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Star-Begotten, by Herbert George Wells
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Star Begotten is a 1937 novel by H. G. Wells. It tells the story of a series of men who conjecture upon the possibility of the human race being altered by Martians to replace their own dying planet. The protagonist of the story Joseph Davis, who is an author of popular histories, becomes overtaken with suspicion that he and his family have already been exposed and are starting to change.
- Sales Rank: #1209824 in eBooks
- Published on: 2010-07-01
- Released on: 2010-07-01
- Format: Kindle eBook
Review
“Mr. Wells is the most persuasive of living writers… He knows that we sigh for a sane world of unlimited possibilities. He catches us on the full wave of our wish… Star Begotten is the most mature of his fantasies.” —V.S. Pritchett, The New Statesman and Nation
Review
“A definitive scholarly edition of this notable novel. Huntington eloquently and subtly demonstrates its complexity and ambiguity. Star Begotten should receive a warm welcome.” (Patrick Parrinder, professor of English at University of Reading)
About the Author
H.G. WELLS (1866–1946) pioneered the “scientific romance” in such novels as The War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, and The Invisible Man. JOHN HUNTINGTON is professor of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the author of books including The Logic of Fantasy: H.G. Wells and Science Fiction.
Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Why isn't this a cult classic?
By Nash Android
This short novel was first published in 1937, and seventy-five years later, I finally got around to reading it. It took me a while because I had to wait around for things like my parents to reach puberty, me being born, learning to read, and then realizing this book existed. I find this last thing surprising because, after reading it, I am amazed it does not have a cult following. There should be T-shirts and buttons for people who wish to identify themselves as Star-Begotten or Star-Born. Once you read it, you'll know what I mean.
The story centers on Joseph Davis, a popular writer of romanticized histories, who comes to believe that some people differ fundamentally from most of us. They are more rational, possibly more talented and intelligent. Who are these people? Why are they different?
After what amount to BS sessions with his friends and associates, Davis entertains the hypothesis that genetic mutations caused by cosmic rays are responsible for this new step in human evolution. One of his compatriots suggests that since the mutations appear neither random nor harmful, they must be intentional. Martians (as a euphemism for aliens) are tagged as likely agents. There is an interesting contrast presented here in which people of today (well, people of 75 years ago) jump to unscientific, irrational speculation to explain how people are becoming more rational. Wells is indulging in a bit of dry, tongue-in-cheek humor with this, I suspect.
But the cause of the mutations is not the central point, it's simply a dryly humorous plot device. The thought provoking question behind it is, `Is humanity really becoming more intelligent and more rational?' And the other question is, `Should it?'
This is not your average kind of novel. In some ways, it's a philosophical treatise on politics and humanity like Plato's Republic or Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, except, unlike the latter, Star Begotten is enjoyable, optimistic, and well-written. It's one of those books that can make you think, if you let it. It can give you ideas. And this may be why it never rose to cult classic status. Ideas can be uncomfortable things. This is what Wells himself says about them:
`A notion is something you can handle. But an idea, a general idea, has a way of getting all over you and subjugating you, and no free spirit submits to that. Confronted with an idea the American says: 'Oh, yeah!' or 'Sez you,' and the Englishman says: 'I don't fink,' or at a higher social level: 'Piffle--piffle before the wind.' These simple expressions are as good against ideas as the sign of the cross used to be against the medieval devil. The pressure is at once relieved.' (Another case of Wells' dry humor.)
There are about ten other sections, mostly assessments about the current state of mankind, that I marked because I thought they deserved to be shared. But this would make for a very long book review, or whatever this is, so I'll refrain from doing that. I will, however, share this summation of how Wells says you can recognize these star-begotten people:
`one characteristic of this new type of mind is its resistance to crowd suggestions, crowd loyalties, instinctive mass prejudices, and mere phrases, ... these strongminded individualists ... doing sensible things and refusing to do cruel, monstrous, and foolish things...'
Is humanity progressing? Is it overcoming its infancy? Is it becoming rational? I don't know but I would like to believe so. I've met sane, intelligent people and I suspect there are a lot of them. If you think you may be one, Wells provides this cautionary statement in the voice of one of the book's more cynical characters:
`There are bad times ahead for uncompliant sane men. They will be hated by the right and by the left with an equal intensity.'
I found this short novel refreshingly different from popular contemporary `action-packed' and largely idea-barren novels. It is a thought provoking social commentary about ideas, the evolution of ideas, and human potential. The charming characters, bits of dry humor, and the hopeful, optimistic outlook also appealed to me. I highly recommend it for those seeking something other than mindless entertainment.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
A key pick for any Wells fan
By Midwest Book Review
STAR BEGOTTEN was first published in 1937 and is a short novel - second of a series by Wells - which covers discoveries in genetic mutations. A simple event turns into a hysterical social reaction in this story of the possible return of Martians from War of the Worlds, and their impact on the nature of humanity itself. A key pick for any Wells fan.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
An Irate And Despairing Wells Comes Up With A Plea For Sanity
By s.ferber
Released 39 years after his seminal sci-fi novel "The War of the Worlds" was published in 1898, and just two years before Orson Welles scared the bejeebers out of U.S. listeners with his radio play of that same novel, 1937's "Star-Begotten" finds its author, H.G. Wells, returning to the Red Planet to tell us more about those mysterious and pesky Martians. Written when Wells was 71, this latter work--rather than being a tale of action and mayhem and a truly groundbreaking instance of the then-still-new science fiction (or, to use the term that Wells preferred, "scientific romances")--is more a novel of ideas and speculation, of satire and bitter condemnation, and, I have a feeling, is a largely unknown work today. And that is a shame, as it is obviously a deeply felt work; an appeal to reason in a world slipping inexorably toward another world war.
In this short novel (it is roughly the same length as such early Wells classics as "The Time Machine," "The Island of Dr. Moreau" and "The Invisible Man"), we meet a youngish author named Joseph Davis. A writer of popular histories that uphold the glory and promise of humankind, and a man who has long since swept his own religious doubts under the mental rug, Davis, when we first encounter him, is a troubled soul. His wife has increasingly become a stranger, the imminent birth of his first child has left him in a panicked state, and his rosy-tinted histories have lately begun to strike him as so much bosh. And then he overhears a conversation at his Planetarium Club, in which several of the learned members discuss the possibility of mankind's increasing intelligence being the result of the cosmic rays that are constantly bombarding us. Could this be deliberate? Could, say, those Martians be firing rays at us to change mankind, to make us better and brighter, to possibly...Martianize us?!?! That is what Davis and two of his cronies, obstetrician Holdman Stedding and philosophy professor Ernest Keppel, endeavor to riddle out, in this thoroughly engaging and passionate piece of work.
This is a book in which Wells, a former Socialist and member of the Fabian Society, as well as the creator of any number of utopian scenarios himself (in novels such as "In the Days of the Comet," "Men Like Gods" and "The Shape of Things to Come"), subjects to scalding satire the Socialists and the creators of utopian literature, as well as the British government, the average intelligence of the common people, journalists, world dictators, modern religion and society in general. Though written 75 years ago, the critiques in the book are as relevant today, sadly enough, as ever. Take this passage, for example, as our three lead characters sit and discuss the situation. Says Keppel: "Our social order is bankrupt. It is not delivering the goods. It is defaulting and breaking up. War, pervading and increasing brutality, lack of any real liberty, economic mismanagement, frightful insufficiency in the midst of possible super-abundance--am I overstating the indictment?" This could almost have been written today, right? Though there is little to no action in "Star-Begotten" per se, the entire novel is filled with wonderfully well-written passages such as this one; you'll feel like using a highlighter to underscore many of the choicer comments, as mankind's lot is appraised and discussed by these three astute gentlemen. And as befits its satiric side, the novel also contains some one-liners guaranteed to make the reader chuckle, such as when Wells describes the music of 1937 as "raucous bang, bang, bump stuff" (which leads one to wonder how he'd feel about the heavy metal and hip-hop music of today!). Undoubtedly, though, the book's most amusing moment comes when one of the Planetarium Club members declares, "Some of you may have read a book called 'The War of the Worlds'--I forget who wrote it--Jules Verne, Conan Doyle, one of those fellows." A rare instance of genuine humor in an otherwise quite serious novel; a novel in which the author, aghast at the state of a world teetering on the brink, tries to paint a picture of what COULD be, if only Man cared a little less for material gain. Of course, it was a lesson that was largely unavailing, so much so that in his introduction to the 1941 edition of his 1908 classic "The War in the Air," Wells famously wrote "I told you so. You damn fools." Fortunately, however, it's never too late to learn, and that is why "Star-Begotten" should be placed on the "must read" list of all thinking adults. It is an intelligent book that uses a sci-fi backdrop as a means of making dozens upon dozens of vitally important points. It may not feature the zap guns of the 1898 novel, but surely does strike home nevertheless! Concluding with a surprise ending of sorts and a note of tentative optimism, it is a Wells novel that is surely ripe for modern-day reappraisal.
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