The Clockwork Man by E. V. Odle
"The Clockwork Man" is a narrative that intertwines themes of technology, humanity, and the potential for future evolution. The story begins during a village cricket match in Great Wymering, where a peculiar stranger abruptly appears, described as part machine and part human. Initially unable to control his speech and movements, he quickly impresses the team with his extraordinary cricket skills before losing control and fleeing. Local doctor Doctor Allingham theorizes that the stranger may be an escaped lunatic, while captain Gregg suggests he is a time-displaced individual whose mechanical components are malfunctioning.
As the plot unfolds, the stranger reveals that he has a device, a "clock," embedded in his skull that allows him to perceive multiple dimensions, including time. This revelation fascinates Gregg, who views it as a glimpse into humanity's evolutionary potential. However, Doctor Allingham struggles to comprehend the complexities of the stranger's existence. The narrative further explores the dichotomy between the mechanical and organic, highlighting the stranger's transition through various life stages and his eventual return from the future to share insights about his kind and the creators who have bestowed upon them this mechanical enhancement. Ultimately, "The Clockwork Man" invites readers to ponder the implications of advanced technology and the essence of human experience.
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The Clockwork Man
First published: 1923
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Science fiction—superbeing
Time of work: The 1920’s
Locale: The English village of Great Wymering
The Plot
During a village cricket match, in which Great Wymering’s team is a player short, a strange person appears as if from nowhere. At first, the newcomer emits a strange whirring sound and cannot control his speech or his movements, but he recovers and is recruited by Gregg, the Great Wymering captain, as a substitute for the missing man. Unfortunately, after hitting several balls out of sight, the stranger loses control of himself again and runs away at great speed. Tales of his subsequent bizarre behavior soon begin to circulate in the village.
The local general practitioner, Doctor Allingham, proposes that the stranger must be an escaped lunatic. The more imaginative Gregg observes that the stranger is as much machine as human and guesses that he has been displaced from the future because the mechanical part of him is malfunctioning. Gregg suggests that the stresses and strains of contemporary civilization already have brought human beings so close to breakdown that some form of mechanical regulation will soon become necessary. Evidence to support this hypothesis is provided by discovery of the stranger’s lost wig and hat, neither of which is of contemporary origin.
The stranger is found, in control of himself once again but in deep distress, by another of the cricketers, bank clerk Arthur Withers. The stranger shows Withers the “clock” fitted to the back of his skull, which allows people like him to perceive and move within many dimensions, including time. Gregg greets this news enthusiastically, as evidence of the vast evolutionary leaps that remain to be made by humankind and of the great strides to be made in material progress. Allingham cannot make any sense of the extra dimensions mentioned in the stranger’s account, but he nevertheless tries to repair the malfunctioning clock. The stranger grows old, then young, and then falls into a coma, allowing a thorough examination of his remarkable body. Most of his organs turn out to have been replaced by machines, and there is no sign of sex organs.
After discussing the matter with Gregg, the doctor eventually finds a set of instructions for the adjustment and use of the Clockwork Man, by means of which he manages to correct the malfunction. After disappearing into the future, the stranger returns once more to give his own account of himself to Arthur Withers.
The Clockwork Man explains that people like him were grateful to be fitted with clocks by “the makers” who “came after the last wars,” so that they might enjoy contentment instead of ceaseless strife. It is the makers who live in “the real world,” a world whose mysteries are impenetrable to his mechanized brain. The man from the future tells Withers that he has chosen to offer this explanation to him because there is something in the bank clerk’s eyes (Withers is sitting with the girl he loves lying asleep in his arms) that reminds him of the makers.