From 1ffb9c864b1ca064038ac73e40e831cf4f0a4387 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Holden Rohrer Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2020 01:00:00 -0400 Subject: read The Island of Dr Moreau, a Vivisection article, and took a quiz --- markley/09_dr_moreau | 356 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 356 insertions(+) create mode 100644 markley/09_dr_moreau (limited to 'markley/09_dr_moreau') diff --git a/markley/09_dr_moreau b/markley/09_dr_moreau new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1a3363c --- /dev/null +++ b/markley/09_dr_moreau @@ -0,0 +1,356 @@ +INTRODUCTION +Lady Vain lost at sea. Uncle recovered 11 months later with a strange +tale. He's found on a lifeboat from a schooner called Ipecacuanha. This +corresponds with reality, but his Uncle has missing memory and landed on +an impossible island. + +CHAPTER ONE (In the dingey of the `Lady Vain.') + +The crash is well known, and seven men were recovered. Four weren't. + +Boaters: Helmar, the narrator, and a short sturdy man---name unknown. +(the fourth man died jumping off the boat) +Food and water are very limited. Water runs out on the fourth day, and +in delirium by the sixth, the men agree to cannibalize one. The unnamed +man loses the gambit, and in a fight, both he and Helmar drown. +The narrator is picked up two days later in a fogged state. + +CHAPTER TWO (The man who was going nowhere) + +Edward is recovered by the ship and cared for by the "medical man +aboard." +He is given some scarlet substance that strengthens him. +The Ipecacuanha is a trader from "Arica and Callao." +Arm injected. Has been unconscious for 30hrs. +Edward studied Natural History. +Montgomery, the medicine man, studied Biology. +There is a sound of dogs above. +Montgomery nurses Edward back with food, and lends some clothes. +The ship is headed to Hawaii but has to stop at Montgomery's island +first (no name). + +CHAPTER THREE (The Strange Face) + +There is a bizarre, misshapen, crooked man with an equally unnerving and +deformed face blocking the way. +Montgomery sends him off, `forward.' +He might be the "unseen dogs growling," given that he has the appearance +of a muscle. Edward has deja vu about the face. +Actually, there's a filthy deck, covered with food scraps from caged and +tied-up animals on the deck. +There's a singular other person on the deck, at the wheel. +The black-faced man returns trailing a red-haired man who smacks him in +the back. +The red-haired man is the drunk captain (and owner, apparently). +The black man is Montgomery's passenger. The captain calls Montgomery, +coming to the defense of theh black man, "Blasted Sawbones" repeatedly. +It sounds like the animals are for the island? Or maybe from it. +The captain threatens to cut out the insides of the black man. +Edward prevents a fight between the captain and Montgomery (by telling +the captain to "shut up") + +CHAPTER FOUR (At the Schooner's Rail) + +Montgomery and Edward are talking in the starlight. +Montgomery is "reticent about his purpose" with the creatures and his +destination +Montgomery asks about London, where Edward is from "in a tone of +half-painful reminiscence." "He spoke like a man who had loved his life +there, and had been suddenly and irrevocably cut off from it." +`[He] lost [his] head for ten minutes on a foggy night.' +Edward sees the attendant has red eyes, striking childhood fears. + +CHAPTER FIVE (The Man Who Had Nowhere To Go) + +The captain tells Edward ("Mister Shut-Up") to head overboard "with your +friends." +Edward tries appealing to Montgomery and Montgomery's companion (I think +there's a new one), both of whom shake their heads and say "can't have +you." +They're unboarding the ship, and Edward is in the hands of fate. +He protests by laying down on the deck, weak from hunger and a lack of +"blood-corpuscles." The captain and his sailors drag him onto the Lady +Vain, and set him adrift---no oars, half-full of water. + +CHAPTER SIX (The Evil-Looking Boatmen) + +Montgomery's launch returns to pick up Edward, who is drifting towards +the island. The launch is "heavily laden." +I was right---there is a new companion, white-haired. +Montgomery fastens the Lady Vain to his vessel. +They arrive at the island. +I'm not exactly sure if these are racist depictions, but they certainly +seem like it. There are three brutish, gangly men wrapped in white +papery substance and wearing turbans. The coast of the island has some +buildings, a beach, and a ridge. +I wonder what the importance of the "jacket and trousers of blue serge" +is. +They land the boat and begin unloading, the bandaged men apparently +doing so "clumsily." +The white-haired man takes in Edward as a guest. +"This is a biological station---of a sort." +They are populating the island with animals, apparently wanting the +rabbits for meat. + +CHAPTER SEVEN (The Locked Door) + +They have some secret that the want to keep from Edward. +There is a stone enclosure that Edward is asked not to enter, made of +coral and pumice, with the llama and some packages stored outside. +"the elaborate locking-up of the place even while it was still under his +eye, struck me as peculiar." +The white-haired man lodges Edward in an apartment, plainly furnished, +with some books and an inner door locked "for fear of accidents." +The name Moreau (called by Montgomery) is also "unaccountably familiar" +to Edward. +Edward sees out the window one of the bandaged? men, endowed with +"uncanny voices." +Montgomery's attendant with red eyes "had pointed ears, covered with a +fine brown fur!" + +The Moreau Horrors is what reminded Edward + Moreau, psychologist known for his imagination and brutal directness + A chilling pamphlet, written by a journalist wanting to expose + Moreau, closes Moreau's career. Corresponds with a mutilated dog + escaping Moreau's house. + Moreau leaves London, to continue research. +Edward is convinced it's the same man. "A notorious vivisector." +Why are these books primarily detective stories? + I mean, this isn't *really* a detective story. It's a mystery. +Probably relevant but not this chapter: Edward doesn't drink + "Abstinent since birth." + +CHAPTER EIGHT (The Crying of the Puma) + +Montgomery wishes he'd been an abstainer. "It's no use locking the door +after the steed is stolen." +Since Edward knows Moreau, Montgomery plans to tell more of the mystery. +Edward also asks about the attendant, which Montgomery (probably lying) +claims not to have noticed, saying his hair hid the ears. +Montgomery says he had just become used to his attendant. +The puma is howling in the background. +It drives Edward mad enough to, in a rage and pity, flee to the forest. + +CHAPTER NINE (The Thing in the Forest) + +"grotesque ugliness was an invariable character of these islanders." +Edward sees a man drink from a stream on all fours. The area is +otherwise tranquil and still. +The islander is wearing blue fabric. +He comes across a recently killed (still warm) rabbit that he saw +drinking water earlier. Its head is torn off. +Running away in fear, Edward finds another group of islanders. +Three, a woman and two men (white, unlike the copper-skin of the other) +each wearing but a scarlet cloth around a large felled tree in a meadow. +The islanders all have short legs, I think. "Lipless mouths." +Another emerald flash in an islander's eyes. +Edward runs because he believes he is being followed, as night falls. +He has some evidence that there is a silhouetted figure near him---the +Thing. +Edward dehumanizes the Thing, the "animal-man" "on all-fours," and using +a prepared rock in a sling, kills it. He can't bring himself to look +closer at the fallen body. + +CHAPTER TEN (The Crying of the Man) + +He returns to his apartment, meeting Montgomery there. Montgomery calls +them "curiosities." +Why does Montgomery keep giving Prendick brandy? He's expressed his +abstinence severely. +The puma yelps, again. +Montgomery refuses to answer questions about the "curiosities," delaying +concerns with "enough for one day." +Montgomery gives him "a small measure containing a dark liquid." + Is Edward to become one of the islanders? +The door is left open when Edward wakes up. He hears the yelp (he says +of a man, but I think it's a deerhound), and rushes in. Moreau throws +Edward out as if he were a small child. + +CHAPTER ELEVEN (The Hunting of the Man) + +Was that rabbit foreshadowing? +So Edward really does think Moreau was vivisecting a person. +I wonder what the tabboo is? What will that reading say? I assumed +vivisection was an operation on a person, but it does make sense that it +would be an animal. Hmm +So Moreau did something with blood transfusion. +Because Edward is convinced of Moreau's bad intentions, he runs out +before (in his paranoia) Montgomery locks him into the apartment. +Edward runs out into the woods and hides in a bush. He hears a dog yip +and heads to a stream to get some drink. +Off-topic + I watched the first couple of seasons of Dark, and the main + character Jonas keeps wanting to make the world different, but he's + already seen his older self do things---which makes me curious: why + doesn't he just kill himself to "stop the loop." I imagined + self-preservation, but I think this explains it: + "an odd wish to see the whole adventure out, a queer, impersonal, + spectacular interest in myself, restrained me." +A Beast Person talking in broken English approaches Edward. + They "[lack] sometimes even three digits." + He can swing from the vines. + And has access to food! (At "man's huts." Is this Moreau's?) +He goes through a dark, underground tunnel, calling "Home!" + +CHAPTER TWELVE (The Sayers of the Law) + +The People live in a ravine, with a smell from being unkept. +Forgot to mention: Edward has a nailed stick. +This is a primitive culture, ranked by the number of fingers per hand. +Probably does correspond to the "closeness" to humanity. + This maybe has some roots in Social Darwinism, but given the + critical view of Moreau, definitely not supportive. +The Law is a mantra of civilization that the Ape-man makes Edward repeat +- not to go on all-fours; that is the Law. Are we not Men? +- not to suck up Drink.. +- not to eat Fish or Flesh.. (interesting: vegetarianism) +- not to claw the bark of trees.. +- not to chase other Men.. +- and more, apparently +And a religious "His" that attributes nature. +There is more jabber about punishment and apparently these people desire +to break many tenets of this law. +Edward thinks Moreau managed to get them to deify him. + +Moreau and Montgomery find Edward. He, again, runs, but this time Moreau +recruits the People to attack/restrain him. They are slow to respond, +giving him enough time to escape, but he does need to maim one of the +People with his nail on a stick. +He runs and falls into a ravine. Moreau located him with one of the dogs +(only?). +There is a sulphuric stream at the bottom (heated by lava?) + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN (A Parley) + +We finally come to a confrontation between Moreau and Edward. +He threatens to drown himself. +Moreau, somewhat disinterestedly, wonders why Edward would fear torture. +M'ling is Montgomery's attendant. +Edward tries to foment revolt of the Beast People against Moreau---tries +to get them to be okay with killing Moreau. +Moreau says they were animals and are now men. +They do present a pretty compelling case that they don't intend to +endanger Edward: they had every opportunity and didn't take them, +foremost. They are turning the puma into a man. +Edward makes Moreau and Montgomery set down their revolvers and +raise their hands at a distance in order to prove their intent. +I can't tell exactly if this is just solidified rock or actual lava on +this island. +"I never before saw an animal trying to think." + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN (Doctor Moreau Explains) + +Vivisection is live surgery. Moreau, in a fantastical extension of +standard procedures---moving skin around, transplanting teeth, +hypnotism---purports to be able to transmute the animals into bodily +forms similar to humans and educate them out of their old instincts. +Edward asks Moreau to justify the pain inflicted in vivisection + Moreau calls Prendick a "materialist" for being driven at all by + visual, audible, or personal pain, animalistic even. +Prendick is immediately unconvinced, but Moreau continues---he claims +that pain is unnecessary in nerves and flesh, a mere evolutionary trick. +Furthermore, Moreau does this as a matter of scientific inquiry: "[he] +asked a question, devised some method of obtaining an answer, and got a +fresh question." +Finally, Moreau admits that he doesn't worry about ethics. +Moreau believes himself to be a failure. His first couple of creations +were pained and stupid, but he eventually made a gorilla into a slow +man. Now, he hopes the puma to be finally an intelligent creature. + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN (Concerning the Beast Folk) + +Moreau's hypnotism of the Beast Folk is apparently steadfast---although +the Law (including prohibitions from tasting blood) is broken. +The Beast that followed Edward was the Leopard-man. +M'ling doesn't live with the other Beast Folk but in a kennel. +Edward is becoming accustomed to the Beast Folk as people---the beast +still shows sometimes but if he doesn't pay too much attention. + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN (How the Beast Folk Taste Blood) + +The Thing isn't the leopard-man, I don't think. +There is a social commentary thing here. The whole "humanity in +miniature" thing is meant to be an analogy to modernity, I think. + +Montgomery and Edward, on a visit to the lava flow that heats the +spring, see a torn apart rabbit. This violates the Law, and Montgomery +organizes the Beast People to see to punishment. The offender, the +Leopard-man, runs and Edward and Montgomery chase it successfully. +Edward, reaching it first, shoots it out of mercy. He is aware of the +profound aimlessness of the island. + +CHAPTER SEVENTEEN (A Catastrophe) + +There is a revolt. The puma escapes and Moreau chases after him. +Montgomery chases after Moreau with M'ling at his side. They encounter +several groups of blood-stained Beast Folk. They retreat to the house. + +CHAPTER EIGHTEEN (The Finding of Moreau) + +Some "He" is thought to be dead by the Beast Folk, but Edward turns it +into a Jesus-like "He watches from the heavens" story. (is the "He" +Moreau?). He does this because they wonder if the Law falters. +Moreau's dead body is being dragged back by a strong beast. Edward +shoots and kills the beast (puma, I think). His revolver is lost. +The ravine is (was? during the catastrophe) empty. +Edward and Montgomery kill everything in the labatory. + +CHAPTER NINETEEN (Montgomery's `Bank Holiday') + +Edward wants to leave the island. Montgomery likes the phrase "silly +ass." Montgomery is scared, so he drinks, which is his bank holiday. +Edward organizes provisions for the dingey and Moreau's funeral pyre. +Montgomery sort of organizes a bonfire with the Beast Folk. Two beasts, +M'ling, and Montgomery are gravely injured. All die but Montgomery whom +has burnt both boats in the bonfire, and caused Edward to burn down the +thatch supply hut with a lantern. Montgomery dies. + +CHAPTER TWENTY (Alone with the Beast Folk) + +Edward is approached by three of the beast folk, and in a bid to save +himself, propels belief in the Law. He tells that their deaths were +because they disobeyed the Law and portrays himself as a master with the +whip. +He has them give water burials to the bodies. +He sends them off and begins to realize he has nowhere safe to sleep. +"The stubborn beast-flesh grows day by day back again." - Moreau +He wants to kill the Hyena-swine. +Since he failed to take the place of Moreau, he becomes "a leader among +his fellows." + +CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE (The Reversion of the Beast Folk) + +There is a dog-like creature who wants to serve Prendick. Note that the +holiday was only eight weeks into Edward's stay. +Edward asks the dog-man to attack the `sinner' (hyena) because the +dog-man still believes in the Law. +Edward manages to convince the Beast Folk that Moreau and the House of +Pain will return. +Slowly, they become less and less human. +They become beastlike but don't return to specific forms---Moreau mixed +multiple creatures when creating them. +The process is continuous; they lose language and form, basically +violating the Law piece by piece, in combination with physical change. +Edward makes a raft, which falls apart when he drags it to the sea. +The Saint Bernard creature is killed by the hyena-swine, and the sloth, +when Edward is sulking on the beach, retrieves Edward. Edward finally +gets to kill the hyena-swine. +He continues his attempts to escape, primarily with his unhandy +raft-building---he nailed together pieces of brushwood. He reached a +final obstacle of storing water, but he sees a sail. +It's the sail of a small, dirty tug. Its crew of two are dead. +Edward takes the boat, fills its keg with water, gathers fruit, rabbits. + +CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO (The Man Alone) + +He was recovered on that boat after three days, having eaten and drank +scarcely. +People wouldn't believe his story, believing the solitude to have driven +him mad, so Edward pretended to recall nothing. +Edward is deeply traumatized, fearing that the animalistic tendencies in +his fellow men and women will come out, on a larger scale than with the +islanders. He wants to be away from his fellow men because they scare +him---on transit, in the street, everywhere. +"This is a mood" +Edward is solitary, and still a man of science, investigating chemistry +and astronomy. -- cgit