to be superior. but if you follow the common thread of logic that important philosophers (like hegel), from their "superior culture" in the west discovered. a logic that underpins their society, it is directly linked to the logic of an always changing society. he found the social logic and the meaning of life, which is to constantly find the contradictions within society (and the individual) and follow up by being in a constant state of "resolving" those contradictions and becoming something new. marx added that this process is not predestined and depends on practice, taking actions and the material conditions (like this doofus "grown up" denying the logic and being part of the process of hindering change because of fear of said logic. our material conditions are full of idiots fearing change).
in normal language: as an individual one is in a constant state of change, you idealize what you want to become and go for it through action, and the same logic goes for society and the collective at large... but nooo western logic is supreme EXCEPT what was discovered here. liberals are so annoying.
Ahhh I hear in the background music from Jeff Wayne.
Best thing I've seen in awhile.
Wow. Are you going to upload that interview with Ken Macleod?
It's in the members section.
H.G. Wells was a Socialist but not a Marxist or Anarchist, he was a Class Collaborationist and a Technocratic Authoritarian Statist. The only reason people hesitate to call H.G. Wells a Fascist or Nazi is that his political vision was Internationalist rather then Nationalist, but to me Nationalism is definitional to Nazism but not Fascism, and Racism isn't definitional to Fascism either, Mussolini flip flopped on Malthusianism and Eugenics. Fascists also loved to self identify as critics of Imperialism especially how the British practiced it.
"The Nazis would have killed him is a real badge of Honor" they would have killed Oswald Mosley too just like they did the leader of the Austrian Fascists, Fascists kill each other all the time.
The core definition of Fascism is "Everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state" that can absolutely apply to a Globalist State. The other core common denominator is being Anti-Bolshevik.
First anime avatar trot nutter. No doubt there will be more.
@@DamienWalter I'm not a Trot. Thing is I do disagree with Leninism, I am far more inline with Kautsky or Rosa Luxemburg, but this hyper demonization of the Bolsheviks is a part of Fascism.
But why do you all have anime avatars?
@@DamienWalter Funny I'm used to people thinking my Anime Avatar makes me some kind of right winger.
My Avatar is a character from a show it's not even normally to unironically like as much I do within the community.
Most other Left Wing Anime fans are not likely to agree with how hard I just was on Wells.
so the short of it, fascism is against change "...nothing against the state", while socialism or whatever left wing society, ideally, is for a constant change. or constant "sublation" if i'm going to pretend i understand some things (maybe i do 🤫lol).
excellent video
Barcelona, second spanish republic? Norway, after WWII?
12:35 well, that is somewhat true today isn't it?
I like to imagine a future when the only sound humans make will be the wind whistling through the eye sockets of our desiccated skulls.
Is there a right wing/capitalist science fiction? Is American sci-fi a descendant of British Sci-fi? Illumating vudeo as always. Keep up the good work Damo!
There's a libertarian science fiction. Capitalist science fiction is just modern economics...
Ayn Rand, Robert Heinlein( former socialist), Neal Stephenson, Larry Niven. All Capitalist/right-wing.
The answer is sort of 'both'. We are forever bound by our nature, but our nature includes an ability and inclination to transcend our instincts and cultural indoctrination to a very significant degree.
Wells has serious socialist cred, but the most socialist SF novel ever written was Looking Backward, by Edward Bellamy in 1889.
And Wells would definitely have heard the term Science Fiction. He was very active until his death in the late 40s. The term was invented in the 1850s.
It was used, once, in the 1850s. It didn't become a term until the 1930s.
@@DamienWalter Gernsback used it in 26. Wells was actively writing until 41.
Nobody knew who the feck Hugo Gernsback was in 1926. HG was focussed on politics and non-fiction from the 1910s onwards. It's very unlikely he had any knowledge of provincial pulp publishing. Sure it's possible he encountered the term late in life, but the point is that he at no point sat down to write "science fiction".
We need to imagine a new way of running the world, because the problems we face are transnational. Nations are a serious problem, but not easy to get rid of, for obvious reasons. That is not to say that nations are the only problem. They are merely one of a suite of problems for which we are going to have to rely on the young to solve, because they are less invested in the machinery of modern society, and have less to lose/more to gain by their solution.
Other versions of how the Romanovs' were killed have it that once taken captive by the Bolsheviks and while being transported to face trial the peoples' ire was raised - the Tsar and family were the face of a regime of ruthless brutal of oppression - and seized them from their captors and killed them in revenge. On the point of Wells as 'father' off science fiction, this is rather subjective, a better precedent would be Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. It ticks all of the boxes with a morally dubious technology - including an evolution-altering mastery of death, a deeply flawed creator, and a creature able to hold a mirror up to its masters.
War of the Worlds , one of my first reads in sci-fi, still so relevant today, but not as entertainment as it has become.....so sad 🌍✌️🌎
title of music in background, please?
It’s from the album War of the Worlds by Jeff Wayne.
@@fburton8 Yes!
Jeff Wayne - The Eve of the War
🤗 Thanks!
@@drqwyxz3588 Oolah!!
HG Wells, Albert Einstein, Hellen Keller, all socialists. I am. You should be one too. We can see where capitalism is going can we not?
I have told people I am a Mitt Romney socialist. Not exactly sure what it means but I like the way it sounds.
This is a revisionist view of Wells and his Social Darwinist philosophy. I could breakdown the entire script from several political scenarios. But there is one critique that needs revisiting. Wells was an irredeemable Rascist. One sentence is quoted and refuted. Please read the first chapter of his "Short History of the World" A narrative which falsely condems the Tasmanians to extinction but phrases that genocide to the natural order. A group of people which had successfully adapted to isolation made extinct by the natural superiority of English Whites
Claims which he never recanted causing social damage to surviving families to this day.
Read Wells as he is and you will see him as he was. A British Imperialist who may have played with Socialist thought but still remained a literal English imperialist.
Did Lenin of syphilis?
Thank you
what a thought I just had: how is History of the Universe/Earth the best channel ever?
I was watching this video start with beautiful selected docu videos and narrative,
AND suddenly I saw a young nice bald man under a roof somwhere = I disconnected from my trance, and went to skip automatically. in HotU I've never seen the narrator, it's all trance
But first I wanted to share this thought I had: the power of YT is the video of smt interesting. It is even Art for me.
Surely not a person speaking. I can't even watch Tyson speaking for long, only shorts.
It is video and not radio.
I wish I could say this to all nice guys like you, the max video content the better (for me)
I know some matters dont have many videos available to include, OK find relevant or your own solution., just to keep the trance, and even make shorter works if needed.
I liked your video, keep up the good work!
VERY good
Very pleasant voice ... well scripted.
This essay, while covering Bolsheviks vs scifi wirters, has two tightly placed mistakes in the first fifth, and two more spaced mistakes in the last fifth.
Mistakes happen, but it is much more likely those were the moments that triggered you.
@DamienWalter triggers happen, but those are mistakes caused by your worldview. Which is not truth. Cope.
@Shut.Eye.Cinema "this factual account of history would have got through to me if I wasn't already a Marxist"
@@DamienWalter Am I supposed to google the text in quote? No. Are we still on? No.
"Mass Murderer or Great Leader?" In my readings of history and literature, great leaders usually have a high body count preceding the golden age they start.
Please share your source regarding Lenin ordering the death of the Tsar? You say this as if it is a fact. It is not a fact. There is no clear evidence that this is the case.
I envy those people who still had hope for the Human Condition: Welles, Lenin, Trotsky , James Connolly, even the Surrealists, the Communists, Anarchists and Socialists! Today there is despair and few with clear visions of the future. Everything good has been devalued and discredited.
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity
I agree - everything that seems be good for our future seems to be considered in terms of a commodity with a profit or loss tag attached.
It’s sad but true.
That's not what I got from Shape of Things to Come at All. The Shape of Things to Come is a surprisingly modern fresh horrible anti-totalitarian saga. I don't know what book you read. MarΘa right?
"Greetings. I will be your token neoliberal commenter for today."
@@DamienWalter I am not neoliberal.
@Bohemiantraphsody But how do you know?
@@DamienWalter You'll know when you read the gd book.
We are now living at the end ot the movie of the shape of things to come. Only if.🙄
Challenge accepted.
Feeding the algorithm.
A very intriguing essay. I never separate the individual from the ideas they espouse. IMO, Lenin was an intelligent brutal tyrant and Stalin was a gangster. I doubt their sincerity when they expressed concern for the proletariat. All change, especially revolutionary requires unsavory if not brutal tactics. The reason I always recommend caution.
Yes all revolutionary change will by necessity be at some people's expense. That's why we need to make sure the rich pay most of the damage. Sacrificing the 1% for everyone else.
Of course we must not forget Well's support for eugenics. His socialism was extremely was bourgeois.
watch the video
LENIN'S surname was ULYANOV. You have made a couple of clangers. Wikipedia is not a great source for research.
Good try.
"This triggered me, here is my emotion"
The European Social Democracies -are- the very best countries in the world by every statistic. Not opinion, but statistics.
They are former empires which have been living on inheritances left by earlier generations.
I am here for the better world order, my friend, and honored to be building it alongside you and all the other visionary fiction writers.
bro whipped out the DJ Peach Cobbler soundtrack
1918!
What about it?
Thirteen years old is awful young to get dentures! 😮
Not in England
17:12 If eugenics is a pseudoscience, do you have a better explanation of why a poodle isn't a wolf and a farm pig doesn't have big sharp tusks?
You could have googled the word to save humiliating yourself like this. Eugenics is not Genetics. It's the belief that selective breeding can eliminate disabilities or similar. It can't. It's a pseudoscience because there was never any scientific process to support it. It was just a common belief among fools like you.
Boost
I prophecy that Humanity will head out from Earth to the stars, taking all our baggage with us. People will be people, crazy, cruel, kind, brilliant, stupid, loving, and hateful far into the distant future.
Unlikely.
In the Grimm darkness of the 41st millennium, there is only war!
Did you see the Falcon heavy fly back to it's nest? The keys to the stars are in our hands, and we'll use them. Anyone who wants to stay behind is welcome to...
Wells predicted that Democrats would become the Eloi?
All Americans are Eloi
@DamienWalter So, as we face the withering of our great experiment, some Eloi will d/evolve into Morlocks, or they already walk among us--and they're late for lunch.
This is the story they tell you. His Story. The winners story. Russia was part of tartary and had light already. Free energy. Look into tartaria
Anarchism is WAY better.
First