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Post by wireman on Jun 14, 2023 12:53:55 GMT
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Post by osnafrank on Jun 14, 2023 15:53:27 GMT
Okay, this reminded me of "The day of the Triffids"
Wondering if "Little Shop of Horrors" was inspired by this story.
It was the first time i've read this story,
and it wasn't what i usually expect, when i hear H.G.Wells.
I think this was written before "The Time Machine".
The moral of this story:
Don't f**k with mother nature,
or try to tame her.
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Post by spideyman on Jun 14, 2023 16:46:34 GMT
First time read also. Love your moral, Frank. Yepper! The writing was very descriptive/visual in nature. That makes for a good read.
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Post by wireman on Jun 14, 2023 16:50:51 GMT
The first paragraph describing what it's like to buy an orchid is brilliant.
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Post by wireman on Jun 14, 2023 17:18:29 GMT
They gave him brandy mixed with some pink extract of meat, and carried him upstairs to bed.
They had great medicine back then. 
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Post by wireman on Jun 14, 2023 17:29:45 GMT
This story was written in 1894 a couple years before The Invisible Man. I was read that there was a huge orchid craze going on around the time this story was written.
During the Victorian era when this story was written the term orchidelirium was a term used to describe the Victorian era of flower madness when collecting and discovering orchids reached extraordinarily high levels. Wealthy orchid fanatics of the 19th century sent explorers and collectors to almost every part of the world in search of new varieties of orchids and orchidelirium is seen as similar obsession to Dutch tulip mania. The story also mentions Charles Darwin and his prediction in 1862 that the orchid Angraecum sesquipedale from Madagascar, and which has an exceptionally long nectary must be pollinated by an unknown moth. Interestingly It took nearly 150 years for Darwin’s prediction to be proved correct.
Something else interesting:
This must be one of the first literary examples of where an author has taken the practice of hematophagy from animals and insects and transferred this to the plant kingdom. In doing so H.G. Wells perhaps created one of the first crossover science fiction/body horror literary tales featuring a blood sucking plant that went on to inspire future stories of carnivorous plants and their human prey.
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Post by wireman on Jun 16, 2023 12:37:37 GMT
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Post by wolf on Jun 21, 2023 19:00:17 GMT
Isn’t it fun when current events and trends (possibly) inspire great fiction. 😄👏
(I wonder if any of the wealthy orchid fanatics might have read the story and thought,
“There’s our cheery thought for today.
Thanks H.G.” 🤨)
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