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H. G. Wells
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Mind at the End of Its Tether (Annotated) Kindle Edition

by H.G. Wells (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
3.9 out of 5 stars 26 ratings
Mind at the End of Its Tether (1945) was H. G. Wells' last book, wrote at the age of 78. In the book Wells speculates on the notion of humanity being soon replaced by another, more advanced, species. He bases this thought on his long interest in the paleontological record.
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  1. Print length
    48 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Accessibility
    Learn more
  4. Publication date
    March 3, 2017
  5. File size
    1.5 MB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
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  8. Enhanced typesetting
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B06XF77H5K
  • Accessibility ‏ : ‎ Learn more
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 3, 2017
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1.5 MB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 48 pages
  • Page Flip ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Best Sellers Rank: #754,241 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.9 out of 5 stars 26 ratings

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H. G. Wells

H. G. Wells

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The son of a professional cricketer and a lady's maid, H. G. Wells (1866-1946) served apprenticeships as a draper and a chemist's assistant before winning a scholarship to the prestigious Normal School of Science in London. While he is best remembered for his groundbreaking science fiction novels, including The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man, and The Island of Doctor Moreau, Wells also wrote extensively on politics and social matters and was one of the foremost public intellectuals of his day.

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3.9 out of 5 stars
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Spaceman Spiff
    2.0 out of 5 stars Incoherent mess
    Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2022
    Verified Purchase
    One must wonder about the toll of advanced years upon the great H.G. Wells in the time of this work, aged 78. Perhaps it is a disagreement I have with its style and aesthetic… it conjures up the Tarentino film Pulp Fiction, told wildly out of order, but in contrast to this work, quite artful and intriguing.

    So many lines of thinking seem wasted in search of a clear statement to make. He seems to have believed that man would vanish from starvation and some notion of limits to the material capacity of the earth, though clearly he was wildly wrong… the earth now over three times what it was then.

    As a socialist, he was possibly possessed by the concepts of central controls and distribution of resources as if the world were a warehouse of sorts, failing to expect that man’s ingenuity is continually capable of addressing such challenges. Also, just as clearly, he lacks the economists understanding of the human utilization of material in a free and capitalist society, where quite literally we can NEVER run out of anything, save for species that end in extinction (as they require continual renewal), but for those riches buried in the depths, the famous 10 year wager between Simon and Ehrlich (an economist vs scientist) where the scientist believing in scarcity of materials lost handily to the economist Simon’s understanding that no such practical limit exists. (I myself have won an identical wager against the concept of peak oil, netting a handsome sum after a 10 year bet).

    Perhaps others might find some value in this work, but to me it remains eternally elusive.
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  • Ed
    4.0 out of 5 stars No way out or round or through
    Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2004
    Wells argues in Mind at the End of its Tether that human existence is about to be extinguished. He claims that there has been a change in the conditions of the universe and that this change signals the end of being. Previously, events had a cord of logical consistency running through them; 'now it is as if that cord had vanished'. Wells searches for the correct term that can capture this nascent negative force and eventually opts for 'The Antagonist'.

    Wells' viewpoints may be considered the solipsism of an unhealthy mind projecting an individual state onto the macrocosm. He acknowledges that the healthy person, with their innate gift for self-evasion, is a component of 'the normal multitude, which will carry on in this ever contracting NOW of our daily lives, quite unawake to what it is that makes so much of our existence distressful'. Faced with extinction, Wells projects his existential state beyond the parameters of his personal condition onto the whole of humanity. Wells' perturbation may be distancing him from reality, in that he believes that there has been a manifest change in the status of being. Decay has always been the symbiont of creation: what may have occurred was a realisation that the former was leading to the final contraction of his 'now'. We do not need to invoke an 'antagonist' to explain a finite life which is played out in an indifferent universe. However, it is not necessarily crude anthropocentric idealism to believe that, to all intents and purposes, the world dies with us. The death faced by Wells will be faced by us all and therefore his generalisations are appropriate. Wells muses about death and considers the nihilistic likelihood of oblivion. Wells believes that our lives are insubstantial and, a la Macbeth, signify nothing. Our loves, hates, triumphs and tragedies are enacted within the inexorable march of insentient time. Our striving is in vain - we will be forgotten.

    He also cites examples of the evolution of existence and how this led to conscious human life. He describes how animals developed backbones as a result of the capricious meanderings of nature. Wells recognises the contingency of occurrences that accumulated to eventually spawn human existence. He writes about the development of primate species which gave rise to homo sapiens. There is nothing romantic or sacred about this development; it was a result of the blind, amoral and aggressive march of evolution. Wells notes: 'the little fellows faded out before the big fellows, according to the time-honoured pattern of life'.

    One may presume, however, that Wells possessed these insights earlier in his life; it is only now that he documents them as a source of discomfort. There has been no change to the pattern of logical consistency, only a change in Wells apprehension of this pattern. Rational endeavour contains no intrinsic orientation towards hope, salvation or progress. Wells' outpourings may be the result of spiritual crisis when contemplating the proximity of an utterly inevitable death - rationality cannot ease this burden. Distinctive human attributes that have contributed to the development of scientific inquiry have somewhat paradoxically generated knowledge which denies human value and distinctiveness. Rationality it seems offers us 'no way out or round or through the impasse'.
    27 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Senex 72
    5.0 out of 5 stars Verey glad to have been able to obtain this copy
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 30, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    Verey glad to have been able to obtain this copy: any admirer of Wells should read this as a counterweight to his eartlier optimism in or modern age.A verey human document.
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  • Kindle Customer
    3.0 out of 5 stars Not Wells' finest but his last
    Reviewed in Australia on July 15, 2022
    Verified Purchase
    This very short work is worth reading as it is his last. The intro about his life is good. Wells is still eloquent but he has a bleak view of humanity. He believes the world is coming to am end probably because he was coming to an end. His unique Socialist vision had failed which greatly disappointed him.
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