The Last Books of H. G. Wells: The Happy Turning: A Dream of Life and Mind at the End of its Tether

by H.G. Wells, Rudy Rucker (Foreword), Colin Wilson (Foreword)

This volume contains the two last works by HG Wells. Nearing the end of his life, increasingly distressed over the war, Wells deals with death and apocalypse, mortality and religion, and with “human insufficiency.”
 
Mind at the End of its Tether
 
“One approaches it with awe. You come across references to it Colin Wilson, Priestly, Koestler. It seems to have been a wounding work; something no one could agree with, but something that couldn’t be taken lightly.”—Art Beck
 
“In the face of our universal inadequacy . . . man must go steeply up or down and the odds seem to be all in favor of his going down and out. If he goes up, then so great is the adaptation demanded of him that he must cease to be a man. Ordinary man is at the end of his tether.”—HG Wells
 
The Happy Turning
 
Wells’ barbed fantasies about the afterlife take the forms of “happy” dream walks. In one he converses with
 
But being crucified upon the irreparable things that one has done, realizing that one has failed, that you have let yourself down and your poor silly disciples down and mankind down, that the God in you has deserted you—that was the ultimate torment. Even on the cross I remember shouting out something about it.”
“Eli. Eli, lama sabachthani?” I said.
“ Did someone get that down?” he replied.
“Don’t you read the Gospels?”
“ Good God, No!” he said. “How can I? I was crucified before all that.”

Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1945

About the author

Herbert George Wells was born to a working class family in Kent, England. Young Wells received a spotty education, interrupted by several illnesses and family difficulties, and became a draper's apprentice as a teenager. The headmaster of Midhurst Grammar School, where he had spent a year, arranged for him to return as an "usher," or student teacher. Wells earned a government scholarship in 1884, to study biology under Thomas Henry Huxley at the Normal School of Science. Wells earned his bachelor of science and doctor of science degrees at the University of London. After marrying his cousin, Isabel, Wells began to supplement his teaching salary with short stories and freelance articles, then books, including The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War of the Worlds (1898).

Wells created a mild scandal when he divorced his cousin to marry one of his best students, Amy Catherine Robbins. Although his second marriage was lasting and produced two sons, Wells was an unabashed advocate of free (as opposed to "indiscriminate") love. He continued to openly have extra-marital liaisons, most famously with Margaret Sanger, and a ten-year relationship with the author Rebecca West, who had one of his two out-of-wedlock children. A one-time member of the Fabian Society, Wells sought active change. His 100 books included many novels, as well as nonfiction, such as A Modern Utopia (1905), The Outline of History (1920), A Short History of the World (1922), The Shape of Things to Come (1933), and The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind (1932). One of his booklets was Crux Ansata, An Indictment of the Roman Catholic Church. Although Wells toyed briefly with the idea of a "divine will" in his book, God the Invisible King (1917), it was a temporary aberration. Wells used his international fame to promote his favorite causes, including the prevention of war, and was received by government officials around the world. He is best-remembered as an early writer of science fiction and futurism.

He was also an outspoken socialist. Wells and Jules Verne are each sometimes referred to as "The Fathers of Science Fiction". D. 1946.

More: http://philosopedia.org/index.php/H._...

http://www.online-literature.com/well...

http://www.hgwellsusa.50megs.com/

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._G._Wells

Reviews

[Dina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wonder if author knew of Cro-Magnons. But overall, i agree with him. I have no hope too. On top of being exceedingly dumb, we addict easily to materialism and accumulation of junk, same as useless breeding. We bred to 8 billion mostly useless humans. Its disgusting.

[Tim Hazelbaker]

The man who called Christ "the world's greatest failure" (p. 16) and held that the only "certainty" was "organic evolution" (p. 62) coincidentally died a wretched pessimist.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

To start with: The forwards to these books are completely inane.

I was disappointed with "Mind at the End of its Tether" since I was expecting a better and more coherent critique on the decent of man.

Instead the book is filled with ramblings on how the end of the world is nigh and gives no specific information or reasoning to explain it. It seems to be utterly obvious to the author and he spends most of the book explaining how wretched it feels to know it.

If the book wasn't so short, I'd say pass on this one... Which, is a shame since Mr. Wells is one of my favorite authors.