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 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ markley/10_vivisection | 22 +++++++++++++++++ 2 files changed, 89 insertions(+) (limited to 'markley') 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. -- cgit