The Food Of The Gods - H.G. Wells

1904; 254 pages. Full Title : "The Food of the Gods And How it Came to Earth". 1967 price (new) : $0.75.; used-book price today : $2.00. Genres : Classic Fiction; Early Sci-Fi; Edwardian Literature. Overall Rating "B".

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The sci-fi premise : There is a compounf in young animals and plants that causes them to have growth spurts. This discontinues once the organism has reached a certain age or size. But what if that compound could be identified, made, and fed for a longer time to the organism?

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Two turn-of-the-century scientists research and synthesize the compound ("The Food of the Gods") and decide to test it on hatchlings at an experimental farm. It works, but things immediately go awry because the farm custodians - think Ma & Pa Kettle - are incredibly sloppy with the FOTG. Soon wasps, earwigs, and rats get into it and grow to unheard-of size, and when it falls into the soil, gigantic plants result. Then the scientists start feeding it to infants.

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What's To Like...

H.G. Wells is often called the "father of science fiction", so this is primordial stuff. The structure of the plot is different from both modern and 50's sci-fi, the latter of which was my first taste of this genre. There is a subtle, British humor throughout the book (including chortle-inducing names), but the real difference is the switching from one theme to another.

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TFOTG starts with your standard "Jurassic Park" theme. Giant, rampaging critters wreak mayhem o'er the land. Crichton could build this into a trilogy, but it only takes Wells about 100 pages to resolve it.

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Then the story switches to a sociological theme. Wells looks at how the new phenomenon changes the lives of the local humans. Giant rats and wasps that can kill affect our position at the top of the food-chain. So do 40-foot tall humans.

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The last third of the book switches to a political theme. Friction inevitably develops between the "giants" and the "pigmies", especially when the latter expect the former to confine themselves to restricted areas and only do menial jobs. Wells was an avowed socialist, and it is rather obvious that the giants here represent the lower classes.

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Surprisingly, this was a slow-read for me. The sentences are long and complex, with lots of flowery verbiage. Oh well, at least it isn't Milton.

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Kewl New Words...

There were a bunch. Teufteufing : making the onomatopeian sound of a motor (French). Eleemosynary : dependent on, or considered to be, an act of charity. Cavil : trivial objections. Gride : to produce a grinding sound. Almoner : one who distributes alms or takes care of the material and social needs of patients in a hospital. Irruption : a sudden, violent entrance or bursting in. Navvy : a laborer required to do menial work. Intercalary : inserted into the calendar to make it correspond to the solar year (think February 29th). Chalybeate : containing salt of, or tasting like, Iron. Importunate : expressing earnest entreaty. Selvedge : the ornamental border of a carpet, designed not to fray. Adumbration : vague advance portents; an indistinct foreshadowing.

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Excerpts...

They were of course quite undistinguished-looking men, as indeed all true scientists are. There is more personal distinction about the mildest-mannered actor alive than there is about the entire Royal Society. (pg. 20)

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Lady Wondershoot liked bullying Caddles. Caddles was her ideal lower-class person, dishonest, faithful, abject, industrious, and inconceivably incapable of responsibility. (pg. 134)

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"Look at them! And I know their father, a brute, a sort of brute beast with an intolerant loud voice, a creature who has run amuck in our all too merciful world for the last thirty years or more. An engineer! To him all we hold dear and sacred is nothing." (pg. 183)

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A different world...

The thing I like most about The Food of the Gods is the way Wells depicts life in the English countryside 100+ years ago. The first motorcars had just begun to appear on the streets. Most people still rode horseback or in wagons. There were lots of small, rural villages, all essentially isolated. There was no radio and no TV, the news came from neighbors or newspapers. Science was more a hobby than an industry.

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This is not one of Wells' better-known books, but it's still good. I'll give it a "B", content to know that there is some Edwardian reading out there that isn't chick-lit.