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Eloi
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The Eloi are one of the two post-human races in H. G. Wells' 1895 novel The Time Machine.
he year AD 802,701 humanity has evolved into two separate species: the Eloi and the Morlocks. The Eloi are the spoiled, attractive upper class, living in luxury on the surface of the earth, while the Morlocks live underground, tending machinery and providing food, clothing and infrastructure for the Eloi.
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The Eloi are one of the two post-human races in H. G. Wells' 1895 novel The Time Machine.
In The Time Machine
In the year AD 802,701 humanity has evolved into two separate species: the Eloi and the Morlocks. The Eloi are the spoiled, attractive upper class, living in luxury on the surface of the earth, while the Morlocks live underground, tending machinery and providing food, clothing and infrastructure for the Eloi. Each class evolved and degenerated from humans of different social classes, a theme that reflects Wells' sociopolitical opinions.
The name 'Eloi' may be derived from the ancient Greek word 'Eleutheroi', which referred to free men, or men of leisure. Perhaps coincidentally, the word 'Eloi' is the Aramaic for "my God", found in Mark 15:34.
They are described as a separate species from modern humans, being slight of build, frail, four feet high, shoulder-length curly hair, no facial hair, chins that ran to a point, large eyes, small ears and small mouths with bright red thin lips. They are of sub-human intelligence, though apparently intelligent enough to speak, and they have a primitive language which is described as "a very sweet and liquid tongue".
The main difference from their earlier ruler-worker state is that while the Morlocks continue to support the world's infrastructure and serve the Eloi, the Eloi have undergone significant physical and mental deterioration. Having solved all problems that required strength, intelligence, or virtue, they have slowly become dissolute, frail animals. While one initially has the impression that the Eloi people live a life of play and toilless abundance, it is revealed that the Morlocks are attending to the Eloi's needs for the same reason a farmer tends cattle: because the Eloi compose most, if not all, of the Morlocks' diet and no longer have any function besides being eaten by the Morlocks.
A censored portion of the book, later published as a separate short story, reveals that a visit by the Time Traveller to the even farther future results in him encountering rabbit-like hopping herbivores, apparently the degenerate descendants of the Eloi. They are described as being plantigrade (with longer hind legs) and tailless, being covered with straight greyish hair that "thickened about the head into a Skye terrier's mane", having human-like hands (described as fore feet) and having a roundish head with a projecting forehead and forward-looking eyes that were obscured by lank hair.
In the 2002 movie adaptation of The Time Machine, unlike the novel, the Eloi are very much like modern humans but have become hunter/gatherer in their society- though it is still complex- with ritual and traditions. (The characterization of them as being like modern humans but darker and built for tropical climates is so the time traveller- Alexander- would have a love interest- Mara.) The Eloi have had much of their ability for ambition and nostalgic thought blocked by the Uber- Morlock (a controlling force that has very advanced cerebral capacities). It may also have much to do with the fact that before the destruction of the Morlocks at the end of the movie, no one lived to see what we would consider "middle age" as they would be taken by the Morlocks. As well, it is well known among the Eloi that those taken were used as food.
They are a peaceful society that employs the use of stylized windmills as an honor to those who have passed on.
In some unused scenes in the movie (though used in the trailer), in the future, the Eloi create a paradise complete with space-age looking buildings.
In Dan Simmons' Ilium
In Dan Simmons' Ilium novel, 'Eloi' is a nickname for the lazy, uneducated, and uncultured descendants of the human race after the post-humans have left Earth. The name is a reference to H. G. Wells' Eloi.
Old-style humans and post-humans rule in Simmons' novel, with the Eloi being kept in 'zoos' in restricted areas on Earth. The Eloi are technically adept but don't understand the technology; they regress and unlearn millennia of culture, thought and reason, until they are satisfied with the pleasure of merely existing.
Later use of the name
- The progressive rock band Eloy are named after the race.
- The Elokoi of Brian Caswell's novel Deucalion are presumably inspired by the Eloi, but ones without the dark side of the Morlocks.
- The book Air by Geoff Ryman contains a fictional ethnic minority called the Eloi, whose struggle for autonomy is squelched by a repressive government.
- The film Ransom, directed by Ron Howard in which Gary Sinise's character (Detective Jimmy Shaker) tells Mel Gibson's character (Tom Mullen) how the poor are like Morlocks and the wealthy are like the naive Eloi and sometimes the poor snatch up the Eloi.
- In the book "Feed" by M.T. Anderson, Violet's father tells the main character Titus to "Go along, little child. Go back and play with the eloi." When questioned as to what the eloi was, he mentions it's a reference to The Time Machine. Titus does not understand this, and demands Violet's father, who insists Titus read the book for himself, to explain what this means, resulting in a bitter shouting match.
- Scottish social and cultural commentator Gordon P.Clarkson has termed contemporary Mass Culture "Eloi Culture" as he claims that it is creating a society of unthinking passive consumers of "meaningless trivia".
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