89. The First Men in the Moon

89. The First Men in the Moon. H.G. Wells. 1901. 213 pages. [Source: Library] [3 stars, adult science fiction, classic]

First sentence: As I sit down to write here amidst the shadows of vine-leaves under the blue sky of southern Italy, it comes to me with a certain quality of astonishment that my participation in these amazing adventures of Mr. Cavor was, after all, the outcome of the purest accident. It might have been any one. I fell into these things at a time when I thought myself removed from the slightest possibility of disturbing experiences.

Premise/plot: Mr. Bedford has money troubles; he is looking for a relatively quick and easy 'out' for those troubles. He is trying his hand at writing a play. He's gone to the country to write that play and obviously hopes for peace and quiet. Dr. Cavor, his neighbor, is anything but quiet. He's a mad scientist though perhaps Mr. Bedford doesn't realize quite how 'mad' this mad scientist is when they meet. Mr. Bedford, perhaps, should have minded his own business and not lost his temper. Then again, that would have been a short book indeed! Dr. Cavor is out to create a gravity-defying element--which, of course, he'll name Cavorite. Working together--somewhat--they decide to use Cavorite on a sphere Dr. Cavor builds to go to the moon. Obviously. What else would you do if you could defy gravity?! What they find on the moon is quite shocking, especially to Mr. Bedford though he has his regrets before even leaving earth.

My thoughts: I enjoyed the book. It was silly. It requires you to suspend your disbelief. But it was good. I definitely enjoyed it more the second time around. HOWEVER, I will say that the movie adaptation from the 1960s while not faithful to the book particularly, was certainly more entertaining. They added a LOVE INTEREST to Mr. Bedford and had her 'accidentally' forced along for the ride. The ending is much improved in the movie, in my opinion. I also loved seeing CHICKENS IN SPACE. It was silly and over the top but also delightful.

Quotes:

"Can it be," he said, "that I have formed a Habit?"

What is this spirit in man that urges him for ever to depart from happiness and security, to toil, to place himself in danger, to risk even a reasonable certainty of death? It dawned upon me up there in the moon as a thing I ought always to have known, that man is not made simply to go about being safe and comfortable and well fed and amused.

"Good Lord!" I exclaimed. "Just think of all the trouble we took to get into this pickle! What did we come for? What are we after? What was the moon to us or we to the moon? We wanted too much, we tried too much. We ought to have started the little things first.

"It was I found the way here, but to find a way isn't always to be master of a way. If I take my secret back to earth, what will happen? I do not see how I can keep my secret for a year, for even a part of a year. Sooner or later it must come out, even if other men rediscover it. And then...governments and powers will struggle to get hither, they will fight against one another, and against these moon people; it will only spread warfare and multiply the occasions of war....What good would the moon be to men? Even of their own planet what have they made but a battle-ground and theatre of infinite folly? Small as his world is, and short as his time, he has still in his little life down there far more than he can do.

I think that going to bed was one of the luckiest ideas I have ever had in an emergency.

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