So my thoughts are stuff like: hg wells. Credited for popularising the idea of time travel, actually coined the phrase “time machine” and was one of only two people who more or less founded an entirely new genre of fiction
A critical essay by Orwell re: HG Wells' relevance circa 1941: https://web.archive.org/web/20160118081350/http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/wells/english/e_whws…
"Wells is too sane to understand the modern world."
"Go on muddling, each for himself and his parish and his family and none for all the world, go on in the old way [...] presently I will come back again and take all the fresh harvest of life I have spared."
clearly a predecessor to Mass Effect's Reapers
"The true strength of rulers and empires lies... in the belief of men that they are inflexibly open, truthful, and legal. As soon as government departs from that standard, it ceases to be anything more than "the gang in possession" and its days are numbered." – H.G. Wells
wargaming was invented in prussia and used for military training; attracted attention b/c they beat france in a war in 1870
h.g. wells "developed codified rules for playing with toy soldiers, which he published in a book titled Little Wars." adorable!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wargame#Worldwide_spread…
cute/sweet exchange between Wells and Chesterton
Wells: if there is a God I hope he'll let me into heaven because I am your friend
GKC: my dear HG, if there is a heaven, you will be welcome to it- and not for being my friend, but for being a friend to all men