SCIENCE ON SCREEN
THE TIME MACHINE
Tuesday May 23 at 7:30pm
$11 Members | $16 Public
Guest Speaker: Scientist and
Author Bill Schutt
Cannibalism is oft portrayed with horror and taboo. In The Time Machine, a scientist
finds mankind evolved into two races: the peaceful Eloi, and the Morlocks that
feed on them. But the true nature of cannibalism–the role it plays in evolution
as well as human history–is more intriguing (and normal) than the
misconceptions we’ve come to accept as fact, evidenced by Scientist Bill Schutt
in his new book, Cannibalism:
A perfectly Natural History.
Adapted
from the 1895 H. G. Wells novella of the same name, The Time Machine was hugely influential on the
development of science fiction, and received an Oscar for its use of time-lapse
photographic effects. It takes place in Victorian England, where
Scientist and inventor H. George Wells (Rod Taylor) constructs a time
machine, and, despite the warning from his friend David (Alan Young)
against "tempting the laws of providence," decides to visit the
future. Jumping ahead 14 years, he observes changes in women's fashion. Jumping
ahead 40, he meets David's son (also Young) amid a terrible war. Finally, he
travels thousands of years ahead to 802,701 AD, to discover a post-apocalyptic
world inhabited by the humanoid passive, childlike, and vegetarian Eloi, and a
monstrous underground-dwelling race known as the Morlocks who prey on
them. (USA, 1960, 103 min., English, NR, 35mm | Dir. George Pal)
Bill Schutt is a biology professor at LIU Post and research associate in
residence at the American Museum of Natural History. Schutt’s first novel,
science-fiction thriller, Hell’s
Gate, (with J.R. Finch), is followed by its sequel, The Himalayan Codex, out on
June 6, 2017. His latest non-fiction book is Cannibalism:
A Perfectly Natural History.
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