kyle reads: The Food of the Gods and How it Came to Earth

Before this novel, Wells apparently released a work of non-fiction, where I am told he predicted the dominance of the motor car, and advocated birth control and sexual freedom

It was canned at the time by his intellectual peers, and this novel is a dig at them, his response.

Which he does so by using the first pages to belittle scientists and point out their petty squabbles

"To witness some queer, shy, misshapen grey-headed, self-important little discoverer of great discoveries, ridiculously adorned with the wide ribbon of an order of chivalry-

and holding a reception of his fellow men... Or to listen to one indefatigable lichenologist, commenting on the work of another indefatigable lichenologist, such things force one to realize the unfaltering littleness of men."

"No, they must have seen the glory, they must have had the vision, but so near it has blinded them. The splendour has blinded them, mercifully, so that for the rest of thier lives they can hold the light of knowledge in comfort- so that we may see."

Sick burn, Victorian-style

"they do not realize the things that they are doing"is a huge glaring plot element here

Note to self, never write a character with a lisp. It is the most annoying thing to have to read

This characterization, holy moly