Monsters, Machines and Landscapes: British Science Fiction

Paper Summary:

The following paper compares three of Rudyard Kipling's short stories ("007", "A Matter of Fact" and "The Ship That Found Herself") with H.G. Well's 'The Time Machine'. It talks about their portrayal of creatures, fantastic machines and alien landscapes. It also discusses comparisons to modern science fiction, specifically the works of Robert Heinlein.

From the Paper:

"On the whole, the techniques used in portrayal of the foreign in decadent science fiction mirror the way in which other decadent literature presents its topics. Attention is paid to the aesthetics of the descriptions as much as it is devoted to plot and character development. In fact, the descriptions of things supersede the actions that those things or people take in the course of the novel. The beauty, or lack of beauty of any given thing in the story is every bit as important as what that thing says or does. Chesterton, who published his book in 1905, believes that Kipling even saw beauty in ugliness. He makes specific reference to the steam that carries on conversations with steamer ships in "The Ship that Found Herself." Kipling "has perceived the significance of steam and of sand. Steam may be, if you like, a dirty by-product of science . . . at least he [Kipling] has been among the few who saw the divine parentage of these things . . . that is, that wherever there is the foulest of things, there also is the purest" (36) Taking pleasure in the grotesque is something that both authors do in "A Matter of Fact" and The Time Machine."

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