| Author | Subject: Unaging old friend from the distant past |
| W.J. Feehan | Posted At 14:33:24 03/29/2002
Dear Francois: Sorry it took me so long to reply. It was my intension to reply to you first but Bruce’s thought provoking story about his exploration into subterranean tunnels compelled me to respond. We (you and Bruce) share a common bond and that bond is the time period we grew up in and the unexplainable magic of the Time machine movie. What makes it magic? Perhaps it’s because it’s so much more than just a movie about time travel. Yes, from generation to generation it feeds and keeps alive our most compelling fantasy experienced by every living human being on this planet. Who hasn’t at one time or another desired to changed the past or see the future, but beyond that the movie reveals so much more. It begins in a relatively peaceful setting at a time when weapons of mass destruction did not exist. When the waste of technology had not polluted the air and the waters. A time when men were gentleman and women were ladies. A time when the houses and the furniture were of the highest quality and exquisite craftsmanship. No plastic. No laminated particleboard. A time when Christian morals were the intricate part of a man’s character. A time when, the now dying, art of penmanship was the only form of long distant communication. A time when the innocents of a child was not corrupted by images of pornography and violence projected through a boxed glass window called a TV. As the centuries of wars pass by and the advances of technology create more destructive war machines and weapons, the civilized population slowly becomes desensitized to the horrors of war. Yes, there were casualties of the war between England and France but only at the front lines. The muskets were very slow to load, highly inaccurate and frequently unreliable. Primitive to the now smart bombs and nuclear tipped ICBM’s capable of unleashing unimaginable and horrific destruction. And to my knowledge of that time period there were no terrorist that targeted innocent citizens creating nation wide anxiety. The Time Machine reveals are greatest fear that inevitably awaits us in the not so distant future. Nuclear War!!! Einstein said, “ I know not with what weapons World War 3 will be fought, but World War 4 will be fought with sticks and stones.” On the lighter side the Time machine movie is a love story. A long distance relationship that tugs on your heart and reminds us that there is still goodness in the human spirit. I could speak volumes of the obvious and hidden messages contained within the classic Time machine movie and novel, but I don’t want to overstay my welcome in Don’s site or give away too much of my book on the Internet. Thank you for the info on Dean Morrissey, his book called “The Great Kettles – A Tale Of Time” and the beautiful jpeg. I am looking forward to reading it. As a matter a fact I am writing a book and thanks to you I now have a title for the book. “A Child’s Memoirs of The Time machine.” I have probably visited Don Coleman’s site approximately 10 to the power 3 times or 10000 times. Building the Time Machine to exact scale and the problems encounter along the way would not have been possible, for me, without Don Coleman’s wealth of info. Other Time Machine builders listed in Don’s site, including Alain Gadbois, have been a great help to me. For us Baby Boomers the Time machine will forever be an unaging old friend from the not so distant past. W.J. Feehan |
| Francois Beaulieu |
Re: Unaging old friend from the distant past (Currently 0 replies)
Posted At 21:46:40 03/29/2002 Very pleased to hear that my intuition was right about the book project... and flattered that you decided to adopt the title I suggested, William ! I am lucky to have several friends in my region who all saw Pal's movie around the same time I did and at about the same age. We have all traded stories on how it happened for each of us. And, in each case, there is a fascinating story to tell ! It seems that movie weaved a magic spell in each of us as children... and that spell lingers on, even today ! |
| Bruce Holroyd |
Re: Unaging old friend from the distant past (Currently 0 replies)
Posted At 22:01:35 03/30/2002 William, you time traveler, you! You have hit the proverbial nail on the head in your description of the magic which is the "Time Machine." Your depiction of the philosophical aspects of the movie are in tune with the mvie's ambiance so closely that it appears that the effect has indeed touched you for life...as it has Francois and myself! From the moment that Rod Taylor as 'George' pushes that lever on his fantastic invention forward, we are in H.G. Wells' world! We are the Time Traveler and we are moving spritually into the unknown, forbidden void called the Fourth Dimension, crossing the barrier of what can truly be called (to coin a phrase) the 'last frontier!' Thank God we had the wonderful vision of George Pal... that blessed soul will never know of the imaginative fires that he lit when he sent us on that journey for the first... TIME!May we all continue the vision, in his name and to the memory of the master writer, H.G.Wells, who, setting his thoughts down on paper, conceived the magic with the first stroke of his pen! Nostalgic, wondrous, fantastic... and who can say? Maybe one day... a common possibility! |