- The Sleeper Awakes Archived Message
Posted by scrabb
on January 2, 2020, 3:56 pm
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Preface to the 1921 edition of The Sleeper Awakes by HG Wells. The original was published in 1898. Here with hindsight he makes a sort of apology for the thesis of the novel, making reference to a lecture by Hillaire Belloc of 1911 titled "The Servile State", which Wells refers to as "Mr Belloc's nightmare" -- an ordinary man who finds himself the puppet of a conspiracy of highly intellectual men. The preface goes on: " .... and the thesis of a gradual systemic enslavement of organised labour, presupposes an intelligence, a power of combination and a wickedness in the class of rich financiers and industrial organisers, such as this class certainly does not possess, and probably cannot possess. A body of men who had the character and the largeness of imagination necessary to combine and overthrow the natural insubordination of the worker would have a character and largeness of imagination too fine and great for any such plot against humanity. I was young in those days, I was thirty-two, I had met few big business men, and I still thought them as wicked, able men. It was only later that I realised that on the contrary they were, for the most part, rather foolish plungers, fortunate and energetic rather than capable, vulgar rather than wicked, and quite incapable of worldwide constructive plans or generous combined action." [Italic emphasis in the original. Underlined emphasis mine] I think Wells had it right the first time around, as a young man. Twenty years later he comes to write: and quite incapable of worldwide constructive plans or generous combined action. A case of age bringing not wisdom but ignorance. |
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