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The Island of Dr. Moreau (thing)
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Lometa
Sun Dec 31 2000 at 19:48:31
Just as an introduction to
H.G.Wells
's
novel
here while I have the book at home! My youngest son has swiped it off to read at school and I've snuck it out of his backpack to node about it while he's on Winter Break. I have yet to see a movie that does justice to what H.G. Wells intended in his writings...the moral questions inherent in the meanings of his writing, while the two movies that I know of appear to focus on the special effects of horror it really is worth the read for theological insights. Now available in
The Great Grand E2 Book Lotto!
.
H. G. Wells along with the likes of
Jules Verne
gave birth to the genres of
science fiction
and
fantasy
. While Verne focused on the
hard
science
story, Wells reflected on fanciful science. They both envisioned and wrote about a terrific number of scientific
advancements
a century
before
science caught up with their speculations.
Wells predates even
Hitler's
death camps in
The Island of Dr. Moreau
as he tells the story of a
mad scientist
that has been banned from
London
and socially exiled by his peers to an uncharted island in the middle of the
Pacific
. Here he goes forward to carry out his appalling surgical experiments on both imported and
indigenous
animals with the goal of turning them into human beings.
Pendrick
becomes shipwrecked and an unwitting guest, horrified at first, accepting in the interim and finally he becomes the leader of the poor creatures Moreau has altered both in brain and body.....
"If I may say it," said I, after a time. "you have saved my life"
"Chance," he answered; "just chance."
"I prefer to make my thanks to the accessible agent."
Thank no one. You had the need, and I the knowledge, and I injected and fed you much as I might have
collected a specimen
. I was bored, and wanted something to do. If I'd been jaded that day, or hadn't liked your face, well--; it's a curious question where you would have been now."
This damped my mood a little.
"At any rate--" I began.
It's chance, I tell you
," he interrupted, "as everything is in man's life. Only the asses won't see it. Why am I here now-- an outcast from civilization--instead of being a happy man, enjoying all the pleasures of London? Simply because--eleven years ago--I lost my head for ten minutes on a foggy night."
Well's grabs far into the
human
psyche
, even
beyond the physical attributes
of humans and dares to
define
humanity, to ask about the very
existence
of the creature within each of us, and inquires of the reader.....mayhap, given the right set of circumstances and the lack of civilized laws, we too could revert to the wild.
Today,
organ transplants
happen daily, but the year this story was published
1896
, even speculating about these ideas, much less
trans-species
implantations, was cause enough to be
exiled
without question from the
medical
community.
The
theological
implications
of
The Island of Dr. Moreau
are undeniable. The creatures
worship
Moreau
"their creator,"
keep his laws as
commandments
and are punished if they
transgress
those laws. Moreau suddenly dies leaving the haplessly shipwrecked Pendick struggling uncertainly to control the lesser brained beasts by alluding that a vengeful Moreau will
return
if they don't continue to
keep the law
. He preys on their fears of being subjected to more surgery in
The House of Pain
......and the reader is sympathetic to his plight of unwitting compliance to Moreau's legacy.
Then Well's serves a crushing blow...all of the creatures return to the wild after the
breakdown of the laws
. The threat of
pain
isn't enough to keep
the mark of the beast
from creeping back in and overcoming their underlying natures and they
revert
. Even as
Moreau
'saw' the man in all creatures, Wells shows the reader the
beast
in all men....he asks us to answer hard questions.....Are they
our laws
that keeps us
civilized
? Are they
our civil laws
that keep
man in
order
? Would the beast that is in us , which is always seeking self-aggrandizement, overcome our
higher
sense
of
altruism
if there were no laws, no leaders, or
nothing worthy of our faith
?...questions Wells dare to ask us and we ourselves. A fascinating read full of vivid imagery, exciting and horrifying opening up new avenues of thought challenging the reader to a difficulty and important introspections....... truly a mark of great
literature
.
The Island of Dr. Moreau
is Well's second major classic work of
fiction
after
The Time Machine
Each of his works is fraught with
philosophical
questions. Clearly throughout his body of work he was a man clutched in
moral
conflict
, and his dark pessimistic view of
mankind's
future makes for
brilliant
fiction
. He imagined himself as a
social architect
and
cautionary prophet
spending the decade of the
1930's
warning that humankind was posed on the brink of disaster, crusading for a new social order through his many
essays
on
constructive
sociology
.
Wells died in 1946 at the age of 80 after a lifetime of writing over one hundred books, short stories and articles.
The Island of Dr. Moreau Chapter 1
House of Pain
The Island of Dr. Moreau Introduction
The Time Machine
H.G. Wells
How to open a bottle of wine without a corkscrew
Is being domesticated an evolutionary advantage?
The Island of Dr. Moreau Chapter 6
The Island of Dr. Moreau Chapter 8
The Island of Dr. Moreau Chapter 3
Apocalypse Now
The First Men in the Moon
The Island of Dr. Moreau Chapter 7
The Island of Dr. Moreau Chapter 2
The Ghost and the Darkness
Val Kilmer
Oingo Boingo
The Truth about De-Evolution
Ribofunk
The Island of Dr. Moreau Chapter 5
References in Deus Ex
Jules Verne
Ross Perot
The Secret of Monkey Island