The Time Machine - H.G. Wells

H.G. Wells

Journey into the realm of speculative adventure and scientific curiosity with themes of time travel and societal reflection. This collection delves into the intricate dance between technology and human nature, exploring what it means to traverse the boundaries of time. Each week, our podcast presents a new complete audiobook, offering a diverse array of perspectives, eras, and narrative styles. From futuristic visions to philosophical inquiries, these stories invite listeners to expand their understanding of the world and their place within it. Tune in for a fresh exploration every week, perfect for those seeking insight, learning, or a mental escape. New books are added weekly. Check out more shows at solgoodmedia.com.

  1. 2d ago

    Little Wars - H G Wells

    A Game for Boys from twelve years of age to one hundred and fifty and for that more intelligent sort of girl who likes boys' games and books. With an Appendix on Kriegspiel Miniature wargaming got its start with the publication in 1913 of this thoroughly entertaining little account of how H.G. Wells, with certain of his friends, took their childhood toys and turned play into acceptable middle-aged sport by subjecting the exercise to the civilizing influence of actual rules.While wargaming progressed far past these beginnings, Wells observes how "little wars" with even his elementary rules can suggest the wholesale crudity of the real thing."You have only to play at Little Wars three or four times to realise just what a blundering thing Great War must be. Great War is at present, I am convinced, not only the most expensive game in the universe, but it is a game out of all proportion. Not only are the masses of men and material and suffering and inconvenience too monstrously big for reason, but--the available heads we have for it, are too small. That, I think, is the most pacific realisation conceivable, and Little War brings you to it as nothing else but Great War can do."Wells leaves almost hanging the tantalizing concept that we might someday simulate war, as an instrument of international decision-making, rather than practice actual combat. But most of this book is just the fun of evicting the boys from the playroom and spending happy days there, away from the "skirt-swishers", developing the framework under which two gentlemen might meet and accumulate boastable victories! (Summary by Mark F. Smith)

  2. 3d ago

    Against The Grain or Against Nature - Joris-Karl Huysmans

    “THE BOOK THAT DORIAN GRAY LOVED AND THAT INSPIRED OSCAR WILDE”. Such is the enticing epigraph of one early translation of Huysmans’ cult novel of 1884, which is also routinely called the Bible of Decadence. Accurate descriptions, both, of this bizarre masterpiece which has reverberated ever since through high and popular culture.“Against Nature” (or in this version “Against The Grain”) explores to the furthest limit the life of the world-rejecting aesthete living a reclusive existence devoted entirely to artificial paradises of his own devising. This is no solemn tract, however: the book’s anti-hero Duc Jean Floressas Des Esseintes spectacularly fails to achieve his life’s work, as all his attempts to create worlds of perverse experience through synaesthesia and interior decoration prove ludicrously unsatisfying and injurious to health. An innocent tortoise also falls casualty to his theories, in the wonderful fifth chapter.This is probably a novel best savoured one chapter at a time, and not only because John Howard’s clunky translation makes indigestible listening. Those who can skip whole chunks without guilt would do well to avoid chapters 4, 7, 12 and 14. Revel, however, in the wonders of 5, 8, 9 and 11. Encounter the jewel-encrusted chelonian, the butch lady acrobat, the nightmarish orchids that cause the hero to exclaim “All is Syphilis”…Alas, this translation lacks a chapter, and two brief incidents are also suppressed on account of their sexual perversity. Enjoy what remains. (Summary by Martin Geeson)

Ratings & Reviews

4.3
out of 5
6 Ratings

About

Journey into the realm of speculative adventure and scientific curiosity with themes of time travel and societal reflection. This collection delves into the intricate dance between technology and human nature, exploring what it means to traverse the boundaries of time. Each week, our podcast presents a new complete audiobook, offering a diverse array of perspectives, eras, and narrative styles. From futuristic visions to philosophical inquiries, these stories invite listeners to expand their understanding of the world and their place within it. Tune in for a fresh exploration every week, perfect for those seeking insight, learning, or a mental escape. New books are added weekly. Check out more shows at solgoodmedia.com.

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