#h.g.wells

[immaculatasknight]

Dictators posing as progressives -- our current predicament

[leonhart-noctem]

La máquina del tiempo - Reseña

Título original: The Time Machine Autor: Herbert George Wells Año: 1895 País: Inglaterra SINOPSIS La máquina del tiempo, escrita por H.G. Wells, cuenta la historia de un inventor y científico quien ha creado una máquina capaz de viajar en el tiempo. Movido por la curiosidad y el deseo de explorar el futuro, el protagonista viaja hasta el año 802.701 donde descubre una sociedad en decadencia…

[raeiyyn]

Gail Honeyman, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine// Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet// Holly Warburton // Charles Bukowski, Ham on Rye // illustration by miaaaaa1995 (on insta) // H.G.Wells, The War of the Worlds // artwork by Emilio Hernández Martín titled "Cianotipia"// Ottessa Moshfegh, My Year of Rest and Relaxation

[professor-geen-berries]

Remus, Sirius, and books

Remus grew up in a lower class setting, and so didn't have access to too many books. He would read whenever he got the chance, though.

Sirius's family were constantly trying to force him to read classics like great expectations or pride and prejudice.

When they went to Hogwarts, his family would send him a book every so often with instructions to read it and report back on it by letter the next week or so. Sirius, out of sheer defiance, would never even pick them up.

Then one day, Remus picked up one of the books he'd been sent, and asked if he could read it. Sirius shrugged, muttering about why he'd want to, but told him to go ahead.

Soon, Remus began reading all the books Sirius was sent. He would take the book, read it in a week, and write up a short synopsis for Sirius to copy and send a letter of to his parents - a small but effective act of rebellion which wouldn't get him in any trouble.

Remus did it partly for this, and always claimed he just didn't want Sirius to get in trouble unnecessarily. But he wasn't fooling anyone. Part of it was for Sirius - even then he would've done anything for him. But mostly, it was for the books. He couldn't get enough of them. It was a whole new world of literature for him. He would devour book after book after book.

Soon, it became second nature for Sirius to throw whatever new book he'd been sent onto Remus's bed, and for Remus to pick it up and start reading it without a word of discussion. It became a sort of ritual for them.

All the way through his teens and adult years Remus loved classic literature. He read any and all Jane Austin, Charles Dickens, and H.G.Wells book he could find.

[kore-of-the-underworld]

I have a theory for season 6

First thing first, the background: The whole DOA's plan. From the purpose that pushed Fukuchi to do that: massive war in the future that killed millions of people all around the world, more severe than Great War which ended 15 years ago (before the main storyline). Then fueled as well by the hate to corrupted people in the government body who caused those issues. Therefore he tried to combine all armies in the world under one command leader, Army of Mankind to mitigate the future war. Therefore, a strong current incident/terror should be made in order to make the United Nations realize how important that thing is. And as Fukuchi confirmed, the proposal of DOA's plan came from Fyodor, which means he told Fyodor about the massive future war.

Now here several scattered info from Stormbringer novel apply in: The future big war Fukuchi mentioned is probably a singularity war. The Great War (the beginning of several major issues in BungoSD) as confirmed in Stormbringer novel, European countries competed to create singularity to be a weapon. Why singularity? Because, only singularity has enough energy to harm the world. Ability alone is considered as not harmful as it can't raze the world on its own because one of the ability principles: Ability has an output ceiling. This output ceiling doesn't exist in singularity (more about this in Stormbringer)

Three major powers during the Great War: England, France, and Germany competed to achieve that goal. Germany found a theoretical way to create a powerful singularity (not the normal clashing ability way as singularity from this method has limited energy, it'll run out). Then a rebel scientist in France managed to be the first one to realize that theoretical plan into reality. He created the first singularity that can be weaponized from the theory Germany found, yes, the birth of Guivre singularity (Paul Verlaine). Germany then stole the research file, shared it to their ally: Japan and another singularity was born: Arahabaki (Chuuya). Hearing German + Japan's success in creating singularity that has enough energy to destroy the world, France tried to steal Chuuya (that time was still 7 y.o.) from the lab in Japan. But the plan failed and that destructive Arahabaki incident happened. Soon after that, Great War ended with a ceasefire signed by France, Germany, England (as confirmed in 55 Minutes about the ceasefire process)

Now you might have realized which one amongst the three major powers during the Great War didn't have singularity (from that method) as a weapon. Yes, England. Tho they created the Shell (by H.G.Wells, first mention in 55 Minutes) and One Order. The Shell vs the new singularity: The Shell energy itself caused massive annihilation, a singularity effect, but fun fact, the energy was not enough to destroy Guivre singularity, instead it made Guivre stronger

Now, combine those things together with facts in Season 5. All of us witnessed that entity at the end of Season 5, right? Based on info in Stormbringer, that entity high probability is a singularity from Fukuchi's ability created from the same concept as Guivre (Verlaine) and Arahabaki (Chuuya) creation. Yes, few rare people in the world can create powerful singularity with near-UNLIMITED amounts of energy just by using their own ability. These people are called having "self-contradicting ability". Chuuya's original ability that created his singularity is "ability to amplify other abilities". Does it ring a bell? Yes, Fukuchi's ability is ability to amplify the effectiveness of any object he uses as a weapon, so theoretically Fukuchi is one amongst the special people. Full process about creating the singularity in Stormbringer

Now the question, why did that entity suddenly appear? Here is the crazy part of my coping theory: Another bigger and powerful party is involved. Huh? Yes. [Note: This is just me connecting the dots so I might be wrong] Remember which major power country doesn't have the singularity weapon during the Great War? Yes, England. What if England was behind this? Why? Remember we've seen Fyodor, Fitzgerald, and Agatha Christie (from the Order of the Clock Tower of England) were on call a long time ago in the manga. So, they know each other. Remember again who proposed the plan to Fukuchi? Fyodor. What is Fyodor's ultimate goal as mentioned the first time during the Cannibalism arc? Remove the sinners (ability users). So, what if the appearance of Fukuchi's singularity was planned so England can capture it (somehow) to be their weapon?

Now, add another thing from Stormbringer, Verlaine ,Chuuya's older brother who is also currently one of the 5 executives of Port Mafia, mentioned the Storm that will happen in the future. The only time Verlaine will appear again to give his assistance What is the Storm? He never gives specific explanations. This doesn't end here because Verlaine too has connection with the Order of Clock Tower, well... more to he caused an issue to them Verlaine destroyed the Order of the Clock Tower's credibility beyond repair as he easily killed 3 members of the Order and assassinated the Queen (glad the Order used body double) during her coronation. So, what if the other purpose of England doing this was to restore that? other than to obtain a powerful weapon (a singularity).

This also might somehow explain about why Fyodor can easily believe Chuuya was under control. Well, we don't know Meursault Prison's location, but it might be in France (as Meursault is a real location in France). Remember the thing France did during Great War? They tried to steal Chuuya from Japan. Now with Chuuya destroyed Meursault prison, France has strong reason to capture him. Plus Fyodor specifically targeted Chuuya to appear there. Remember when Nikokai asked him whether he wanted to change item? Fyodor basically said no need as he had assistance already (Chuuya).

I also think adam might come back or might save chuuya if he ends up being captured

but yeah this is all i have

[anthrotographer]

Review of 'The Time Machine' by H.G. Wells

The stories of H.G.Wells are rich and captivating worlds where he makes the unfathomable seem plausible. Wells uses concepts from the sciences readily in his writing as a base of reality. His protagonists tend to be inquisitive types that posit questions about the state of the world, often giving and testing their hypotheses along a surreal adventure. In The Time Machine our protagonist is simply and ambiguously labeled the Time Traveler. He has just transformed physics forever by creating a vehicle that can fold and traverse spacetime. Now he aims to demonstrate to his civilized friends his unbelievable achievement. In a way this demonstration is both a primer for them and a reassurance for himself that he is not in a fantasy.

“Can an instantaneous cube exist?”

This is a question the Time Traveler asks his dinner party audience in order to introduce the concept of Time as the 4th dimension. He claims you need “duration” for anything to truly exist. If a cube only exists for an imperceptible instant then did it really exist? It’s a question that provokes a bunch of thoughts. How long is an instant? If an instant is measurable then the cube did exist for a time, no? But without the evidence of creation or decay of the cube how can we be certain that it existed? This question is a seemingly untestable hypothetical. 

“But you are wrong to say that we cannot move about in Time. For instance, if I am recalling an incident very vividly I go back to the instant of its occurrence: I become absent-minded, as you say. I jump back for a moment. Of course we have no means of staying back for any length of Time, any more than a savage or an animal has of staying six feet above the ground. But a civilized man is better off than the savage in this respect. He can go up against gravitation in a balloon, and why should he not hope that ultimately he may be able to stop or accelerate his drift along the Time-Dimension, or even turn about and travel the other way?"

The idea of memories being a way to time travel brings into thought a swell of philosophy. Is time really just a figment of consciousness. A way for humans to make sense of the world, to traverse it, to learn from it. Many scientists seem to think so (1). A mind altering realization that I can’t truly grasp fully. But what if in a way thinking of time as just a construct of the mind might reveal an ultimate interpretation of this extraordinary tale that’s being told. I’m sure it’s read that way by some.  

Also, ‘if ever a creature could figure out time travel it’s humans’, believes the Time Traveler. His distinction between “civilized” man and a “savage” is problematic to say the least, but we’ll revisit that later because it has major bearing on how our protagonist sees the world. 

Distinguishing the 4th dimension of Time as another measure of existence (like the 3 Euclidian measures of height, length and width) is a way for the reader, and the dinner party audience, to conceptualize it as a plane that we can move along. Today scientists still haven’t cracked the code of time travel and some contest Time being the 4th dimension at all. (2)(3)

“The peculiar risk lay in the possibility of my finding some substance in the space which I, or the machine, occupied. So long as I travelled at a high velocity through time, this scarcely mattered: I was, so to speak, attenuated— was slipping like a vapour through the interstices of intervening substances! But to come to a stop involved the jamming of myself, molecule by molecule, into whatever lay in my way: meant bringing my atoms into such intimate contact with those of the obstacle that a profound chemical reaction-possibly a far-reaching explosion-would result, and blow myself and my apparatus out of all possible dimensions into the Unknown. This possibility had occurred to me again and again while I was making the machine”

Here the Time Traveler is describing his first, future time warp. Imagine flying through time and seeing your home, and world as you knew it, vanish. It reads as an incredibly disorienting experience. And this possibility of stopping at the wrong time and fusing with some obstruction in his position seems like a massive red flag. The logic that Wells presents shows how deep he went in imagining what time travel would be like. He intuitively analyzed many of the potential pitfalls that could occur. 

“What might appear when that hazy curtain was altogether withdrawn? What might not have happened to men? What if cruelty had grown into a common passion? What if in this interval the race had lost its manliness and had developed into something inhuman, unsympathetic, and overwhelmingly powerful? I might seem some old-world savage animal, only the more dreadful and disgusting for our common likeness, a foul creature to be incontinently slain.”

And here begins the traveler’s speculative musings on the futurity of man. I enjoy this aspect of the story in particular because of my own fascination with humanity’s future. Here he contemplates what we might turn into. Projecting forward, knowing that our species has a long history of warring against each other, it would be a safe bet that that would continue. It has for some time. But is it intrinsic to what our species is? One read of this quote is that the Traveler thinks cruelty is currently uncommon, and that we might devolve into being cruel creatures. Wells and the Time Traveler are from England. They grew up as citizens of a colonial power, used to a culture of cruel conquest. They are also used to thinking that to maintain their civilization some other peoples need to be on the sacrificial end. This dichotomic mentality deems all other lives expendable on their route to control, and maybe this line of thinking from the Time Traveler is an example of that mentality bleeding over into his predictions. When I read that last sentence of the quote I couldn’t help but think about the British colonist’s warped rationale for incontinently slaying the indigenous peoples of Australia or N. America. A bit of projection maybe?

Now he’ll actually stop at a time, far different than his own. A moment in time where mother nature’s diversity has been restored, while humanity is “upon the wane.”

“You see I had always anticipated that the people of the year Eight Hundred and Two Thousand odd would be incredibly in front of us in knowledge, art, everything. Then one of them suddenly asked me a question that showed him to be on the intellectual level of one of our five-year-old children- asked me, in fact, if I had come from the sun in a thunderstorm! … A flow of disappointment rushed across my mind. For a moment I felt that I had built the Time Machine in vain.”

The anticipation of a progressive revolution speaks to his belief in humanity’s continued evolution (whatever that means). It can be coming from a societally egoistic perspective or a self-ego perspective, being that the Time Traveler can see himself as a revolutionary inventor. Thinking that we will always be progressing doesn’t take into account the pitfalls that come from our expansion.

I think that Wells actually does a nice job in creating this character that doesn’t get lost in himself too much, and tends to stick to ideas about the world. He rolls with the punches of having some of his hypotheses turn out wrong. He is human of course and does have brief episodes of existential dread, but the plot is more important than character to this story. In a way it is more captivating that way. The protagonist can be an amorphous entity for the reader to plop themselves into to experience the imaginary world of time travel. 

Meeting the Eloi people in this moment shatters the glass of that societal ego. Our traveler was so looking forward to ascertaining the future’s wisdom. My interpretation is that The Time Machine is unwittingly prophetic in distinct ways. And that the future’s wisdom is revealed. More to come.

“For the first time I began to realise an odd consequence of the social effort in which we are at present engaged. And yet, come to think, it is a logical consequence enough. Strength is the outcome of need; security sets a premium on feebleness. The work of ameliorating the conditions of life-the true civilising process that makes life more and more secure-had gone steadily on to a climax. One triumph of a united humanity over Nature had followed another. Things that are now mere dreams had become projects deliberately put in hand and carried forward. And the harvest was what I saw!” “Social triumphs, too, had been effected. I saw mankind housed in splendid shelters, gloriously clothed, and as yet I had found them engaged in no toil. There were no signs of struggle, neither social nor economical struggle. The shop, the advertisement, traffic, all that commerce which constitutes the body of our world, was gone. It was natural on that golden evening that I should jump at the idea of a social paradise.”

He finds a world where the small population of Eloi are thought to be our last descendants. There is very little modern architecture left, and even less not fully claimed back by vegetation. Wondering why there are so few people left and why no one is doing any work, he speculates that it might be the logical order of a fully realized civilized world. A utopia of sorts where life is so easy that we have adjusted to a life of physical and mental sloth. The idea of the exponentially increasing civilizing process is a prevalent idea in present day thought. First it assumes that civility = collective good, when practically speaking only a subset of our population benefits from this modernity while the other part either toils to maintain it or gets excluded from it. Which brings up another variable when projecting forward, which is; what happens to class and human exploitation. The trend of modernity, industrialization, civilization or whatever you want to call it hasn’t necessarily been in effort to make life easier in those respects. Some technologies and medicines have of course had positive effects, but toil and hardship has stayed steadfast (4). You can even argue that there were many ‘primitive’ societies that lived more sustainably and with less toil than us (5). What I’m ultimately saying is that “ameliorating the conditions of life” can be helped of course by developments in our understanding about the world (such as in medical science and tech), but that one of those developments has to be an egalitarian and democratic society. At least if we want to shoot for utopia. 

Anyway, this timeline of history doesn’t entirely hold up as the Time Traveler searches for more clues.

“Very simple was my explanation, and plausible enough—as most wrong theories are!"

We cannot fully affirm the Time Traveler’s conjecture anymore because he has proven himself fallible. Yet he does make some convincing arguments for certain aspects of the changed world. These must be considered. I like that he’s not an all knowing narrator. He is trying his best to have educated hypotheses about this confusing new age.

“Even in our own time certain tendencies and desires, once necessary to survival, are a constant source of failure. Physical courage and the love of battle, for instance, are no great help—may even be hindrances—to a civilised man.”

Here I agree with him that our proclivity for battle is a negative. I feel linking “physical courage and the love of battle” either doesn’t translate well to today (and I’m not understanding) or they are distinctly separate tendencies. You can be courageous and put your body on the line for the greater good of humanity; hence it wouldn’t be a hinderance. That can be through battle or it can be through other means like protest. And once again the Time Traveler makes a distinction here between civilized man and humanity in general. His use of vocabulary like “savage” and “civilized” throughout the novella depict a man who sees himself as a distinct version of humanity or an entirely different being in general. One that’s superior to other peoples. This thinking is in line with 19th century European views and informs their creation of the defunct classification of race (6).

“The Time Machine was gone! At once, like a lash across the face, came the possibility of losing my own age, of being left helpless in this strange new world.”

After a day getting acquainted with his surroundings he gets this heart stopper. Coming to the conclusion that his invention must have been moved deliberately, he begins his search for the culprit. It couldn’t have been the “indolent” Eloi. He befriends one of them that he names Weena and she joins the traveler on his explorations.

“But, gradually, the truth dawned on me: that Man had not remained one species, but had differentiated into two distinct animals: that my graceful children of the Upper World were not the sole descendants of our generation, but that this bleached, ob-scene, nocturnal Thing, which had flashed before me, was also heir to all the ages.”

His first encounter with the Morlocks, the Eloi’s underground counterparts. 

“At first, proceeding from the problems of our own age, it seemed clear as daylight to me that the gradual widening of the present merely temporary and social difference between the Capitalist and the Labourer, was the key to the whole position.”

I had to stop and think about this one. Could it be possible for a class divide of peoples that stretches on for millennia to actually produce distinct creatures? I think 800,000 years is long enough for a species to evolve some changed features, especially moving down into a subterranean environment. Still, the people that lived there would have to have been forced to live there by the upper worlders. In a Capitalist vs laborer dynamic we know from history that uprisings would likely occur amongst the subjugated class which would make it difficult for the dynamic to stay so divided. Especially if the Eloi ancestors were dependent on the labor that the Morlock ancestors were producing, as the traveler hypothesizes. As long as humans have been organizing together there have been some who selfishly try to extract a bigger piece of the pie at the expense of others; at the expense of equality. I think Wells recognizes an existing class divide and extrapolates out from there to create a semi-logical science fiction future. From a capitalist’s perspective having a labor force trapped underground, unable to complain or taint the image of your exclusive eden, seems ideal. This imagery is extremely reminiscent of another classic short story called The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin (7). Wells’ conceives of many possible variables that might’ve shaped his world, but leaves room for a reader to interpret. I want to take some of his prophetic descriptions and offer up my own reading after the following quote.

“I think I have said how much hotter than our own was the weather of this Golden Age. I cannot account for it. It may be that the sun was hotter, or the earth nearer the sun.”

Well Wells, maybe it was hotter because of human induced climate change. There are plenty of anecdotes in the story that describe humanity as the main arbiter of earth’s future changes. We all tend to acknowledge that as a matter of fact. The agricultural and industrial revolutions proved that we, more than any other species, shape the landscape of the world. But having the hindsight of 21st century knowledge really informs how I see The Time Machine. In the story humanity has decreased in numbers drastically, has devolved in its intellectual capacity, and our infrastructures have collapsed. Humans no longer are “progressing” in the modern sense where progress gets unnecessarily linked with expansion, extraction, and exploitation. Perhaps they are just living sustainably like any other creature. I know a small mention about the climate being hotter doesn’t explicitly point to climate change being the culprit for the Eloi’s reality. Still, could it be that the big existential crisis of our time was never remedied and this led to mass degradation of human society? Some of our smartest minds tend to think this is what’s coming for us (8). Maybe the forces of change ran half of humanity underground and that’s what birthed the Morlocks. Maybe traversing time in The Time Machine was in effort to glimpse into our unassured future.

“However great their intellectual degradation, the Eloi had kept too much of the human form not to claim my sympathy, and to make me perforce a sharer in their degradation and their Fear.”

A great example of the simplistic inclination we have to sympathize with who/what-ever looks most like us. It’s not to say it’s not practical because instinctually we gravitate towards our families who of course resemble us the most. But to overlook the science in favor of habit and familiarity has put humanity at odds with itself and the ecosystem. No matter the race, nationality, or however we choose to divide, the science says that we are all practically the same, with the same basic needs and desires. The same is true of us and the rest of the biosphere full of carbon based life forms. Disassociating ourselves from that collective has given us the illusion of invincibility. The repercussions will be severe.  

“I felt the intensest wretchedness for the horrible death of little Weena. It seemed an overwhelming calamity. Now, in this old familiar room, it is more like the sorrow of a dream than an actual loss.”

Finally after many dramatic happenings (that I can keep listing but I genuinely recommend you read) the Time Traveler has found his machine and is able to return to a more familiar time. Recounting his experience is almost like thinking on a dream. His friends will hardly believe the tale and maybe some part of himself doesn’t either. Remember, if time is truly a construction of a conscious mind then maybe the time machine was merely a device that allowed the traveler to explore their own minds imagination of a prospective future. An experience akin to a deep psychedelic trip or lucid dreaming. In that case he might have thought that progress was inevitable but subconsciously knew that civilization “must inevitably fall back upon and destroy its makers in the end.” Surely some will think he’s just mad. I choose to believe the traveler’s account and take the revelation as what’s possibly to come on our current path.

“No. I cannot expect you to believe it. Take it as a lie—or a prophecy. Say I dreamed it in the workshop. Consider I have been speculating upon the destinies of our race until I have hatched this fiction. Treat my assertion of its truth as a mere stroke of art to enhance its interest. And taking it as a story, what do you think of it?"

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-time-an-illusion/ 

https://medium.com/@imshub13/why-time-is-not-the-fourth-dimension-c520161ea6d9 

https://phys.org/news/2012-04-physicists-abolish-fourth-dimension-space.html 

https://books.google.com/books?id=eHT43wfyw-sC&lpg=PA1&ots=edPFq4SIKR&dq=ancient%20hours%20working%20lives&lr&pg=PA13#v=onepage&q=ancient%20hours%20working%20lives&f=false 

https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/rauch/worktime/hours_workweek.html

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4326670/

https://www.ceremade.dauphine.fr/~ekeland/lectures/Mathematical%20Models%20in%20Social%20Sciences/ursula-k-le-guin-the-ones-who-walk-away-from-omelas.pdf

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/climate-change-predictions-2070

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[notasfilosoficas]

"No puedes cruzar el mar simplemente mirando al agua"

Rabindranath Tagore

Fue un poeta, dramaturgo, músico y filósofo del movimiento Brahmo Samaj, un movimiento social y religioso fundado en el siglo XIX y que significa literalmente, la sociedad de los devotos de Dios verdadero. Nació en Calcuta India, en mayo de 1816. Se le considera el más prestigioso escritor indio de comienzos del siglo XX.

Fue el menor de 14 hermanos, de niño vivió rodeado de una atmósfera de publicaciones de revistas literarias y de representaciones musicales y de teatro. Su hermano era un respetado poeta y filósofo y otro de ellos fue el primer miembro de una etnia india admitido en el servicio civil indio, que anteriormente estaba formado solo por blancos.

En 1878, Tagore viajó a Brighton Inglaterra, en donde estudió en un colegio privado, y posteriormente en el University College de Londres, misma que dejaría al cabo de un año.

A lo largo de su vida, Tagore mantuvo múltiples contactos con otros intelectuales de la época, en donde destacan, Albert Einstein, Robert Frost, Mahatma Gandhi, Bernard Shaw y H.G.Wells entre otros.

La poesía dominó la reputación literaria de Tagore, aunque también escribió novelas, ensayos e historias cortas, se suman casi un centenar de libros y compuso numerosas canciones. De la prosa de Tagore, sus obras de mas consideración son sus cuentos cortos, y se le atribuye la introducción de este género en la literatura bengalí,

A partir de 1912, recibió numerosas invitaciones para pronunciar conferencias en occidente y en 1913, obtuvo el premio Nobel de Literatura. Gracias a ello, ganó gran popularidad, convirtiéndose en una celebridad de Oriente de las que muy pocos conocían y escuchaban en Occidente. Dos años después de recibir el premio Nobel, el rey Jorge V lo nombró caballero, titulo al que renunció tras la matanza de Amritsar en 1919, cuando las tropas británicas mataron a 400 manifestantes indios.

Durante la primera guerra mundial, definió su postura política como pacifista exenta de nacionalismo. 

En sus últimos años, se dedicó casi por completo a la administración de su centro de estudios, y en Agosto de 1941, muere a la edad de 63 años en Shantiniketan, a unos 160 kilómetros de Calcuta. Esta escuela fundada por Tagore se convirtió más tarde en la Universidad Visva Bharati en 1951 por una ley del paramento.

Fuentes buscabiografias.com, Wikipedia, biografiasyvida.com y lasociedadbiografica.com

[daikikaijuboyo028tblr]

No one would have believed

In the last years of the 19th century...That human affairs were being watched from the timeless worlds of space...No one could have dreamed that we were being scrutinized..As someone with a microscope studies creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water...Few people even considered the possibility of life on other planets...And yet, across the gulf of space..Minds immeasurably superior to ours...Regarded this Earth with envious eyes...

And slowly...and surely, they drew their plans against us...

Boi! It feels great to post again ^u^

This is my take on the iconic Martian Fighting Machine [known colloquially by the fandom and by characters of the book as The Tripod] from H.G. Wells' scifi epic War Of The Worlds.

Now I'm sure you're well aware of this classic tale and must be familiarized by either the book or it's plethora of adaptations outside of the pages and first person narratives--from the radio drama narrated and performed by Orson Wells, the 1950s colored feature by George Pal with its iconic manta-warships, to Steven Spielberg's 21st century take on the story with twists here and there that make it unique and by far the most well known by our contemporary standards, to the comics like Scarlet Traces and so on and so forth.

And yet--most versions with few exceptions ever depict the iconic Tripods as how H.G. Wells originally described them or envisioned as these Biomechanical "tools" of extermination who are just as mysterious as their operators.

For this take of mine I took various sources of inspiration--from the work of Makoto Kobayashi and Moebius' work in how they depict their machines to the most important one being Henrique Alvim Corrêa's take on the Tripods for the French edition of WOTWs [one that allegedly H.G.Wells considers to be his favorite]; in case you're wondering where the

👁️ big 'ol eyes 👁️

and overall shape of the Tripod comes from.

I hope you guys liked this as much as I did--I really got to "to go town" with those Alcohol-based markers my sister got [we got two now! Neutral and Warm palette sets--the latter of which I used in the coloring of this drawing] plus it's my first time utilizing Photoshop in conjunction with Ibis Paint X to hopefully get the look I wanted.

[best-fictional-cat]

Finally, what you've all been waiting for (probably):

Round 2+ brackets!!!

(randomised - with very slight adjustments - using a wheel; possibly subject to change in the further rounds but very unlikely)

Group 1

Coco Grimalkin (Purrfect Apawcalypse) vs Miyuki (Avatar the Last Airbender)

Slugcat (Rain World) vs Catbus (My Neighbor Totoro)

Behemoth (Master and Margarita) vs Amp / Anp / Anpu (The Disastrous Life of Saiki K)

Kitty Softpaws (Puss in Boots) vs Pixie (Pixie and Brutus)

Chi Yamada (Chi's sweet home) vs Rum Tum Tugger (Cats the musical)

Tabby Slime (Slime Rancher) vs Tangy (Animal Crossing)

Cringer / Battlecat (He-man) vs Cinderpelt (Warrior cats)

Blaze the Cat (Sonic the Hedgehog) vs Scourge (Warrior cats)

Group 2

Mae Borowski (Night in the Woods) vs Natsume Soseki (Bungou Stray Dogs)

Domino (Amphibia) vs Shoe + Wagahai (Ace Attorney)

808 (Hi-Fi Rush) vs Niko (Oneshot)

Squirrelflight (Warrior cats) vs T'Ana (Star Trek: Lower Decks)

Hong + On (Trash of the Count's Family) vs Alpine (Marvel comics)

Jaspers (Homestuck) vs Mao Mao Mao (Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart)

Thomas Kincade Brannigan (Doctor Who) vs Caroline Coughs (Sparklecare hospital)

Mewo (Omori) vs Baron Humbert von Gikkingen (The Cat Returns)

Group 3

Greebo (Discworld) vs Aldwyn (The Familiars)

Simba (The Lion King) vs Leona Kingscholar (Twisted Wonderland)

Jenny Linsky (Jenny Linsky, Esther Averill) vs Findus (Pettson and Findus)

Cheshire Cat (Alice in Wonderland) vs Mad Mew Mew (Undertale)

Felix the cat (Paramount) vs Burgerpants (Undertale)

Kyo Sohma (Fruits Basket) vs Ghost (The Owl House)

Rosie (Animal Crossing) vs Talking Cat (Rick and Morty)

Hiili (Fox Fires) vs Mew (Marvel comics)

Group 4

Hobbes (Calvin and Hobbes) vs Tom Kitten (The Tale of Tom Kitten)

Meowthra (Lego Ninjago Movie) vs Jonesy (Alien)

Vodka Mutini / Dr.Meowgon Spangler (Homestuck) vs Lucifer (Cinderella)

Charmmy Kitty (Sanrio) vs Puppycat (Bee and Puppycat)

Nermal (Garfield) vs Lion (Steven Universe)

Spot (Star Trek: The Next Generation) vs Diana (Sailor Moon)

Midnight (Castle in the Air, Diana Wynne Jones) vs Scout (Cattails)

Sakamoto (Nichijou) vs Ankha (Animal Crossing)

Group 5

Periwinkle (Blue's clues) vs Fluffal Cat (Yu-Gi-Oh!)

Salem Saberhagen (Sabrina the Teenage Witch) vs Frumpkin (Critical Role)

Ember (Cattails) vs Nyanky (Taiko no Tatsujin)

Heinkel (Fullmetal Alchemist) vs Amanojaku (Ghost Stories)

Khoshekh (Welcome to Night Vale) vs Catty (Undertale)

Kuro (Blue Exorcist) vs Catra (She-Ra)

Juan The Small Magical Latino Cat (Monster Prom) vs Tigger Sugden (Purrfect Apawcalypse)

Bungle the glass cat (Oz) vs Potato (Cat loaf adventures)

Group 6

Chairman Meow (The Shadowhunter Chronicles) vs Finley / Jelly Donut (Hustle Cat)

Cattail (Plants vs Zombies) vs Nameless evil white cat (James Bond)

Thomas O'Malley + Aristocats (Aristocats) vs Panther Lily (Fairy Tail)

Yoruichi Shihoin (Bleach) vs Jellie (Double Life SMP)

Blake Belladonna (RWBY) vs Tigress (Kung Fu Panda)

Invisible cat (The Invisible Man, H.G.Wells) vs Haru (My Roommate is a Cat)

Pusheen (Pusheen) vs Yellowfang (Warrior cats)

Kirjava (His Dark Materials) vs Kuroneko-sama (Trigun)

Group 7

Gary the Snail (Spongebob Squarepants) vs Skitty (Pokémon)

Bob (Animal Crossing) vs The Kitty (The Bad Guys)

Garfield the Deals Warlock (The Adventure Zone) vs Capper (My Little Pony)

Jiji (Kiki's Delivery Service) vs Izutsumi (Dungeon Meshi)

The Black Cat (The Black Cat, E.A.Poe) vs Nyako / Meowy (Chainsaw Man)

Tabby Von Meow (Webkinz) vs Tom (Tom and Jerry)

Solembum (Inheritance Cycle) vs Lil' Judd (Splatoon)

Bagheera (The Jungle Book) vs Gatomon (Digimon)

Group 8

Plagg (Miraculous) vs Luxor (Tutenstein)

Meowth (Pokémon) vs Remlit (Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword)

Leafpool (Warrior cats) vs The Cat in the Hat (The Cat in the Hat)

Maurice (Discworld) vs Jemima (Cats the musical)

Xiaohei (The Legend of Hei) vs Artemis (Sailor Moon)

Puss in Boots (Puss in Boots) vs Ichigo Momomiya (Tokyo Mew Mew)

Shrödinger's cat (you know the one) vs The Cat (Coraline)

Pasty (Neko Atsume) vs Pangur Bán (Irish poem)

This round will start in a few days, I need a bit more time to make the pictures and arrange the polls ^~^

I think I'll be posting them similarly to round 1 except now each group will be out every 12 hours! I will update you on the exact time this round starts when it's done :)

[ivorydice]

Tagged by: @lunarlegend, thank youuuuu 💜

Currently reading: The War of the Worlds by H.G.Wells.

Last songs: Uhh it was a fic playlist so a lot of instrumental music lol. Probably mostly Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon music, since it goes so well with FFXV characters.

Currently watching: For tv, nothing! It's hard for me to get into shows lol. I was going to rewatch Supernatural recently but I haven't gotten around to it yet. For youtube, I've been watching a lot of Smosh, Whiny Brit, and urban exploration videos (mostly abandoned mines).

Current fic: Nothing recently, but I do have a few on my list that I want to sit down and read starting this weekend.

Writing: The usual, still working on the "Gladio and Noct get kicked down a mineshaft fic ✌️" (which DOES have a name/title lol, I swear), currently it's nearly 40k, looking like it'll be 50k when it's done which is even longer than what I predicted just before, I'm suffering lol send help

But also, I think I need a little break from it, so time to work on The Memory of You. Or something else, I don't know yet lol

Next on my watch list: Nothing that I can think of!

Current obsession: Same obsessions as always, which is just an endless cycle of FFXV, Merlin, and Supernatural, with Silent Hill forever looming and vibrating in the background because I am so normal about Silent Hill. But we're in an FFXV mood right now. Okay, let's go with FFXV and abandoned mine exploration videos, I'm pretty obsessed with those.

Tagging: @promptos-barcode, @quartzguts, @oftincturedwords, @kaelinaloveslomaris, @amiyade, @marmolita, @thisfairytalegonebad (with no pressure of course), and anyone else who wants to do this *bonk* tagged.

[fipindustries]

Reverse unpopular opinion on either The Time Machine or War of the World's by H.G.Wells.

i really genuenly lijed the most recent movie adaptations we got, specially the time machine. I think that movie is really underrated and it contains one of my favorite scenes in movie history when the time traveler meets again with the holographic librarian who still remembers him after millenia

[publicdomaincharacters]

Here a tabletop wargame, roleplaying game, and hybrid system by ohmmy

[maximaxstreasurebox]

My sudden urge to talk about 55 minutes light novel bcuz after finally getting the book and reading it makes me wanna eat a pillow and think again "wtf Asagari you brilliant bastard", like CAN WE GET A MOVIE OF IT???

(more rambling and spoilers vvv)

55 minutes is one of the longer light novels in the series, just a liiittle bit thicker than untold story which has a short story of a day before atsushi's entrance exam and the fukuzawa&ranpo backstory

for those who don't know what 55 minutes is about, in a nutshell; -ADA goes to an politically-neutral island to catch thieves -btw Akutagawa is there too -everything goes wrong -new characters introduced like Jules Verne and H.G.Wells and the title '55 minutes' comes from Wells' ability -atsushi trying: HIS BEST -also Dazai almost fcking dies but we love plot armor

anyway the reason i wanna scream about it now randomly is bcuz before reading the full story, i had totally different view of what the novel is about, THERES BARELY any translation online and i feel like bcuz of it a very few people actually had the opportunity to read it

'okay Mouse, so is it has any relevance to the main story-?' OHOHOH- it's more like ideas that we haven't seen in manga IN THEIR FULL POTENTIAL yet, but it was experimented on within the light novel, like FCKING TIME TRAVELING???? and you don't want me to talk about the science side of it (thank Wells for the 2-3 pages of science fun-facts dump)

speaking of things that the novel introduced to us are: -more lore of the war 13+ years ago -time traveling -a method to use Yosano's ability on Dazai: basically after heart stops, blood flow stops to brain and ability deactivates, so when restarting heart, there's a 0.5 second timeframe when Yosano can use her ability before brain registers wtf is going on -MORE ABILITIES AND THEIR FUNFACTS AWW YEAH I LOVE THOSE- im a sucker for abilities (not me having an BSD OC that can see abilities like they were ghosts hahah-)

this was actually the first time that the gang went outside Japan bcuz the island under Germany, France, and England 's governing territory(?), the the island itself is artificial that was made after the war

so wondering what the 'everything goes wrong' part is: it turns out, there's a BOMB on the island :) -the guy who hired ADA is killed, atsushi and akutagawa in running to get the bomb, but IT'S TOO LATE AND EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE WITHIN *checks book* 22 MILES RADIUS MELTS AWAY- -Wells appears (more like reveals herself....yeah Wells is a woman-) and yoinks Atsushi to an underground bunker but there's no time left and yeets back Atsushi's MEMORIES to 55 minutes before the disaster, btw she quickly explaines that the bomb that got activated is called 'Shell', an weapon created from Ability Singularity (basically mutation????), and her ability is time MANUPILATION, and also can send back people back in time but only once per person, and she can't use it on herself bcuz she already did it during the war, BUT bcuz the energy (insert a page long science explanation here) to send back a whole-ss person is too much, she can only send back memories back to past- -so atsushi goes back to time, but bcuz akutagawa was actually nearby when Wells' ability activated (she's using a camera, he literally fell onto them in the last second), he got his memories go back to time too -poor atsushi having internal breakdown wtf to do, but kunikida being an actual helping god and he, atsushi, and dazai think of a plan -turns out the bomb is protected underground and atsushi with the help of the thieves he befriended on the island, runs through the base -but everything goes wrong AGAIN bcuz akutagawa starts hunting atsushi after a misunderstanding, thinking that atsushi is the one who activated the bomb before.. :I damn bro -ATSUSHI IS SUFFERING SO MUCH????? HE GETS SHOT ON LUNG AND THROUGH OPEN MOUTH, AND GETTING HIS LEG STUCK (ALMOST SLICED OFF) ON CLOSED EMERGENY DOOR WITH EXPLICIT DESCRIPTION OF THE INJURY????? *sobbing* -somehow everything is solved with the power of dazai, and it seems ADA can go home BUT OH NOT SO FAST- so the culprit gets KILLED which meaaaans theres still a mastermind on the island -atsushi and dazai go invastigating and THIS IS WHEN DAZAI GETS STABBED :D ....BY JULES VERNE *flops to floor* -turns out the WHOLE ISLAND IS JULES' ABILITY: he has the ability to absorb the abilities of dead skill users within the island (so we got Shibusawa 2.0) Wells saves Atsushi and half-dead Dazai and uses her ability to slow down time so they bleed out slower atsushi and akutagawa go fight Verne, but they get overpowered and poor atsushi gets absorbed????????? kinda??? -AND WE GET JULES VERNE'S BACKSTORY :D he was a little child during war and joined an organization called Seven Traitors, and with the help of his ability 'the mysterious island', they kidnapped politicians to force them to peace treaty??? the island stayed and he spend the rest of his time on it in peace until Wells appeared on the island, killed her and stole her ability, and went back to time he did it so many times that the ability basically became a independent being?? and realized that he has to kill Wells every time before the 'future' happens or he disappears bcuz he doesn't exist in the future anymore the real Jules Verne is more like just an consciousness at this point -we get the big atsushi-akutagawa VS fake Jules fight, and atsushi wins oh wao -aaaaaaand now that Jules uhh doesn't exist anymore, the island is disappearing too :> -book ends with ADA back in Yokohama, Ranpo wanna go to beach but everyone is fcking tired of ocean, Dazai having Oda flashbacks, and atsushi meeting Wells once again before Wells mysteriously disappearing and atsushi questioning his sanity if she ever existed :) -oh right, Wells is the one who made the bomb during war time, knows how fcked up it is, and she's basically batman but government treats her as a terrorist bcuz why wouldn't be so sus when she's right there before at every natural disasters-

i actually didn't notice it until i went to wikia but apparently the dude who got killed before the jules verne reveal was a port mafia executive?????????? i might actually need to re-read the light novel bcuz i didn't notice mentioning it

little bit sad that many characters' uhh characterization is pretty ehh at some point, like akutagawa going full 'f-ck man-tiger' mode in the 98% of the story, rest of the ada except atsushi,dazai, and kunikida are just not... there, HOWEVER the side/novel characters are FCKING AMAZING, i want more Wells pls also Higuchi has like 3 short scenes and she slays them all, drinking down guards to get to security room, then being all cute and happy when akutagawa says 'good job' 🥺 akutagawa has moments when he's not 'f-ck man-tiger' mode when he yells 'higuchi where are you??' ,and tells a short poem as he evaporates into atoms

my brain is frying but i just felt like yelling into the void, thanks for my ted talk *drops mic*

[red-ibis-red]

I felt an unreasonable amazement. I knew that something strange had happened, and for the moment could not distinguish what the strange thing might be.

—H.G.Wells, The Time Machine

[agyeszbugyesz]

1 éve elkezdtem lassan, de biztosan újra tanulni az angolt egy ismerős angoltanár segítségével. Tegnap pedig befejeztem életem első angol nyelvű könyvének olvasását. Eleinte szótárazva, mindennek utána nézve, szörnyen lassan haladva, a vége felé tele sikerélménnyel. Gyerekkönyvet választottam elsőnek és C.S. Lewis - A varázsló unokaöccse című könyvre esett a választás. Jöhet a többi kötet aztán ha eléggé bátor leszek elkezdem olvasni a polcon sorakozó 30-40 éves angol nyelvű sci-fi klasszikusokat is, amiket egy kanadai fickótól kaptam, aki hazament innen. Csak egy Asimov, meg egy Arthur C. Clarke könyvet akartam tőle venni, de egy egész dobozzal jött. Amikor mondtam neki, hogy nincs pénzem több könyvre, nálam hagyta mindet. Hálás vagyok érte.

Van ott minden. H.G.Wells , Bradbury, Simak, Orwell, Vogt, Heinlein, csupa régi angol kiadás. Lesz mit olvasni.