Wells

Edinburgh is filled with these old well heads. There are plenty scattered about. This one at St Leonards Street has "Waterloo" written on it but I don't know why.

I am mainly using this as an illustration for a different type of Wells. Herbert George to be precise. I had forgotten that Wells was into eugenics but was reminded quite soon after tucking into a complete set of his short stories. I suppose The Time Machine is the most famous story which has eugenic type theme with the Eloi and Morlocks. But there is a more obvious reminder, oh yes! I have read quite a few of his contemporaries and most of them can be described as "of their time" rather than actually racist. Wells is just downright racist. It made for extremely difficult reading and was also somewhat annoying to me since I am a believer that such things should not be censored and that Guy Gibson's dog should not be renamed etc. Otherwise you are just whitewashing (ha!) history and pretending that such things didn't happen which isn't right. So I was forced by my own bloody-mindedness to keep reading. Glad I did really since after the first few stories, the villainous niggers* start to dissipate and the tales which concern mainly white men** are brilliant. Luckily the majority of them are like this as it is a big book!

It has also got me reading about eugenics which has been really surprising. It has played a rather large part in shaping the world as we know it today. The Nazi's are the most famous proponents of it of course but in a way they did the world a favour as the movement more or less lost credibility afterwards. However, sterilisation was still practiced in some nations till the 1970s. Scary and astonishing stuff. There are still advocates to this day.

I don't really know where I am going with this, I just need to wash my brain out with some mind bleach. Anyone got any?

I guess I have learned quite a lot from it at least!

*Yes, anyone who is not white is referred to as such. Apart from the villainous Chinaman in The Treasure of the Forest of course.

**Turns out he was a misogynist as well though at least he didn't appear to condone the killing of women and there is at least one story which contains a female character who isn't nasty, spiteful and shrewish.