Word: wellsian
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...choice. Cosmos is nothing less than Sagan's attempt to make sense out of what is for many people the hopelessly baffling world of 20th century science. To unfold his story he roves through two millennia of scientific progress, often shuttling back and forth over the centuries like some Wellsian time traveler. He travels the earth as well. One moment he is seated in a café on the Aegean island of Samos, home of Pythagoras and Aristarchus, explaining the first stirrings of Greek scientific prowess. At another moment, he is strolling through the venerable Cavendish Laboratories of England's Cambridge...
...writing this sort of book, Bloom begs to be compared to C.S. Lewis. The comparison does not flatter him in any way. Lewis could get away with gross reliance on unalloyed religious faith because he also possessed an H.G. Wellsian flair for description of other worlds. Lewis never lost sight of the individuality of his characters, nor the need to entertain his readers. Bloom misses both Lewis's faith and his skill...
...Wellsian fantasy? Verne-Vonnegut put-on? Maybe. But while this matutinal scenario may still be years away, the basic technology is in existence. Such painless, productive awakenings will in time be as familiar as Dagwood Bumstead's pajamaed panics. And, barring headaches, tummy aches and heartaches, the American day should proceed as smoothly as it begins. All thanks to the miracle of the microcomputer, the supercheap chip that can electronically shoulder a vast array of boring, time-consuming tasks...
...Lytton Strachey snobbishly noted: "I stopped thinking about Wells the moment he became a thinker." Not everyone did, however. As late as 1969, Michael Crichton took the basic gimmick from The War of the Worlds and turned it into the bestseller The Andromeda Strain. For millions of people, one Wellsian prediction, as headlined in the New York American in 1933, has yet to lose its Chill: H.G. WELLS VISIONS THE ENTIRE WORLD IN THE CLUTCHES OF ORGANIZED CRIME: SEES ERA OF DESERTED ROADS, FORTIFIED BANKS, BARRICADED HOMES. ∎R.Z. Sheppard
...like the working of a Wellsian time machine," wrote Henry R. Luce. "I found myself living in the year 1923. It all seemed to be as real and immediate as today's newspaper...