Stojkovi 1

Gorana Stojkovi
Professor: Zorica ergovi Joksimovi
Science Fiction
May 2014

H. G. Wells, The First Men in the Moon: A Dystopian Vision

A society which is clamoring for choice, which is filled with many articulate groups,
each urging its own brand of salvation, its own variety of economic philosophy, will give each
new generation no peace until all have chosen or gone under, unable to bear the conditions of
choice. The stress is in our civilization.1
(Margaret Mead, Coming of Age in Samoa, ch. 14 (1928))

Although the term utopia (meaning: the perfect place, but also: no place) was coined in
the 16th century by Sir Thomas More, the mere idea of it, the need for a perfect society, is
probably as old as the society itself. Perfect, heavenly, elusive, utopia has inspired numerous
works of literature depicting ideal societies. But what seems to have been even more inspiring,
and still is, is its direct counterpart, dystopia.
Dystopia can roughly be defined as the worst-case scenario for the mankind, often placing
it under the oppressive rule of totalitarian or military regimes, corporations, religious
organizations, or even technology. Background story of what caused the society to transform into
dystopian one is usually provided, or, at least, hinted, most often containing memories of wars or
some other disasters. There is a strict division into social classes, and its members are devoid of
any individuality. It is not uncommon to see dystopian society under the guise of utopian one, but
they can easily be differentiated by observing protagonists reaction to the environment.

Found at http://www.searchquotes.com/

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Dystopian protagonist will, at one point, start to question the society, rulers, or the system, and try
to explain their flaws to the people surrounding him, as well as to the reader.
Having his background in mind, it is hardly surprising that H. G. Wells chose dystopia as
a theme for a number of his novels. After he converted from Christianity to Darwinism, he
became an advocate of eugenics, claiming that The weak should be killed by the strong, having
no pity and less benevolence, and that The diseased, deformed and insane, together with those
swarms of blacks, and brown, and dirty-white, and yellow people will have to go in order to
create a scientific utopia. As extreme as these quotes may be, they illustrate Wellss dream of
flawless society. However, the border between utopia and dystopia is quite blurry, and utopia can
easily turn out to be nothing more than a dystopian world with a polished up surface, hiding
beneath it a much bleaker reality.
Unlike the majority of dystopian novels that presented us the writers vision of life on
Earth in the distant, or not so distant, future, Wellss The First Men in the Moon presents us with
authors vivid envisagement of life conditions and society of the Moon. He does that through the
eyes of two main characters, hermit scientist Dr. Cavor and a failed businessman Julius Bedford
who, by constructing an aircraft covered in gravity-defying material, Cavorite, manage to reach
the Moon. Upon examining the satellites surface, they stumble upon Selenites insect-like
inhabitants of the Moon.
a trivial being, a mere ant, scarcely five feet high. He was, wearing garments of some
leathery substance, so that no portion of his actual body appeared, but of this, of course,
we were entirely ignorant. He presented himself, therefore, as a compact, bristling
creature, having much of the quality of a complicated insect, with whip-like tentacles and
a clanging arm projecting from his shining cylindrical body case.
(Chapter 11)
Soon the protagonists learn that Selenites habitat indeed resembles an insect colony a
complex structure of underground tunnels swarming with Moonies. Moreover, the whole
society is stratified; each inhabitant has its own role, a place in the system, as well as in the
habitat. The role is predestined and since the earliest days, each citizen is brought up and trained
only to fulfill its purpose of existence, unacquainted with conveniences such as leisure, laughter,

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or even free thinking. The appearance of the individual Selenite would correspond to the given
role:
They differed in shape, they differed in size, they rang all the horrible changes on the
theme of Selenite form! ...all seemed to present an incredible exaggeration of some
particular feature
(Chapter 24)
Each class of the Selenites had overdeveloped organs that were necessary for attaining the
destined role, while the other body parts atrophied. With more intelligent and scholarly
specimens, the head would evolve up to monstrous proportions, as is the case with Grand Lunar,
Selenite hierarch, whose brain case must have measured many yards in diameter.
In many of his works, Wells chose to depict the antagonists in a similar way
brainwashed, dehumanized masses without any individual traits, instead of a single villain with
personal motives, as those were the enemies Wells feared the most. Usually the enemy would
represent some of the characteristics of Victorian society that Wells didnt quite approve of, in
this case the discriminating class system and dangers of capitalism exaggerated through
specialized evolution. Even though Wells himself did, as mentioned before, propagate similar
ideas, he somewhat distances from Selenites extreme specialization methods through Cavors
reaction to encounter with their educational methods:
It is quite unreasonable, I know, but such glimpses of the educational methods of these
beings affect me disagreeably. ...That wretched-looking hand-tentacle sticking out of its
jar seemed to have a sort of limp appeal for lost possibilities; it haunts me still, although,
of course it is really in the end a far more humane proceeding than our earthly method of
leaving children to grow into human beings, and then making machines of them.
(Chapter 24 )
Yet, Cavor is not completely disgusted. Whats more, he even dares to compare Selenites
upbringing techniques to earthly ones, openly stating that, although radical, they may be more
honest than the ones practiced on Earth. This isnt the only time that doubt arises concerning the
righteousness of earthly ways. This time, it is the Grand Lunar who is appalled by the stories of

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war, the concept unknown to him and his people, and the sense of satisfaction that humans get
out of it.
"'But what good is this war?' asked the Grand Lunar, sticking to his theme.
"'Oh! As for good!' said I; 'it thins the population!'
"'But why should there be a need?'
(Chapter 25)

Other blights of humanity, such as poverty, fear, disease are also unfamiliar to them.
Having that in mind, we might ask ourselves: Isnt that something all of us dream of?
Have we mistaken utopia for a dystopia? It seems that Wells himself couldnt decide where
exactly to place Selenite society and left that to the readers interpretation. The world that he had
described has both amazed and repelled him. He described lunar creatures with utter disgust, but
at the same time tried to justify them.
Some argue that this is the least dystopian of all Wellss novels; some go as far to say that
is a mere satire. Indeed, our own society has been severely criticized. It was probably not hard for
Wells to imagine that at some point in the future, it will be scientifically possible and morally
justified to modify people to fit the certain role, all in favor of higher productivity and,
consequently, profitability. Another criticism-worthy quality of Earthlings was displayed shortly
after Bedford and Cavor came into contact with Selenites: urge to respond with violence to
anything they are unfamiliar with, followed by Bedfords fantasizing of colonizing the Moon and
exploiting its riches.
In addition, some characteristics of the genre are missing. There is no typical dystopian
hero, the one emerging from the inside of such society, fed up with the oppression and
desperately trying to either change it or escape it. Instead we have two protagonists who observe
the newly discovered world from the outsiders point of view, at least in the beginning. Bedford
does at point try to fight the system he believes is wrong, but he does that for his own selfish
reasons. In the last chapters, we are presented with a more detailed description of the society

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given by Cavor, who found himself amongst the Selenites. Instead of horrifying stories from a
captive man, we are met by a narrative of peaceful, well organized beings capable of rational
communication, which fascinated a man of science Cavor was. Also, if we view Selenite society
in isolation from human norms, we might not find it abominable at the first sight. If we were to
find what is wrong with it, we would have to scratch the surface a little bit, but what would
scratching of our own surface reveal?
It is after this somewhat ambiguous novel that Wells decided to take a sharp turn in his
writing, abandoning the gloom and doom of dystopian imagery. The dawn of new century has
brightened the picture of forthcoming years, and he had decided to use the ruins of Victorian
society and its greed for progress as a foundation for building an absolute Modern Utopia.

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Bibliography:

Bergman, Jerry. H.G. Wells: Darwins Disciple and Eugenicist Extraordinaire, available
at http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/tj/v18/n3/disciple
Claeys, Gregory (ed). The Cambridge Companion to Utopian Literature. Cambridge,
Cambridge UP, 2010
Gioia, Ted. First Men in the Moon: A Review, available at
http://www.conceptualfiction.com/first_men_in_the_moon.html
Gomel, Elana. The First Men in the Moon. A Critical Text of the 1901 London First
Edition, with an Introduction and Appendices. Utopian Studies; 2001, Vol. 12 Issue 1, p272
Page, Michael R. The Literary Imagination from Erasmus Darwin to H. G. Wells:
Science, Evolution, and Ecology. Farnham, Ashgate, 2012
Science Fiction Encyclopedia, available at http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com
Utopia and Dystopia, available at http://www.utopiaanddystopia.com/
Wells, H.G. The First Men in the Moon. London, Odhams Press Limited, 1940
Wells, H.G. The First Men in the Moon. E-book available at
http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1013/pg1013.html