The War In The Air: H.G. Wells

[poliphilo]

Wells (in 1907) thought a world war would bring about the collapse of civilisation as we know it.  He was soon proved wrong, of course. He was also wrong about air war rendering ground-based armies obsolete- which is odd because- while he foresaw the horrors of aerial bombarment- he also realised you couldn't conquer and subdue a population simply by dropping bombs on it.

The book has lost its interest as prophecy but survives as entertainment. It is- I suppose- the grandaddy of steam punk. A little cockney cad- not unlike Kipps or Mr Polly- gets caught up in the drama of the breaking of nations and comes out the far side as a thin-lipped gun-slinger. There are air-ships. Lots of them. And aeroplanes with flapping wings piloted by Japanese swordsmen. 

Comments

[sovay]

He was also wrong about air war rendering ground-based armies obsolete

Kipling assumed something similar about transport and trade in "With the Night Mail"; it's either airships or submersibles, nothing that runs overland or on the surface of the sea, whereas as far as I can tell from humans in real life, they use as many different technologies as are available to them unless something becomes either genuinely impractical or not cool enough.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

People went a bit airship crazy in the noughties of the last century.

[jfs.livejournal.com]

You say crazy - I say inspired :-)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Airships are cool!