"I was caught by the neck, by the hair, by the arms, and pulled down. It was indescribably horrible in the darkness to feel all these soft creatures heaped upon me. I felt as if I was in a monstrous spider's web. I was overpowered, and went down. I felt little teeth nipping at my neck. I rolled over, and as I did so my hand came against my iron lever. It gave me strength. I struggled up, shaking the human rats from me, and, holding the bar short, I thrust where I judged their faces might be. I coud feel the succulent giving of flesh and bone under my blows, and for a moment I was free."
-HG Wells, The Time Machine (London, 1973), 12, p. 83.
"An ape cast a stone it had been carrying. The missile smacked Tolteca's temple. Pain blinded him. He lurched, and then they were on him. Thick arms dragged him to earth. His nose was full of their hair and rank smell. Fangs snapped yellow, a centimeter before his face. He struck out wildly. His fist rebounded from ridged muscle. The drubbing and clawing became his whole universe. He whirled into a redness that rang."
-The Night Face, VIII, pp. 616-617.
The Time Traveler fights the Morlocks which have turned out to be the hidden enemy of 802,701 AD. Tolteca and Raven fight the mountain apes which turn out not to the hidden enemy on Gwydion. When the two men have escaped, Raven is able to reason that their opponents were merely proto-intelligent animals.
Two phrases resonate with other works of sf:
Tolteca exclaims "'Oa!"; (I, p. 551) (Scroll down)
Raven is also the name of an important Wellsian character.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
What caught my eye was Wells' "...succulent giving of flesh and bones under my blows." I recall how, in "Hiding Place," a character struck Old Nick in the abdomen, sinking thru fat to bounce off the hard muscle underneath the blubber!
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment