ДЕВОЛУЦИЈА ДРУШТВА У КРАТКИМ ПРИЧАМА Х. Џ. ВЕЛСА: „УКРАДЕНИ БАЦИЛ” И „ГОСПОДАР ДИНАМА”
SOCIAL DEVOLUTION IN H. G. WELLS’S SHORT STORIES: „THE STOLEN BACILLUS”, „THE LORD OF THE DYNAMOS”

Summary/Abstract: In this paper we analyse two science-fiction stories from the beginningof H. G. Wells’s literary career, namely “The Stolen Bacillus” and “The Lord ofthe Dynamos”. Our initial assumption is that these stories were influenced by theevolutionary ideological confrontation between the social Darwinist Herbert Spencer,as an advocate of the burgeois ideology, and Thomas Huxley, as a champion ofhumane (socialist) evolutionism. While the former believes that the state, for thepurpose of perfecting the human race, should not aid the unfit in their struggle forexistence, the latter holds that the maltreatment of the poor will bring about a revolutionand the collapse of civilization. It is shown in the paper that Wells sided withHuxley – therefore he advocated the rights of the oppressed. In both stories Wells’sscenario of rebellion is presented through the relation between two characters, withthe conflict in “The Stolen Bacillus” occurring between a burgeois scientist and ananarchist (a representative of the working class), while “The Lord of the Dynamos”features a confrontation between a materialistic electrician (representing the industrial civilization) and a negroid immigrant from a British colony (representing theyoked non-Europeans). In spite of their starring different characters, the stories areunanimous in conveying the message that the tyrannized members of the capitalistsystem can inflict a heavy blow on social progress, in particular when they get theirhands on weapons of massive destruction as provided by science. The devolutionof society, as against social evolution, turns to be a far more likely scenario in thefuture, because the bourgeoisie will not realize the necessity to support the ethicalrather than the cosmic process.

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