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authorHolden Rohrer <hr@hrhr.dev>2020-09-21 16:29:25 -0400
committerHolden Rohrer <hr@hrhr.dev>2020-09-21 16:29:25 -0400
commit76fa41a9bb16a93a37bb074debd9a83019b5fb9b (patch)
tree4e570b71a374e12f94133a138e26b8ce8fd763ee /markley
parent378f6fb3c6fff90992caa962df531bf85182126f (diff)
watched lectures in English and exam
Diffstat (limited to 'markley')
-rw-r--r--markley/09_dr_moreau67
-rw-r--r--markley/10_vivisection22
2 files changed, 89 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/markley/09_dr_moreau b/markley/09_dr_moreau
index 1a3363c..d5a5dc9 100644
--- a/markley/09_dr_moreau
+++ b/markley/09_dr_moreau
@@ -354,3 +354,70 @@ him---on transit, in the street, everywhere.
"This is a mood"
Edward is solitary, and still a man of science, investigating chemistry
and astronomy.
+
+--------------
+Lecture
+
+HG Wells calls his stories "scientific romances."
+- Unreliable narrator established by nephew
+- Meduesa = real life
+ - Cannibalism in British imagination
+ - Thin veneer of civilization
+ - Sign of Four: Tonga, Andaman (falsely) believed to be cannibal
+Norms, regulations, taboos (health) vanish in extreme circumstances.
+- Taboos are sometimes derived from medical concerns
+- British court case established that necessity is not enough
+
+Uncanny
+- Deliberately vague term to describe the appalling
+ - Freud: subjective experience reminding its viewer of repressed
+ memories/experiences/desires
+ - Wells implements this in Prendick's fear of M'ling, "forgotten
+ horrors of childhood."
+ - Playing with the line between animal and human
+
+The importance of eyes in Dr Moreau
+- "Eyes are the window to the soul"
+ - Bit cliched, but based on perception that personality correlates
+ - Looking at someone, making eye contact ~ trust
+- The eyes that Wells talks about are mistrusting: M'ling's red eyes are
+ disturbing because they are abnormal and shifty
+ - The cannibalism implied by hunger in the eyes is also about trust:
+ there is limited trust between the men on the boat
+
+Human and animal
+- Prendick's humanity is mixed with animals/beastliness
+ - Falls out of hammock *on all fours*
+ - Food -> "animal comfort"
+ - Shows that the line is a bit blurrier: culture, structure falls
+ back to needs (food, water) that are shared with animals
+ - After Moreau,Montgomery die, Prendick falls into "monster's ways."
+- Prendick believes Moreau to vivisect people.
+ - Vivisecting men violates the laws of human health.
+ - But Prendick is actually convinced it's okay because he sees that
+ Moreau is experimenting on something "inhuman"
+ - Not cruel, Wells explores this cultural rule
+
+Vivisection
+- Moreau views his (fancy) vivisection experiments as natural scientific
+ exploration extending standard surgeries
+- Moreau wants to eliminate pain, sees it as inhuman and ignores it
+ - For Prendick, actually makes him realize the humanity of beastfolk
+
+Degeneration
+- Social/biological idea in zeitgeist: fear that evolution doesn't
+ necessarily increase intelligence, complexity
+ - Lead humans "back down the evolutionary ladder"
+ - Corresponds with scientific racism, arguments that urbanization
+ and modernization collapsed traditional morals, crime, disease.
+- Moreau: proto-eugenics
+- Prendick's return to the city hints at sort of humanity's instability
+
+Health
+- Uses social/cultural, apersonal definition.
+- Criticizes some medical health experiments
+ - Questions about humanity, sacrifice in context of vivisection
+ - Questions science
+Walter Benjamin: "There is no document of civilization [advancement of
+medical science] that is not also a document of barbarism."
+- Pay attention to sacrifices made for science
diff --git a/markley/10_vivisection b/markley/10_vivisection
index b8130fc..175535d 100644
--- a/markley/10_vivisection
+++ b/markley/10_vivisection
@@ -55,3 +55,25 @@ physician." Rare in the field too
Support of laboratory medicine correlates strongly with feelings about
vivisection.
+
+----------------
+Lecture
+
+Dogs used for vivisection because they are docile and like humans.
+- Traces its role into modern medical profession in conduct, education
+
+Paradox between rationality (cool indifferenc to suffering) and
+caring/sympathy/bedside-manner/compassion.
+ - Dr. Watson & Holmes and Prendick & Dr. Moreau represent this
+ paradox as separate people
+
+The Case Against Vivisection
+- Feminists and socialists wanted good treatment of disempowered humans
+- Upper class wants to control underclass and prevent "taste for blood"
+ - Corresponds to Dr. Moreau's fear of "taste for flesh"
+- Progress & motive as proper justifications of cruelty
+ - Dr. Moreau's negligence of pain corresponds to this
+
+Vivisectionists and Anti-vivisectionists continued to battle out in the
+legal system throughout the 19th century, but little changed in terms of
+public opinion and physicians' ability to vivisect.