From 76fa41a9bb16a93a37bb074debd9a83019b5fb9b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Holden Rohrer
Date: Mon, 21 Sep 2020 16:29:25 -0400
Subject: watched lectures in English and exam
---
markley/09_dr_moreau | 67 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 67 insertions(+)
(limited to 'markley/09_dr_moreau')
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
--
cgit